Do as I say, not as I do

August 27th, 2008 Posted in Day to Day |

I’m a firm believer in the idea that individuals can control their day to day lives. There are always circumstances (environmental, social, personal) that can swing things any which way, but I like to think (probably a little idealistically) that major shifts in lifestyle can eventually be traced back to the individual.

For example, I just got a message from a good friend announcing that she got a new job as “Wine Maker” at Andrew Peller. This is huge, but the thing that really made me smile was that she credited me for planting the idea in her head.

Some background: She was working a job that she didn’t enjoy and where she wasn’t treated very well. I’m pretty sure I simply asked her why she was working there if she didn’t like it so much. I was probably a little more preachy about it, but that would have been the general idea behind my argument.

I think one of the reasons I get worked up about things like this is because of the society we live in — we have everything we need and more.  When people get “stuck” in dead-end jobs/situations and complain about it I get really frustrated.  We have more opportunity here in Canada than most countries. It’s sometimes simply just a matter of taking that first step towards your dream job/life goal/whatever. It will almost definitely take some sacrifice, but coming out the other end you’ll be glad you took the risk.

Which brings me back to the “not as I do” part.  I’ve been in a bit of a rut since moving to Hamilton. I haven’t really put my finger on the source, but I’m almost positive it has to do with my lack of social life and abundance of sitting around on my in front of my computer.

I think it’s time for some ch-ch-ch-changes.

Time management skillz

August 18th, 2008 Posted in Day to Day |

I watched the following video the other night while doing laundry and creating a magna avatar (quite a productive night I must say).

I’ve been trying to settle here in Hamilton for a while now and I always get bogged down by one thing or another. This lecture by Randy Pausch held a few really good time management tips which I wanted to write down so I won’t forget them later. I also wanted to share them.

Here’s the video:

Here’s my notes (which ended up being a lot longer that initially intended):

• Time is more valuable than money. You can earn more money later, but you will never get your time back. (5:50)

• Life is too short. If you aren’t enjoying what you’re doing, what’s the point? (11:25)

• Good judgment comes with experience and experience comes from bad judgment. Chances are if you’re making a lot of mistakes, you’re probably learning a lot and things will probably go a lot better later. (15:05)

• Have a plan. A plan doesn’t mean you’re locked in. If you have a plan it’s a lot easier to make changes later on.(18:20)

• Use to-do lists, break them down into workable steps and always start with the ugliest thing first.  “If you have to eat a frog, don’t spend a lot of time looking at it first, and if you have to eat more than one, don’t start with the small one.” (19:05)

• Covey’s Four Quadrant To Do List (21:00)

• Clutter:  If you keep the clutter in your life down to a minimum, you won’t get overwhelmed.

• Paperwork - Keep your desk clear (23:46) and have a place where you keep every piece of paper you have so that you can find them easily when necessary (26:46).

• Email - Your inbox is not your to do list. (24:26)

Keep your inbox clear.

When you get an email, either read it or file it and add an entry to your to do list.

Never delete any emails.

If you want to get something done, never send it to more than one person.

If people don’t respond to an email within 48 hours, they aren’t going to respond.

• Thank you notes (38:10): These are a tangible acknowledgments to let people know how you appreciated something someone has done for you.  This will also make you memorable to the receiver.

• Make your office comfortable for you, and optionally comfortable for others (42:20). This will help keep meetings and drop-ins to a minimum.

• Verbs are important.  “You do not find time for important things, you make it. And you make time by electing not to do something else.” (43:10)

• Learn to say “no.” (43:40)

• Find your creative time and defend it ruthlessly. Find your dead time and fill it with meetings, phone calls, exercise — mundane things that don’t require brain power. (45:20)

• Reduce interruptions (45:55). One interruption costs 6 to 9 minutes plus 4 minutes of recovery time. Turn off email notifications. Turn phone calls into emails by making your phone message

• Don’t interrupt others (47:30). Save up all the stuff you have for other people and give it to them all at once.

• Monitor your time and update throughout the day by keeping a time journal (49:10). Use it to figure out what you don’t need to do, what you can delegate and what you should/could spend more time on.

• You don’t make yourself more efficient at work so that you can work more, you make yourself more efficient so that you can go home at five (51:49).

• “You have to learn to focus your time and energy on things that matter and not worry about the things that don’t.” (53:15)

• Procrastination: “Doing things at the last minute is really expensive.” (56:36) Pushing things right up to the deadline is where all the stress comes from.  The trick is to make up a fake deadline and act like it’s real.

• Delegation: You can take on a lot more if you have help. (59:14)

If you are going to delegate, give them authority with responsibility — don’t micro-manage.

Always to the ugliest job yourself so that it is clear that you are willing to get dirt on your hands.

Don’t be vague. Give a specific task, deadline and reward. And the reward is for them, not you. Be clear.

Challenge people. Give them the opportunity.

Send confirmations via email. This provides a written record and ensures the task is clear.

Give objectives, not procedures.

Tell them the importance of the task to help them prioritize their workload.

Praise and thank them for the work they did.

If you don’t want to have things delegated to you, don’t learn how to do them.

• Meetings: Lock the door, unplug the phone and take away everyone’s blackberry’s (105:02).

Meetings should never last more than an hour.

All meetings should have an agenda. If there is no agenda then everyone just end up sitting around for the first bit trying to figure out what they are doing there.

Refuse to go to meetings if there is no agenda (105:30).  This forces the person calling the meeting to actually stop and figure out the purpose behind the meeting.

One minute minutes: “the scribe writes down what decisions were made and who is responsible for what by when then they email it out to everybody.” (105:50) That way everyone knows what task they are supposed to do and by when.

• Only use technology that helps you. “Computers do things faster, but take more time.”

• Vacation: It’s not a vacation if you reading email (I’m looking at you Colin :)

• Kill your television (113:00).

• Eat, sleep and exercise (113:50). Always make time to sleep, because without sleep, everything falls apart.

Here’s a point-form transcription of the lecture.

About Randy Pausch: (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a best-selling author who achieved worldwide fame for his “The Last Lecture” speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon. In summer 2007, Pausch conceived the lecture after he learned that his previously known pancreatic cancer was terminal. [cited from Wikipedia]