Notes to self: Effective time management & productivity

1. Do MITs in the morning 
2. Divide your tasks into 4 quadrants and attack the UI
3. 80/20 rule 
4. Audit your time by divide your calendar into 30 minutes slots and tracking the tasks performed 
5. Avoid procrastination with inspiration - Rubenstein show 
6. Adopt good habits 

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Want to be productive? Manage your priorities well.

One day in 1918, in his quest to increase the efficiency of his team and discover better ways to get things done, Charles M. Schwab arranged a meeting with a highly-respected productivity consultant named Ivy Lee. Schwab brought Lee into his office and said, “Show me a way to get more things done.”



“Give me 15 minutes with each of your executives,” Lee replied.

“How much will it cost me,” Schwab asked.

“Nothing,” Lee said. “Unless it works. After three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel it’s worth to you".

This incident gave birth to what is called "The Ivy Lee Method"

During his 15 minutes with each executive, Lee explained his simple method for achieving peak productivity:

1. At the end of each work day, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six tasks.
2. Prioritize those six items in order of their true importance.
3. When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.
4. Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.
5. Repeat this process every working day.

The strategy sounded simple, but Schwab and his executive team gave it a try. After three months, Schwab was so delighted with the progress his company had made that he called Lee into his office and wrote him a check for $25,000.

What makes Ivy Lee method so effective?
It forces you to make tough decisions. I don’t believe there is anything magical about Lee’s number of six important tasks per day. It could just as easily be five tasks per day. However, I do think there is something magical about imposing limits upon yourself. I find that the single best thing to do when you have too many ideas (or when you’re overwhelmed by everything you need to get done) is to prune your ideas and trim away everything that isn’t absolutely necessary. Constraints can make you better. Lee’s method requires you to focus on just 6 critical tasks and ignore everything else. Basically, if you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything.

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Boss & You: Its called management

Management: The Dilbert Way

Image Courtesy: Dilbert

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Is traditional Manager a history?

Today, I happened to pull out historical records of the IT program I am managing for last 3 years at my . While doing some data churning, a unique observation stuck my mind – Till date over 62 people from different units of my company have directly or indirectly reported to me in this program in multiple capacities and at various intervals of time. About 70% of this workforce was out of sight as a result of globalization or virtualization of workspace. I know all of them by name, did work with them for months, have talked to some of them over phone at least 5 times a week and very well know the competencies for few of them but have never got a face to face opportunity to say ‘hello’ to most of them.

company

This makes me wonder how little line of sight and direct control I have over the work these team members do today. I still remember my early days when organizations were following military developed hierarchical practices where managing people and work was based on command and control. I had my superiors sitting next door to me and I learnt my management style and leadership on job from them. They use to correct every single mistake of mine at work. There was a personal touch and direct oversight. We use to see every single person in office, greet them with smile on the face every morning and use to go for morning and evening tea together as a group.

Gone are the days when I use to stand up in my cube to see my teams sitting all around the floor churning code. The work is still getting completed and several flawless deliveries go to my overseas client round the year. Teams have become way bigger, global and virtual. Most projects and initiatives have become cross units to take advantage of diverse expertise and skills needed to handle multi technology programs. Does this essentially mean, team members are self managing themselves and time has come when we don’t need managers or need fewer managers?

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Consultative Leadership

Leadership doesn’t always come easily to project managers because they have little clout. The nature of their work, often as temporary engagements, means project managers have limited authority over their team. They often don’t perform formal reviews of the team so they have to figure out a way to lead and guide people to satisfy customer needs.

Consultative leadership can do that. You can help educate others, help guide and direct them, but you must let them have a say in how work will get done. If I told you what to do, would that motivate you or demotivate you? If you are a highly trained, competent person, it can be a de-motivator. Project teams are fed up with the … hierarchical view of management. These people like to be told the goal but not how to do it. While project managers don’t have the authority to make go or no-go decisions, they do reign supreme when dictating how a project is executed. With this distinction in mind, influencing others to act means inspiring ownership or empowerment in a project through strong direction, advice and even education. Allow everyone to have a stake in the project. Team members can thus be more emotionally committed to the project. They’re empowered to execute project tasks, but the project manager can set a strong direction with the vision that they pass along from the sponsor.

until later …… V

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Boss & You: Our problems are opportunities

All our problems are opportunities

Image courtesy: Dilbert

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