h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I could name someone who ran the country into the ground.

More seriously I suggest you forget this thread and get yourselves over to the Royal Procrastinaters - I'll p[ut a link up in a minute.#

There's a difference between busy and efficient. The lady who works with me and is supposed to have lightened my workload looks busy all day. But she achieves about a quarter of that of an efficient person because

a) she doesn't really understand our job
b) she doesn't know the processes
c) she doesn't know how to use our system
d) she starts things, lets herself get interrupted, can't remember what she started, starts something else, picks up what she first started and does it wrong...

meanwhile: if she had a plan of what needs to be done, built in flexibility for the inevitable interruptions and instead of flailing around being silly learned how to do stuff instead of asking me.

Busy - meh, anyone can be busy. Effective is the new black. Or something.

I'm not very efficient with my paperwork time I have to admit, but my route planning is so sharp it could cut your hands off.

It's not just about choosing the shortest route, or planning jobs so they are all along the way to each other, but choosing routes with less right turns, especially out of side roads, and making sure it's my right of way as much as possible.

I may be a bit obsessive over this.

#22 -23

This sounds like what I need. So what's the secret?

The Pomodoro is great if you have a big chunk of work and you want to make sure you get some of the most important things done, even in a busy environment. It does require you to be quite assertive, but most people can wait for 25 minutes.

The biggest problem we have in industry in general is delivering large projects efficiently. You don't need me to tell you about all the big IT projects which have overrun, gone over-budget, been implemented poorly, or all three. When these fail, we all fail.

They fail because priorities, technologies and business objectives constantly change. Some people, however, insist on wheeling out a massive Gantt-chart plan at the outset, believing that everybody can be held accountable for all the milestones even after a couple of years, when everything outside their little bubble has moved on.

Having said this, there is a sea change happening in project management, with new techniques arriving, for example 'Agile'.

I'll write about it for the EG when I get a moment.

We've just started using an 'Agile' approach. For us it means "we won't tell you the requirements, you just build something by this ludicrous deadline, meaning working evenings and weekends, and then we'll tell you its wrong'.

You should agree up front what you're going to deliver in the time they give you. If you don't feel empowered to do this, then it's not Agile.

Wait...she works with you Sho? I thought she worked with me.

from my #22

the first thing anyone needs is to know (nearly) exactly what is within the remit of their job, and what isn't

and what decision making processes belong to you and which not.

After that you need to work out what your exact processes are: what do you do and how do you do it.

For example: I collect orders from customers, with those I start a process to open relevant Letters of Credit, establish a shipping plan (which depends on our production schedule and the allocation made by my HQ) and so on.

So the first thing I had to do was work out a series of priorities: without a proforma invoice the lengthly Letter of Credit process can't start, so I do that first, then I summarise the orders, work out how many trucks/containers I need (and where) and warn the relevant logistics people. Then I can look in detail at what has to go - discussing customer priorities with them.

if anyone wants me to do something during that phase of my work - they tend to get a fork in the eye, but I have no problem saying: come back later. If they are one of my managers they tend to want stuff NOW so - I say: what do you think has priority. If they think what they want now is more important [it never is] I confirm that to them by email [short memories] and do it.



and so on and so on.

If you are finding that your job has mission creep - get together with your line manager and make a SOP and establish a Way of Working. And make sure that when it's finalised, you, the manager and your HR department have a copy.

Having said all that... I still work 12-14 hours a day because even though I'm fairly efficient (don't forget: nobody on this earth can work at 100% capacity 100% of the time, it's ok not to be able to manage everything ALL the time) I just have too much.

Which means that in my case my TO DO list only ever has VERY URGENT stuff on it and the rest just doesn't get done (until it's nearly too late)

Well...I very nearly said it just now. 'Jesus Christ, woman - It's only work.'

oh and make sure your managers train you. Properly. Internal or external - a really efficient person knows how things work.

But don't get too good otherwise you (like me) end up as the go to person for the stuff that people don't know how to do something that is a little out of the ordinary.

In short: it's all in the processes and in a bit of self-discipline and priority setting.

it may only be work, Ed, but if you have a job your contract almost certainly says that you have to do it to the best of your ability. I have no problem with that.

As you know, I struggle with an overdeveloped sense of responsibility for what I do - which is something I'm working on this year. But it all comes down to the same thing:

know what is within your field of responsibility: if you are covering stuff for other people because they can't do their job, stop it because it impacts on your efficiency.

if you can't do B, because someone else has to do A first - find out who they are and make sure they know that you are waiting (they should know that...)

etc etc.

you know, KB, there are an awful lot of those people about sucking the life force out of us. I was suddenly absent for 2 weeks. Because I am organised and efficient it's pretty easy to slot into my job.

But... if people don't follow the process properly, you - like I am now doing - spend 3 weeks trying to work out what they did. And that, boys and girls, is inefficient. And it drives me

I am very inefficient. I make lists and know the theory, but I'm usually too tired to do what's on the list, let alone organise it efficiently. Vicious circle.

The only way I find I can get stuff done is by having fixed appointments (with other people involved). I always manage to keep to them and stay awake for them.

Also, I'm too easily distracted. It's most frustrating when people who seem to do stuff in a really long-winded way still manage to get more done than me at the end of the day.

In this case, Sho, it was a woman who thinks 'But we have to this...and that...and the other...' when all we need to do is this. Nobody will even read that and the other.

Ah yes, Sho - I used to have a theory that if you are bad at your job and go away for a while, no one will miss you. If you are good at your job and go away for a few days, you will be missed. If you are really really good at your job, no one should miss you if you are away, because the infrastructure you have created is so sturdy that it works even when you're not there.

This depends, of course, on the people around you doing what they're supposed to do. So I'm not sure my theory holds water.

e-mail is killing efficiency, imo. Everyone expects an instant reply. Those of us who remember doing things by letter, phone and fax remember a time when we might have been busy but you didn't suddenly have 500 replies to a question that could have been answered in one short phone call.

(OTOH: it is great for quickly sharing info, and making sure you know who told you to do X when it should have been Y)

"If you are really really good at your job, no one should miss you if you are away, because the infrastructure you have created is so sturdy that it works even when you're not there."

And that's when you're made redundant, right?

She will *not* have her ten pages of A3 tables in an annex. I know it must've taken a long time to put together. I know they're nicely coloured in and all. But they're only referred to in a tiny, wee subsection that basically says 'We looked at X, Y and Z and they're not relevant.'

One of us here is being conscientious and dedicated and putting in lots of hard work.

The other is a wastrel who wants to do the bare minimum they can get away with.

Who's the efficient one?

Deserves me right for empowering her. She's answering back.