Embedded Files
Knowledge work can become overstimulation. Being part of a highly connected team exposes you to other people's demands, conflicting priorities and information that sometimes takes away from your ability to focus. Luckily, there are many ways to reclaim ownership over your time and attention to allow you to focus on what you chose to work on.
Empty spaces are necessary, so you can fill them with yourself.
Gmail
Gmail
The easiest way to get breathing room in Gmail is by creating a label. My label has an icon ☯ instead of a name and is white, so it is not distracting. I do not label my emails (I search - and I bet you do, too), so this is my only label.
Note that I'm not telling you to zero your inbox. That is important - but if you operate from out of your inbox, you may feel compelled to keep it clean all day. It's better to let your inbox be your inbox and go to your blank label.
So clean! This canvas makes thoughts flow.
Chat
Chat
New Chat has empty space, too. Just click the "Chat" logo and you will be greeted with a clean slate.
You can use this space to return when things get to busy, or as a canvas if you are chatting with multiple people.
When you need a break from your 280.000 colleagues, click the "Chat" logo and go back to your Zen space to reclaim control.
Editors
Editors
All the editors can give you more viewing space to focus on what is important: Content. There are several
Docs
Docs
View > Disable Show Ruler
Hide the outline if you will do long form writing
Sheets
Sheets
There is not much you can disable in Sheets.
Slides
Slides
View > Disable Show Ruler
View > Disable Show Speaker notes
If you need more space to focus, but still do a lot of formatting, you can hide the menus. This will still leave all the commands accessible, but hide the File, Edit, View... menus and the document title.
View > Full Screen lets you even hide those. This is my favorite setting for focussed work. Pressing the "Escape" button on your keyboard will bring the normal view back. You do not have to set any of the previous options before - just enable whatever you feel comfortable with.
Tip: There are shortcuts for almost anything in Google Workspace and they are (more or less) universally applicable: Learning how to insert a bulleted list in Gmail and you will be able to do so in Docs and Slides as well. This will make you faster and less reliant on buttons.
While Google Workspace brings us closer together as a team, it also provides us with the means to do deep work and to make the most of our screens.
As a next action for you, I would like you to create the "Zen" label in Gmail and see what writing emails in front of a blank screen can do for you. And when you are working on your next deliverable, try going with less of the tools and visual clutter. You will be surprised at how this feels!
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