Its never too late to commit
Start now! You can do it. |
Mornings. Set up for success.
Clear and clean desk |
Plan day / week / month |
Inbox to zero, then close email |
Disconnect internet if possible |
Close excess programs |
Complete anything that someone is waiting on you for |
Reduce procrastination
Have all equipment ready and operational |
Be hydrated and fed |
Don’t call it 'have to do' or 'work' or anything boring or negative, call it learning or teaching |
Make a list |
Eliminate clutter |
Have deadlines |
See if can use a contextual map |
Disconnect the internet |
Use colour when bored to add some creativity and recapture focus |
Close email whenever possible. Don't communicate by email. |
Pomodoro |
Get started, it’s the hardest part. If you find yourself stopped then get started again
Research and review
Learn about the areas. Form an opinion |
Review |
Previous projects to see what can duplicate |
knowledge base to see what relates |
Research |
Investigate connections, what are other world class manufacturers doing |
Talk to any team member who might have advice |
Read online opinions and articles on the topic |
Ensure any arguments to be had are sound |
Communications
Make things interesting to look at |
Communicate ideas using analogies |
Condense info, the team don’t process walls of text |
Don’t expect to remember most of what put together prior to a meeting or presentation. You need to learn material not just read it |
Learn it = you could explain the concept to a 5 year old |
Use case studies |
Overarching
Choose the right thing (the 20%, the frog) and then plan, put in time and effort, have stamina |
Questions to ask self
What can I really nail here? |
What is the hardest thing? |
Is there anything I have left out? |
How can I give the most benefit? |
What would I be relieved someone had done? |
What would really impress _? |
Have I thought about our hypothesis? |
Why am I spending so much time on _? |
How can I make my work interesting? |
Is there an easier way to tackle this problem? How would [someone who has been successful here] do it? |
Is it too messy, can I make it flow better? |
Is everyone ok? |
How would _ do it? |
How would I advise _ to do it? |
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What is the 20% here?
20% of the work creates 80% of the reward. |
Eat that frog
First thing in the morning, you do the most annoying, irritating, difficult, unpleasant task on your task list. Then it's done! |
"Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long."
Planning and projects
Write it down. All of it. Everything that people expect, everything that people promise. |
Send a note confirming that you wrote it down, specifically what you heard, what it will cost and when they will have it or when they promised it. |
Show your work (Processess, milestones) |
Keep a log, you’ll need it for the next project |
Don't change things while people are reviewing them, because then we both have to do it twice. |
The project will take longer than you hope it will. It will. |
What needs research |
Identify and obsess about the critical path, if the longest part of the project takes less time than you planned, the entire project will take less time than you planned |
Refer to trigger list |
Research and review |
Make a plan. Objectives, outputs, tasks and timeline. Execution. |
Finish as soon as you can (but don’t half ass it) |
List areas of business affected and how, start dialog with those areas |
Wrap it up. When you're done, take the time to identify what worked and what didn't, and help the entire team get stronger for next time. |
General
Have a goal each work / study day. Measuring in time is nearly useless. |
Improvise |
Keep things simple |
Keep things useful |
Don’t be afraid to get things wrong |
Do the hard stuff |
Be comfortable saying ‘follow me’ |
Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to |
Set clear goals you can actually attain, even if they seem 'too small' |
Repeat and referral: Learn to say no to stuff you don’t like without feeling guilty, what you do agree to is what you will end up doing in future. Things people ask of you will often be repeat or referral based on things you have done in the past. As are many of the things you will tell yourself to do.
Meetings
Understand objective prior to meeting |
Read documents, emails and agenda if you have them |
Prepare anything I need 2 days ahead |
Prepare questions |
Make notes after each meeting |
Revisit prior meeting notes if exist |
Read up on the attendees |
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Look out for self
Knock anything out of the way early if possible (do it for own wellbeing it’s not worth the stress of waiting) |
Always look to see if this has been done before and how |
Don’t reinvent the wheel |
Guide, help and plan for Future Self |
Record ‘what worked, what didn’t’ and use the knowledge |
Update this document |
Review moleskine / notebooks for any notes made during project |
When learning new things make ‘Cheat sheets’ they are useful in future |
Be a guiding light for others, share knowledge openly |
The things you do or agree to do today will be the things that you do in future. |
Form an opinion based on fact
Always form an opinion. |
Doesn't have to be right. |
Opinion should always be evolving. |
Communication
Explain like listener is five |
Soften language |
Learn to get buy in |
Don’t be afraid to ask questions |
Unclear instructions: |
Get clarity on poor instructions ASAP |
List what you don’t understand and ask for team members guidance |
Time and effort
Every minute spent in planning saves me about ten minutes in execution. Plan everything. |
Any task, no matter how complex, can be broken down to manageable smaller tasks. Then any goal is as easy as checking off tasks. Those tasks should go down to about the size of an hour or a few hours. |
Remember Parkinson's Law |
If you are not 5 minutes early, you are late. If you are missing, you've tripled your workload |
Do not ask things via email or respond via email where possible |
Maintain and grow knowledge
Treat important things like there will be an exam on it at the end of the month |
Maintain personal knowledge base in Dropbox |
Structure notes around skills |
Create a cheat sheet on new skills |
I learn by doing |
Translate Uni courses into useful notes for work |
Use journals on the internet if useful |
Don’t be afraid to use the knowledge of workmates. Try and write anything down. |
Find and use online resources (so helpful) |
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