I can’t keep up.

If I just manage my inbox, that’s about 10 hours of work a day (600 new mails divided by 1 minute each). If I spend time on Twitter, on Third Tribe, on Facebook, on my blog (in the comments), that’s another 3 hours. If I take two phone calls or do a webinar, that’s another 2 hours.

We’re up to 15 hours before even doing production of anything (no blogging/writing/creating for clients).

I looked through my Flickr photos at some of the fine people I got to see at SXSW. In almost all cases, I saw them for only a few minutes. I did my best to be attentive, to show that I cared, to make sure I learned about something that was on their plates. But I rarely got any deeper than that.

To fix this, I have to redraw my lines. I have to rethink how I connect, and reconsider how I will continue being of value to you. Before I’m no longer a value.

Extend Relationships

My friend, Jon Swanson has told me for years that I need to build disciples. By this, he doesn’t mean mindless sheep (a post for another time). He doesn’t mean that I just teach the masses and the masses do. He means extended relationships. At the end of the story, Jesus has 12 guys doing a lot with their own interpretations on how to implement their beliefs.

Does the Bible language freak you out? Michael Jackson, in designing This is It, pointed out that the dancers that swirl around him in each performance were to be extensions of how Michael expressed himself in dance. So, they weren’t just doing something to do it. They were giving Michael even more reach than when he just did it himself.

I have this, of course. I have New Marketing Labs to help execute social media execution ideas for our client partners. I have friends and colleagues in this space who have lots of similar interests and different approaches. I will call on it more.

Shining the Light Even Brighter

There are others doing exceptional work in this space. I’m a fan of Jason Falls, Jay Baer, Valeria Maltoni, and many others. I’m going to work harder to point out the people in my network who do great work, and I’m going to help others find them to start meaningful connections that match what you deserve.

By shining the light on others who are doing good work, I’ll hopefully point you to opportunities I can’t service or that aren’t the regular fit for New Marketing Labs.

Rethinking My Direction

The work we’re doing at NML is strong. What I’m doing with me overall is a lot more foggy. I’m going to rework that and be very crisp and clear on what you’ll get from me in the coming few years. That way, we’ll know better whether what I’m sharing aligns with your interests.

The sense of where I’m heading is that I’m stretching a bit out of just marketing and I’m going to work on equipping others for business success through education and experiences.

In other words, I’m going beyond social media and helping show how human business works.

Redrawing My Connections

I can’t keep up with every email and contact as it stands. I’ve got Diane working more than enough hours just negotiating my speaking and travel arrangements. We’ll figure out how to redraw the ways I respond so that it’s manageable, reasonable, and timely. I can’t have you waiting so long in between touches.

In the End

We all do this. I’m just laying it out so that you understand where I am, but more so, so that you understand how we must all process, reconsider, rethink, and redraw the way we do what we do. What got us here won’t always get us there.

Make sense?

Save Yourself a Blog Post or Twitter Comment

If your immediate response is, “Well, that’s the price of success,” just save it. That doesn’t help anyone. And yes, it’s the price of success. Learning how to scale is incredibly difficult.

The difference between me and others in that regard is that I’m the only one actually sharing the process with you, so that you might learn something out of it for your own efforts.

Here’s my reasoning:

We can only visit so many applications regularly as part of a flow. Right now, my current “go to” applications are: email, Google Reader, calendar, Facebook, Twitter, email marketing (Publicaster), Evernote, slowly Google Wave, and that’s about it.

In a business flow, they work something like this:

• Mail and Twitter – communication / media making
• Reader – monitoring and story gathering
• Calendar – scheduling / appointments
• Evernote – “storage” information (like my frequent flier card #’s)
• Google Wave – project collaboration, like figuring out how things will work for events, etc.

Inside Wave, I started a wave to myself called “Threads.” In there, I have the status of Open, Waiting For, and Scratch Pad. I edit them as I have things come in. So, if someone needs something, I throw it in the “open” section until I get it done.

What’s missing are things like “deadlines,” but you know what? I don’t use deadlines, and if I have a deadline, I use the calendar. What’s also missing are some automated functions, like being able to “checkbox” closed a task. But I don’t care. I just delete.

The point, I guess, is that I’m using Google Wave as a task manager because it’s starting to fit into my flow. All my tools have to fit some kind of flow or I won’t use them.

Have you ever mapped your own flows?

And what do you think of the idea?

You’ll Need

• An archive folder (in Gmail, this is a button. On other systems, you need somewhere to store stuff, in case you need to search for details later).
• A calendaring software. I use Google Calendar.
• A project tracking software. I use Things for Mac. You could use anything lets you group projects into contexts.
• A file folder structure (online at least, and maybe mirrored in the real world – hat tip to my hero,Get it Done Guy, for this).
• Two processes: sorting when mail comes in, and reviewing your projects regularly.

Quick Overview

Next, I’ll explain how this all works together. I’ll talk about:

• Processing incoming mail.
• Using the Calendar.
• Project Structure.
• Consistent Review.

Processing Incoming Mail

Mail comes in- Check mail X times a day tops. (I’m trying for 4, but not there yet). When it comes in, see if you can just reply right away. Try to close all informational loops in one go. Points off for “ping pong” emails.

Process step 1- If it’s not a “right away” answer, sort it into a project area. I’m calling “project areas” out by context. In Getting Things Done, David Allen uses physical context, like @computer, @phone, @mall. In my case, I’ve used the following project contexts:

• Family/Home – my first priority, of course.
• Commitments – these are things where someone’s awaiting a response or action for me that takes more than a few minutes.
• Projects – These are more regimented things, like when the boss asks you to build out a new experience at a conference.
• Speaking – I do lots of speaking, and I want to keep my commitments straight, and my details sorted.
• Blogging – This has become where I stuff my “Hey, Chris. I have a social network about porcupines. Will you blog about it?” requests, so I can give them serious thought. (And yes, please feel free to contact me about your special amazing new whatever, if you think it fits the stuff I talk about here).
• Personal – This deals with things like “file your taxes” and “upgrade cell phone plan” which matter only to me.
• Research – I have lots of projects that are more for “rainy day” or “someday/maybe” so that’s where those go.

These are MY context areas. You could have completely different ones. More on projects in a bit.

Using the Calendar

If any of my projects are time specific, I put that information into Google Calendar. I then set up the reminders along the way. Further, if the project is large or lengthy, I set up little milestone time frames such that I will remember to work periodically on projects all the way up to their due date.

This part, the setting milestone reminders in the calendar, has changed my effectiveness, but I only JUST started doing this, so I’ll let you know if it makes the difference I hope it does.

Project Structure

UNDER my above-mentioned context areas are specific projects. For all my projects, I have tasks and milestones, notes, tags, and due dates for each part of the project. For example, I have notes and details on a new conference I’m launching for marketers for September in the Boston area.

Like I said earlier, I use Things for the Mac. You could use 37 Signals Basecamp, or MS Project, or whatever. The tool isn’t the point.

Consistent Review

This will all break down fast if I don’t focus on Things as my “go to place” to see what needs doing. And if I don’t make THAT the focus of my day while working on projects, and slip back into hounding my inbox, the whole thing will fail. You’ve heard that someone with two watches can’t tell time? I believe that someone with multiple systems of managing their tasks and projects will probably fall on their face.

I’ve scheduled reviews into Google Calendar recurring over the next few months. If it works, I’ll extend the schedule of little pings to check my responsibilities.

We’ll Check Back On This Later

This is a work in progress. I’ll let you know how it works out for me. In the mean time, tell me about you. How are YOU getting it all done? Does this make sense? Am I missing something obvious? How are you taming the savage project load?

By the way, Things doesn’t sync in any way with my BlackBerry and that’s a huge hole in this process. Hello? Could you fix that for me, Things? Anything?

Okay, what do YOU think?

For another completely different (and most likely better) method, check out the famed and touted Inbox Zero series by Merlin Mann.

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.

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My screenshots are all done with Plasq’s Skitch application.

To learn more, here’s a video:

Or, if you prefer reading, Merlin released a best of GTD post with LOTS of links to useful self-improvement stuff.

I recommend this methodology. VERY useful.