Read all about it: and Take Back Your Life!

A new book explains how you can use the tools in Microsoft Outlook to manage your to-do lists, calendars and email and, in the process, Take Back Your Life. In an exclusive interview, author Sally McGhee explains more...  


Sally McGhee is a well known productivity guru and author, with her own company based in Denver, Colorado. But her background is not the all-American, all-corporate career woman you might expect.

“I am 49 years old and I live in Denver, Colorado, but I was born in England and I grew up in a little village in the country there,” she says, when asked to describe herself. “I am very much into nature and into walking and kayaking.

“In terms of doing what I do, it has always been my dream to give people information to empower them to live their dreams in line with their values, which means focusing on what is important to them. I also have a focus on sustainability, and how we can create companies with good values, because that will contribute to the sustainability of communities and the planet.”

Making a difference

Sally left school at 16, determined to “make a difference.” She spent six years working for a charity tackling hunger, where she found herself involved with corporate clients. “One of them got me into consulting,” she says. “From the age of 21, I was into consulting and transformational work and that made me realise there was a lot to be contributed in these areas.” “I wanted to share with other people some of what has worked for me, based on everything that I have learned.”

Sally continues to be inspired by many of the people she met at this early stage, who included the inventor and author Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the “mind map” Tony Buzan, and consultants and coaches such as Jinny Ditzler. “I hired Jinny Diztler as a coach,” she says. “I cannot believe it now. I was just a teenager and I was doing things like that – in England!”

Sally started her own company, producing paper-based time-management systems that included to-do lists, calendars, mind-maps and other tools. But she realised she was more interested in working with people than manufacturing and selling.

So she joined Jinny Ditzler at her company, Results Unlimited (Jinny went on to found Best Year Yet), before moving to the US to work for Productivity Development Group, and, eventually, to found her own company, McGhee Productivity Solutions.

Writing the book

“This is one of the reasons that I wrote my book, Take Back Your Life,” she says. “I have worked very hard for what I have got. I have also worked in this area for a very long time and I have worked with some great people. So I wanted to share with other people some of what has worked for me, based on everything that I have learned.”

Sally describes the book as “a roadmap for using technology to support your most meaningful personal goals, while also helping you to be effective at work.” Its main message is that people need to take control of their lives by being clear about their objectives – and by using modern software to help realise them.

It is backed by Microsoft, because it is based around the tools provided in Microsoft Office 2007. “In the corporate world, there is nothing that does not involve technology,” she says. “I use Microsoft because I think its tools are the best for productivity and collaboration. There are many tools out there, but I think Microsoft Outlook is the best personal organisational package there is.”

Making good use of technology

Sally argues that the culture of corporate America – and, by extension, the culture of an increasing number of large, European and British organisations – is that “everybody can do everything” that is thrown at them.

Perhaps surprisingly, she also says that IT has made things worse, by encouraging people to send more and more email, plan more and more meetings, and work outside the office as well as within it. “Technology has driven people into trying to do everything and they are chasing a hopeless cause,” she says. “We want to stop that and help them focus on the things that are important.”

Therefore, Sally argues, the first step if you want to Take Back Your Life is to accept that it is never going to be possible to do everything. “Just that simple idea can change a whole bunch of behaviours that are getting people into work earlier and earlier and then going home later and later and still working from home.” “Put things on the calendar. Don’t just put them on your ‘to do’ list, because it will just get longer and longer. Put them on the calendar. Make sure they are scheduled.”

That done, Sally argues, people need to clarify their objectives – and talk to their boss about them – and then work out what they actually need to do to realise them. Then, they need to use the tools in Outlook task list, calendar, and track the delivery of these objectives.

“I encourage my employees to put all their holidays and weekend commitments onto the calendar at the start of the year, so they work around them – instead of fitting them around work,” she says. “I also encourage them to get out of email loops – and not to send emails that lack content and integrity.

“So there is a work-life balance, although, of course, that changes over time. There are periods where I want to work very, very hard and periods where I want to take some time off and do other things.”

Doing it yourself

Sally sets out these big ideas as a set of “hard” and “soft” tips.

1. “The first “soft” tip is that “people need to really understand that they will never get it all done; so what they really need to focus on is ‘what are the most important things to get done?’” she says.

2. “That leads to the first hard tip: really know what your objectives are, at home as well as at work. Get into a conversation with the boss about them, so the boss knows he can count on you to get the things done that really matter.

3. “Then: really focus on those objectives. Don’t just write them down and put them in a drawer somewhere. Get them out every week and ask yourself ‘what do I need to do this week to achieve them?’

4. “The next hard tip is to put things on the calendar. Don’t just put them on your “to do” list, because it will just get longer and longer. Put them on the calendar. Make sure they are scheduled.

5. “Schedule email on the calendar as well; so it doesn’t become something that you try and deal with all the time. Create strategies to get out of communications loops that you don’t need to be in: and only send out email that is relevant. “Don’t live life from the “to do” list, because it is unlimited, but from the calendar, which is limited."

6. “Track your personal objectives as well as your work objectives through your to-do lists in Outlook, so they don’t become secondary and you know whether you are achieving them.”

The last three of these “hard” tips round up into a second “soft” tip:

7. “Don’t live life from the “to do” list, because it is unlimited, but from the calendar, which is limited. And make sure everything is on the calendar, including your drive to work time and your email time, and your lunch and your get to the school play time.”

And everything is backed up a third “soft” tip:

8. “Remember that you are as important as other people. If you don’t understand that, you will let people book meetings into your email time or your lunch time and you will end up working to their agenda, which is very disempowering. Keep faith with yourself.”

Taking back your life

Take Back Your Life has chapters devoted to defining productivity, setting “meaningful” objectives, creating an “integrated management system”, using Outlook for the detail of collecting information, organising email, and collaborating effectively, and to devising strategies for dealing with interruptions and other distractions.

But its essence is very practical – and about using technology to achieve goals, rather than using it for the sake of it. “The key things are to write things down and to move from the to-do list to the calendar so they get planned,” Sally says. “That way, you won’t get everything done, but you will get the things that matter done.” 

Exclusive NHS discount for Take Your Life Back

All signed in members of the NHS Resource Centre are entitled to 50% off Microsoft Press books with free postage and packaging via our NHS offers page.

- Browse the NHS Resource Centre online bookshop and take advantage of this exclusive offer

- Find out more about McGhee Productivity Solutions