Okay, Actually is a podcast for people who are working hard and starting to wonder if the problem is them. It's not. In under 30 minutes, we dig into what's truly broken and figure out how to build a solution that can actually work.

In this episode, I talk about inputs: specifically all the places things come at you that you're not fully tracking, and what it actually costs you to hold those channels open in the background.

Spoiler: it's more than you think. If you've ever found something in a folder you forgot existed and felt equal parts relieved and mortified, this episode's for you.

00:00 A Hotel Room, a Balcony, and a Booby Trap

04:26 The Drip Not Flood

06:36 Open Channels Cost

08:20 Zeigarnik Effect Explained

09:57 Preventable Surprises

12:21 Scanning and Anxiety

14:13 How to Do an Input Audit

16:43 Four Audit Questions

20:40 15 Minute Challenge and Wrap Up

Four questions to ask once you have your list:

1. Volume, and is it constant or occasional? How much is actually coming through this channel, and is that traffic always on or only active sometimes? Constant and occasional require completely different responses.
2. Stakes. If something came through this channel and you missed it, what's the actual consequence? Some of your highest-volume channels are full of noise and some of your quietest are where the most important things hide.
3. Did I choose this, or did I accept it by default? Some of what you're carrying you never agreed to carry. You can't put all of it down, but you can put some of it down.
4. What am I actively avoiding on this list? There's almost always something! This is less a productivity problem than a thing worth knowing about yourself.

The audit isn't a to do list; it's a mirror.

Find me here:

OkayDoak.com

[email protected]

So I recognize I'm going to sound completely crazy when I

2

share this with you, but a year or

so ago, I was in New York for work.

3

Was checking into my hotel, and

I heard the words you're always

4

hoping to hear at the desk,

"Congratulations, you've been upgraded

5

to a suite with a private balcony."

6

And I get up to my room, and

it's, it's New York big, which

7

is like everywhere else normal

size, so suite is a generous term.

8

But still, it's a lovely room with a

beautiful balcony, and it has a view of

9

the Empire State Building, except that

the balcony door doesn't lock, and it's

10

connected with a large hedge and a wall

to some other kind of balcony space.

11

I couldn't tell what was over there.

12

I just couldn't figure

out what was happening.

13

And there are probably a lot of other

people who would be like, "This is normal.

14

Balcony doors don't always lock

anyway because of fire codes and

15

whatever other hotel policies."

16

But I've watched a lot of Law & Order:

SVU, and I know for sure that since

17

many of those stories are inspired

by true events, that many people

18

have broken into hotel rooms via

balconies and murdered hotel guests.

19

So I was not having it.

20

I went to the desk and I said,

"Hey, can I please downgrade?

21

I am more interested in being alive than,

you know, the faux luxury of this balcony.

22

And let's be real, I'm not gonna use

it 'cause I don't go outside anyway."

23

And they looked at me like

I was completely crazy.

24

And they were like, "W- who do

you think is gonna get up there?

25

Spider-Man?"

26

And they're, like, giggling.

27

Like, it was on the 15th or 18th floor or

something, and I mean, I'm, I'm outlining

28

all of the possibilities to them, and

frankly, I was starting to wonder if they

29

were in on it, 'cause I definitely saw

an SVU episode where that happened too.

30

But regardless, they told me that,

uh, there were no other rooms

31

available and I needed to stay.

32

So then I did what any normal person

with my level of paranoia combined

33

with, uh, willingness to tackle problems

would do, which is I built a lightweight

34

Home Alone-inspired booby trap system

using my suitcase, the belt from the

35

hotel robe, and balancing various

espresso cups on top of things so that

36

hopefully I would wake up and, you

know, have enough time to make a phone

37

call if someone did come in through

the balcony door to try to murder me.

38

This is the kind of system I

felt like was gonna keep me safe.

39

I don't know about you, but if you were

me, I'm really hoping that, like, this is

40

sounding normal to a handful of people.

41

But if you were me, if you're in the state

that I was in, if you had built said booby

42

trap system, if you had absolutely no

faith in your own understanding of, like,

43

basic mechanical engineering, and as a

result you know that the system is not

44

really gonna do anything and hoping that

some noise wakes you up when you already

45

have a lot of issues with your hearing is,

is probably not the best thing to bet on.

46

Whole thing, not really a setup

for safety, but it's also not

47

really a recipe for good sleep.

48

Because I stayed up all night just

making sure I was able to, you know,

49

exercise my not natural cat-like

reflexes should something happen.

50

And at the end of the day, it, it

really wasn't this broken door, the

51

not locked door that was the problem.

52

It was my own overactive imagination

and this open loop just playing multiple

53

murderers breaking in and entering

on repeat, and that prevented me

54

from getting any sleep that evening.

55

And then the next day, I have to tell a

bunch of coworkers the story so that they

56

understood why I was not well-rested for

a brainstorm, but frankly, they probably

57

all also thought I was mentally unwell,

but I am alive, and that's important,

58

and I am able to talk about it even if it

leads to tremendous judgment from others.

59

I'm Karen Doak.

60

This is OK Actually, where we get clear,

get sorted, get going, and stay sane.

61

Maybe the last one's a stretch . And

today, we're gonna talk about inputs.

62

So all of the places that things can come

at you that you're not fully tracking,

63

and what it actually costs you to carry

those channels open in the background.

64

A little tool that I use called the

input audit for getting a full picture

65

of everything you're dealing with, and

it sounds a little bit like homework,

66

but I promise you it isn't, and

ultimately, it will all lead you to better

67

sleep, better understanding of what's

happening, and what could come at you

68

We have a real problem with

scattered channels and all the

69

different ways people can reach us.

70

And I, I think a lot of

productivity advice is built

71

for your highest volume channel.

72

Here's how to triage your inbox, or

here's how to get to inbox zero, or

73

here's how to manage Slack, The implicit

assumption is that everything you need to

74

do lives in these really obvious places,

and you can then get that volume under

75

control, and then you'll be totally fine.

76

But the thing that's actually draining

you often isn't the flood, it's the drip.

77

It's the slow drip from like 15 other

sources that you check inconsistently

78

or you forget about, and therefore,

you don't have a system, or you haven't

79

built trust for how to manage them.

80

Many frameworks or solutions can only

solve for what they can see, and they

81

can only see what you've pointed them at.

82

So when you say, "I have to get a handle

on my email," but you completely miss

83

all of these requests that are coming at

you through various apps for childcare

84

or your kid's swim team or the summer

camp email box or your HOA that has

85

its own request mailbox that's actually

different from the HOA WhatsApp group,

86

which is different from the HOA email,

all, all of that, it still exists.

87

And you implicitly signed up for it and

you said, "Yes, you can reach me here."

88

And now it's all just floating out there

in the ether for you to keep track of.

89

Even the workarounds for really

busy channels are worth noting.

90

I, I've been in situations where there's

an official project tracker, but then

91

there is a special Google Doc that has

more details that multiple people use

92

and keep up to date instead of ever

logging back into the project tracker

93

or a separate client tracking grid

because Salesforce isn't fully set up.

94

So now information is in multiple

places, and you could be tagged in

95

any of them with questions or action

items, unresolved comments and

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open threads everywhere you look.

97

I think LinkedIn is a really good

example of this because you can't really

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forward LinkedIn messages anywhere else.

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They don't really have an API.

100

I know there are people I'm actively

not replying to because I just

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can't fully track what's open,

what's read, what's unread, what

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did I send, what did they send.

103

It's so much to manage, and the more

established channels have more established

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processes or more established workflows.

105

It's all of these other workarounds

and all these outliers that create

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the chaos Every single open channel

in your life, every pathway someone

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has to reach you, every doorway that

someone can sneak through that should

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have a lock but doesn't, is carrying

a cost, not because of what's in it,

109

but because your brain keeps it open

and there's always a possibility that

110

something could show up at any time.

111

So you're running a low level

background check on it constantly.

112

Is there something there?

113

Did I miss something?

114

Do I need to check this?

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I think browser tabs are a

really great metaphor for this.

116

I get so stressed when someone

shares their screen and I see that

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they have more than 10 browser tabs

open, but each browser tab is like a

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channel you haven't closed, haven't

processed, haven't decided about.

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And all of those open tabs slow

down your computer, and it creates

120

the same effect on your brain.

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You're operating slower

and it weighs on you.

122

And there's also like this constant

level of fear because if you're using

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tabs as your to-do list, you are like

one browser crash or one computer

124

restart away from losing everything.

125

The cognitive tax isn't

really proportional to volume.

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A channel you check twice a month can

cost as much attention as one you check

127

hourly because the irregular ones require

you to remember to check them rather

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than having a rhythm or a routine.

129

High volume channels force you to

develop that cadence, and low volume

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ones just float and they take up mental

energy in a different kind of way.

131

And as we're going to talk about, you

can't even trust proactive alerts.

132

If you don't know how to check something

or alerts aren't even set up properly,

133

you can miss something entirely, which

means the only real protection is

134

knowing exactly what you have and where.

135

There's a name for what's happening

when your brain keeps all these

136

channels open, and it's called the

Zeigarnik effect, named after a Soviet

137

psychologist named Bluma Zeigarnik, who

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And what she found is that the brain

treats unfinished or unresolved tasks

139

differently than completed ones.

140

So it keeps them open, flagged, running

in the background, demanding resolution.

141

And your brain hates open loops.

142

It treats them like unresolved

problems, so it keeps revisiting them

143

even when you're not aware of it.

144

Just like I couldn't sleep in that

upgraded hotel suite because I kept

145

envisioning the many murderers played

by D-list New York actors who would be

146

able to scale the walls and break in.

147

Not exactly like Spider-Man, but close

So here's what that means for us.

148

Every channel you haven't formally

accounted for isn't just inconvenient,

149

it's an open loop that your brain is

actively managing, not because something

150

is in it, because something might be.

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And the Zeigarnik effect means your

brain won't let you fully rest until

152

the loop is closed or until you give

it like a plan or an action item.

153

So good news is that research shows

that simply writing something down,

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making it external and visible, that

tells your brain that it's safe to

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let go, which is, not coincidentally,

exactly what an input audit does.

156

We talked in an earlier episode about

how you can't measure what you don't

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acknowledge, and it's the same thing here.

158

You can't manage what you haven't

counted or what you don't know exists.

159

I actually had a CEO once who

used the saying all the time,

160

"You can't manage a secret."

161

And that's exactly what

we need to do here.

162

You don't want secrets.

163

So what's the actual cost of all of this?

164

Beyond cognitive load and, like,

general inefficiency, I wanna talk

165

about surprises because I think

that's where real damage can happen.

166

There are two kinds of surprises.

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The first kind you can't

really do much about.

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That's just genuinely unexpected

things that come out of nowhere,

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things that change faster than

you might have anticipated,

170

but, but in general, just life.

171

But the second kind is entirely

preventable, and it's a surprise that

172

comes from a channel or a space you

totally forgot about This happened

173

to me recently when I found out that

I have a secret voicemail inbox.

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Apparently, this call blocker that I

put in place to try to weed out the

175

way too many spam calls I was getting,

176

When that call blocker identified

calls that weren't safe, it routed the

177

voicemails from those calls to a totally

separate inbox, and I only found it later

178

because I saw a weird dot in the corner

. And inside, I found out I had missed,

179

you know, restaurant confirmations and a

very important message from, , a personal

180

contact whose phone number I didn't have.

181

Um, and frankly, I think I also

missed, like, a personal message

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from someone I thought had totally

forgotten about me, but it turns out

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they hadn't, which is great news, right?

184

But there are real consequences

when something like that happens.

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There's the stress of realizing

that you've screwed up and you need

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to deal with relationship repair,

and, and that's the secondary cost.

187

You have to go back and apologize.

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And I don't care how you say it, it

ultimately sounds a lot like some kind

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of, you know, technologically advanced

version of, "My dog ate my homework."

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'Cause you have to say, "Hey, I

didn't understand how my own voicemail

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worked," and it's extra embarrassing

because it's entirely preventable.

192

It's in contrast to being swamped or

busy, which at least sort of has some

193

level of dignity of being explainable

and maybe makes you sound important.

194

Being behind on replies to real people

has a very different weight than

195

being behind on tasks because people

make meaning out of your silence.

196

So they assume you're ignoring

them or you're deprioritizing them

197

or that something might be wrong.

198

Those aren't neutral interpretations,

and most of the time they're wrong,

199

but you don't get to correct them

until you find the channel, you

200

find the message, you, you know

that they were trying to reach you.

201

So the goal of this input

audit isn't efficiency.

202

It's about reducing the

surprise surface area.

203

It's about reducing what you have to scan.

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I just wanna talk about that concept for

a second because I think it's the right

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way to think about what we're managing.

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We are always scanning.

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I think anyone listening here is scanning

something, your inbox, your calendar.

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You're going through your brain

being like, "What am I missing here?"

209

It's the peripheral vision of your

personal and professional lives,

210

looking for what's coming, what's

urgent, what we might have missed.

211

And when the surface area is

large and you can't see below it,

212

the scanning becomes exhausting.

213

You're not just checking what you

know is there, you're running a

214

constant search for what might be

there that you don't know about yet.

215

So that creates, like, a totally

different kind of tired, right?

216

Because it's, it's not the tired

of doing too much, it's the tired

217

of not knowing what you don't know.

218

And the surprise surface area, the

places where something could emerge

219

that you weren't tracking, that's

where anxiety lives You're not trying

220

to achieve zero surprises because

that's not the goal and, and I

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certainly don't think that's realistic.

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But you are trying to stop being

surprised by your own infrastructure,

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by things that are preventable.

224

The filtered voicemail, the Slack

workspace you haven't clicked into

225

in two weeks, the email address with

your maiden name that some people

226

still use occasionally even though

you've had an out of office message

227

set there for the last 14 years.

228

Those are the surprises that

you can actually prevent.

229

And there's a subtler version

of this worth naming too.

230

Sometimes it's an episodic input that

quietly becomes urgent, like, um, an

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aging parent's health situation that was

really stable for months and then suddenly

232

isn't, or a client relationship that went

quiet after a long period of complaints.

233

So initially you're really

relieved, like, thank God.

234

But now it's either so quiet it's

concerning or it's not quiet at all.

235

Those aren't channels you forgot, but

they're channels you deprioritized

236

because the volume dropped.

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But low volume is never the

same thing as low stakes So what

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do you actually do about this?

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The answer is not a better notification

system or a smarter filter.

240

It's taking inventory.

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It's what I call an input audit, and

it's frankly exactly what it sounds like

242

because the name is not that creative.

243

Um, you sit down and you write out

every single channel, every source,

244

every place something could be

waiting for you or coming at you.

245

Not to fix it yet, not to build

like a whole system around it, but

246

just to see the whole picture in one

place, probably for the first time

247

if you've never done this before.

248

You have no idea what random thing

could be sitting for you in your

249

Facebook Messenger account that

you haven't opened in a year.

250

You have no idea what might be hiding

in a Slack channel that you muted from

251

a project that's kind of dead, but it

turns out it's not dead, and you missed

252

like three months of conversation.

253

A lot of people haven't done this,

and they've optimized their inbox or

254

set up filters or downloaded apps,

but they've never stopped and counted.

255

And the act of counting is really where

this starts because you can't manage

256

what you haven't named, and, and you

can't name what you never looked at.

257

So taking inventory of all the ways

someone can reach you, I know it sounds

258

a little bit like homework, sounds maybe

like another project, but the actual

259

experience of doing it, of sitting it

down and writing out every channel,

260

every source, every place something

might be waiting, it's almost always

261

a relief because the list in your head

is always longer than the actual list.

262

And once you get it out and make it

external, you can look at it and be

263

like, "Okay, actually this isn't that

bad, and I'm in a position to make

264

some decisions and take some action."

265

You are not doing this

audit to optimize anything.

266

You are auditing to stop carrying.

267

And I'm bringing this up specifically

now in the week before July 4th Because

268

summer is when things slow down, and

while you absolutely need to take a great

269

vacation and get the rest and relaxation

that you deserve, there are going to be

270

weeks this summer when hopefully things

are slow enough, people are out, some

271

people are quiet, and maybe it's the

right time for you to finally take a

272

real inventory when things are a little

bit quieter, so you're a little less

273

scared of opening some of those boxes

and inboxes that you've forgotten about.

274

And then once you have the list

in front of you, before you do

275

anything else, just look at it.

276

You're not building a system, you're not

making decisions, but you need to get

277

honest about what you're really dealing

with and the inventory you've taken.

278

And there are a few questions I think

are worth asking about each channel

279

you've identified The first question

is volume, and specifically whether

280

that volume is constant or occasional.

281

How much is actually coming through

here, and is that traffic always

282

on or only active sometimes?

283

Not how much you're afraid might be

there, but what's the real pattern?

284

Some channels feel heavy because of

what they represent, but not really

285

what's in them, and some feel light

because you've been ignoring them,

286

which is a whole other problem.

287

And knowing whether something is

constant versus occasional or seasonal

288

matters because those two things

require completely different responses.

289

The second is stakes.

290

If something comes through

this channel and you missed it,

291

what's the consequence of that?

292

This is sort of the noise versus

signal question, and the answer

293

is, is often not what you'd expect.

294

But some of your highest volume

channels are full of the most noise,

295

and some of your quietest channels are

where the most important things land.

296

My voicemail inbox that I discovered,

it didn't have a ton of traffic or

297

messages, but there were two messages I

really needed to get in a timely manner.

298

Volume and stakes aren't the same thing,

and confusing them is often how things

299

fall through or you build something

that's ineffective to solve for it.

300

The third question is, did I choose

this or did I accept it by default?

301

This isn't a guilt thing, but

this is really a clarity question.

302

Some of what's on your list

you actively opted into, you

303

hand-raised, you signed up.

304

Some of it got built around you while

you weren't really paying attention,

305

and you can't put all of it down, but

you can probably put some of it down.

306

And you can't make that call on

what you can put down until you know

307

which is which and what is there.

308

And the last one, and I think this

is one that's the hardest to be

309

honest about, but it's what am I

actively avoiding on this list?

310

Because there's almost always something,

a channel you haven't opened because

311

you don't wanna know what's in it, a

thread you've been ignoring because,

312

you know, dealing with it means dealing

with something harder underneath it.

313

It's not really a productivity thing.

314

It's just a thing worth

knowing about yourself.

315

I'm not asking you to

fix any of that today.

316

The audit is really not like a to-do list.

317

The audit is a mirror of your life

318

Once you have the full list in

front of you, the first thing worth

319

noticing is that not all of your

inputs are the same kind of thing.

320

Some are structural.

321

They are permanent features of

your life that are gonna keep

322

generating volume indefinitely.

323

And some are episodic.

324

They're tied to a season, a situation,

a specific person's circumstances.

325

They need to be handled differently.

326

And, and knowing that distinction

is really helpful as you think

327

about how to manage your own work.

328

Structural inputs will keep coming: work

email, Slack, school pickup logistics

329

thread, the standing meeting that always

generates follow-ups and frankly probably

330

could be an email in the first place.

331

And then you build systems for those

because they're not going anywhere.

332

But episodic inputs, they need to be

acknowledged and triaged differently,

333

and they need to be consciously closed

when the season or the project or the

334

situation ends, rather than just going

quiet and continuing to take up space.

335

There are a lot of people I work with

who try to build permanent infrastructure

336

around temporary inputs, and then they

end up with a system or an approach

337

that feels heavier, more bloated,

more complicated than it should

338

For channels you can't close

but are creating a headache,

339

you don't have to fix them.

340

You just have to make

a decision about them.

341

The channel still exists, but instead of

your brain holding it open indefinitely,

342

you've decided, "Hey, I look at this

on Tuesdays at ten," and that's it.

343

It's not optimization, it's just putting

the thing in a container outside of your

344

head and giving your head some comfort in

knowing that it's been dealt with or that

345

it will be dealt with on Tuesdays at ten.

346

So my suggestion/ask for all of you is

to set a timer for 15 minutes and write

347

down every place something might be

waiting for you that you haven't checked

348

in the last week or the last month.

349

Not to fix it, not to

triage it, but just to see.

350

And the prompt isn't what are all your

inputs, but rather like, where might

351

something be hiding from you right

now that you're not thinking about?

352

Think about what could be your own

secret voicemail inbox nightmare.

353

Think about that red dot alert that

you've been ignoring or the thread

354

you know exists but you haven't

opened, or some of the ways that you

355

filtered your email and the messages

you probably have never even seen.

356

The goal is not a perfect list, but

the goal is to stop doing the inventory

357

in your head and start doing it

somewhere that you can actually see it.

358

Once you have that list, you're just

gonna wanna run it through those

359

four questions I mentioned earlier.

360

Volume, stakes, did you choose this,

and what might you be avoiding?

361

And that's it.

362

That's the whole thing

363

Because once it's visible,

you can manage it.

364

It's no longer a secret.

365

And so as long as it stays invisible,

it's just weight you're carrying

366

around and it's holding you back

367

I really hope this helps.

368

Please let me know how this works for

you, and if you have any questions, all my

369

contact information is in the show notes.

370

I'm Karen Doak.

371

This is OK Actually, where we get

clear, get sorted, get going, and

372

stay sane, unless, of course, we

get upgraded into a suite where

373

someone could break in and murder us