When a fire evacuation is like a chaotic email inbox
Standing on Sydney's George Street in my pyjamas with no shoes on at 5:30am on a Saturday morning, it struck me that the mistake I'd just made during a fire evacuation was very similar to a chaotic email inbox.
Let me go back a bit.
Last year, I was due to give a presentation at 9am on a Saturday morning. The night before in my hotel room, I diligently reviewed my notes and presentation content before peacefully drifting off to sleep a little after midnight.
I was feeling confident that I was ready to go.
Turns out, there was something else I should have organised.
At 5am, I was woken by very loud banging on the door to my room. A very authoritative voice shouted "FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! The building next door is on fire! EVACUATE! EVACUATE! EVACUATE!"
I must have been in a very deep sleep because I was awfully confused. I managed to peek out the door and saw a fireman down the hall, urgently continuing his instructions.
Hmmm, this is serious then. Especially given my location. My hotel was on the very crowded George Street in Sydney. Neighbouring buildings here usually share walls.
I have to get out of here. NOW.
So I file down the stairs of the fire exit with other similarly bleary-eyed hotel guests.
On ground level we can see smoke billowing out of the cafe immediately next door. Yep, sure is on fire.
My problems become apparent to me quickly after.
I am not wearing shoes. In my panic I just left. I am bare-footed. Hopefully I don't step on any glass on the street.
Next, I am not wearing a bra. I am wearing what I was sleeping in, a kind of shirt dress. Right, crossing my arms over my chest it is, then.
I have a serious case of bed hair. Not the end of the world but I'm getting some funny looks from passers-by.
The only thing I do have is my phone. The only reason I have that is because it was on my beside table and I instinctively checked the time when the fireman woke me up.
Damn, what if the fire spreads to my room? I sure wish I'd had the forethought to grab my valuables, like my wedding ring and laptop.
I see other people coming down, some of these people had small carry-on luggage.
Obviously more organised than me.
They were wearing shoes too.
One guy was less organised than me. He was wearing underwear. That's it.
As I stood on George Street for the next 2 hours while the fire department battled the fire, I had lots of time to think.
When there's an emergency or a stressful situation, it's too late to prepare.
You have to do your preparation and be organised PRIOR to when you need it most.
In my current situation, I should have had a small case with my valuables and a change of clothes in it (if the firefighters said that I had to leave it behind, then so be it) with my shoes nearby.
Because as 7am approached, it was looking like I was going to have to present to a roomful of people with no shoes, no bra and frightening hair. Every presenter wants to be memorable to their audience, but not in that way.
Then it struck me.
We do the same thing with our inbox!
We don't have a plan and when the proverbial hits the fan, it's too late. Email chaos ensues. This pattern repeats over and over again causing the stress to build, with no release. So you end up standing on George St with no shoes on EVERY morning.
You know:
Huge amounts of unread emails that you can never catch up on, causing that dreaded feeling that you are constantly missing something important.
Huge amounts of read emails that aren't filed away making it difficult for you to find anything.
Huge amounts of folders that you do file things away into sometimes but it's so time consuming (have you even gone into most of those folders after they've been created?)
Not being able to determine which emails are important amongst the hundreds sitting there awaiting your attention.
Staying back late just to get through all the emails in your inbox, knowing that you won't be able to face your inbox any better tomorrow.
Sound familiar?
Next time I'll have my important belongings ready to go in the event of a fire evacuation.
You might want to consider what you can do to become more organised in advance with your email. If you have no idea where to start or want an easily implementable process for Outlook to fix all of the headaches above, click here to get started.
What happened with the presentation...? The firefighters did a marvellous job and we were able to return to the hotel just in time for me to look presentable for my talk.
Shoes and everything.