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Productivity is more important then ever before. With information flowing faster than ever before and coming from so many directions, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and do the whole “staring at my inbox filling up” thing every day. There are some good books out there that help get your productivity up and your process under control. Getting Things Done is an excellent one that focuses specifically on productivity, The 4-Hour Workweek is another favorite and places productivity in a larger framework. There’s also the genius of Merlin Mann of 43Folders and InboxZero who has contributed more than probably anyone to this field. Check them out.

Productivity is particularly important for artists, labels and managers in today’s version of the music business, where our entire feedback loop is based around constant and real-time communication. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and not do as good of a job as you are capable of. To illustrate, during the last two hours of my day yesterday I had to handle: a phone meeting with TopSpin about the Wakey!Wakey! pre-order page, several orders coming into from the Family Records store, a group e-mail about sharing gear at Pearl and the Beard’s Mercury Lounge show this week, a speaking request from a college, two customer service e-mails, tweets from people I follow and learn from, a Basecamp update from Casey Shea with more recordings to listen to, studio scheduling for Lacrymosa, e-mail communication with Best Buy and my distributor about a new release and and end-cap program they’re suggesting, a co-branding request for a Family Records mixtape with a clothing website, a last-minute booking for Cross-Pollination, my RSS reader filling up with blogs to read, technical requirements to send to a videographer, etc. And it keeps going. And that’s a pretty normal activity level for a day. Nothing crazy.

In this new era of music business there isn’t enough money to hire a bunch of people to handle things like in the old days, so like everyone else in the music industry these days, there are a lot of hats to wear and a lot of demand for our time to get everything done. I’ve combined what I’ve learned from the previously mentioned books and blogs I’ve read into a mini-Vultron of a productivity theory that’s just a little shorter and simpler than most. It’s easy like ABC. And 1 2 3.

The Family Records Way: Do, Delegate Or Delete

A. Control Your Inbox: Use the power of your inbox, but don’t let it control you. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment with every new e-mail that pours in and distracts you even for just a second. Turn off any notification sounds for new e-mail. Don’t use your e-mail inbox as a to-do list, it will stress you out. Use a notebook or a txt file and process your inbox til it’s empty and your to-do list is full. Don’t get a kick out of getting a lot of e-mail like I used to. Don’t press refresh every two minutes either. E-mail is not a friend that fills your life. Only send what’s necessary. A reply that only says “ok” is really not necessary most of the time. Send less e-mail, and you will receive less e-mail.

B. Control Your Process: Don’t use your e-mail inbox as a to-do list, it will stress you out. Use a notebook or a txt file and process your inbox til it’s empty and your to-do list is full. Be forward-oriented, and move closer to your goals with every e-mail processed by assigning the next action required immediately after reading an e-mail.

1. Do – If the next action required takes less than two minutes just do it right then and there. If it takes longer than two minutes add it to your to-do list, note down the next action required, and delete or archive the e-mail for later use. Example 1 >Do It Now: A synch contract came in that needs to be signed and faxed back to the TV network. Press print, sign, fax. Done. You could easily read that e-mail and think, ok I’ll do that later, but that then costs you twice as much time in the end. Example 2 > Do It Later: You’re collaborating with your web designer on your new website and he requests a sketch of what you have in mind, and a list of pages you want to include. This will be more of a thirty minute job, so you add it to your to-do list, which you start processing after you process your inbox.
2. Delegate – If the next action required is one that requires another person’s attention delegate it right then and there and move on. If it requires your involvement later on it will automatically find it’s way back to you. Example: You booked a new show and received the confirmation e-mail. Forward it to your intern or manager with the assignment to update your social networks and calendars, inform your musicians, and get a flyer made.
3. Delete - If you receive an e-mail that either doesn’t require a next action from you, like all those annoying CC’s you really don’t need to be included on, or addresses something that isn’t critical to your mission, just delete it. You don’t need to reply to every e-mail. Nothing bad will happen. I promise. “I’m focused man.” (c) Jay-Z

C. Control Your To-Do List: Once you’ve processed your inbox you move on to your to-do list. Take a minute to look over the different items and assign Most Important status to four of them. Do those first, then move on to the rest. You probably have more to do than you can feasibly do in the amount of time you have, so accept that and focus on the big ones first.

Side-note 1 On writing e-mails: Be concise in your writing and write only what is necessary. It shows respect of the receiving party’s time. A paragraph of about five sentences should be able to handle almost all your e-mail communication. See Five.Sentenc.es. If you need to write more than that you are either too wordy, or it should be handled inside of a project management tool.

Side-note 2 On Meetings: Don’t have meetings unless you really can’t avoid them. Meetings are typically a waste of time focused more on people needing to hear themselves talk rather than focusing on achieving goals. This is not to say that face-to-face meetings are an excellent way to initiate projects and get on the same page, but after you do that you rarely need to have another one again on the same project if you’re keeping in touch about progress and challenges on your Basecamp account.