Chimps and Children

Psychologists have been doing some experiments with chimps and young children looking for differences in the way they solve problems.  In one of the experiments they gave chimps a clear box containing food.  The scientists showed the chimp how to open the box, but included several steps that were obviously unnecessary.  When the chimps were left alone with the box they retrieved the food imitating the method they had been shown.  However the chimps eliminated the unnecessary steps.

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Worry vs. Problem-solving

There are some circumstances that you have no power to change.  Worrying about these types of circumstances is pointless.  On the other hand you shouldn’t give up looking for a solution just because you don’t see an immediate solution.

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Perfect Tools

One of the biggest hindrances to personal productivity is the search for perfect tools. Lets consider an analogy.

John is a carpenter and he wants to be the most productive carpenter he can possibly be.  To reach this goal he decides he needs the best tools possible, so he sets out to find the perfect hammer.

John visits many stores and tries out different hammers.  They all work fine, but he notices subtle differences.  He finally settles on a wonderful  hammer that he uses for a week, but then he discovers that it gives him a blister, so he sets out to find a better hammer.

John may or may not ever find the perfect hammer.  However, the productivity gain between a "good" hammer and the "perfect" hammer is going to be very slight.  If John is focused on finding the perfect tool, then his productivity is going to suffer.  John needs to be focused on producing.

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Dealing with an Unorganized Boss III

Bosses who don’t communicate

Many managers with no previous leadership experience are poor communicators.  This isn’t surprising because the communication skills required to be a good manager are generally only learned through experience.

One common situation you’ll find yourself encountering under this type of person is working on a team of people who are out of sync. For example, your boss may tell you about an important upcoming project, but no one else hears about it until the last minute.  On the other hand, you may also find yourself in a position where everyone else knows some crucial piece of information except you.

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Dealing with an Unorganized Boss II

Bosses who contradict themselves.

This can be a really annoying person to work for.  In mild forms, it just seems like they are slightly confused.  In really bad situations these bosses seem totally deranged and malicious.  If you have a boss who will tell you to drop everything and work on X and then come back and ask why you aren’t working on Y, you are dealing with one of these bosses.

In most cases these types of people aren’t outright malicious, they just have a very short memory, no clear goals, and are very unorganized.  You can usually improve the situation by putting their statements in writing.  For example, if your boss comes in and asks you to drop everything and work on X, write it on your whiteboard while they are there watching.  For bigger items you might follow up with a memo or email.

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Dealing with an Unorganized Boss

In the last few months I’ve spoken with several people who are having a difficult time working with their boss.  In each case the boss isn’t a bad person, but they are so unorganized that it is difficult to get much done under their leadership.  Obviously the fault lies with the boss.  However, for people who are use to being highly productive knowing where to place the blame offers little consolation.

This is the first in a series of posts listing common problems you’ll face with an unorganized supervisor and some suggestions on how to best deal with them.

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Keep People from wasting your time

I’m sure everyone has been in situations where a coworker is wasting your time, but there doesn’t seem to be a polite way out of it.  Here are several simple strategies for keeping your distractions to a minimum without appearing impolite or rude.

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Make Decisions in Advance

A good portion of our time goes into make decisions.  Sometimes these decisions are big important things, but often they are mundane simple things.  Most decisions require some type of investment in time.  Lets look at an example:

If I’m in a video store trying to pick out a move to watch that evening, there is a certian amount of time that will go into evaluating the options and selecting a video.  From personal experience, this process can take 10 to 20 minutes easily.

For most people this 10 to 20 minutes is completely wasted time because at some point in the last 6 months they have already made a decision about a movie they would like to see, but they just don’t remember.  When a friend tells you about a movie they saw in the theater and you decide you want to rent it, you’ve made a decision to see that movie.  If you remembered that decision when you entered the movie store it would just be a matter of finding it and renting it.

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Productive Housing

In July we sold our house and moved into a nearby apartment complex.  While it has been interesting adjusting to living in 1/5th the amount of space, there have been some big changes in how much time we have available. 

• Maintenance is handled by placing a phone call.  It doesn’t require any time on my part to try to fix something or to locate and  hire a repair person.
• Snow removal is done by the apartment managers.  I don’t have to get up early to shovel.
• Less house to clean.  It is a lot faster to clean 500 sq ft. than 2,500.
• Less paperwork. While it didn’t take up too much time, there is definitely more paperwork involving a house.

Of course I still miss our house (especially the home theater with the 12ft. screen and reclining seats), but the apartment sure is a good place to get work done and is perfect for our needs as we prepare for our next move in February.

Another advantage of a smaller space is it forces you to prioritize your stuff.  Only so much will fit, so we’ve had to make some decisions about what to keep, what goes into storage and what gets sold or given away.  For the most part the process has been  good.  Stuff tends to create distractions.  By narrowing possessions down to the tools I need for work, I’m much more focused and productive.

Paperless Office

There is a stack of papers on my desk in need of filing, review, signatures, etc.  Today as a prepared to tackle the mundane job of sorting through all the paper, I wondered what became of the paperless office that new technology was supposed to enable.

I’m practical.  I don’t think we are going to ever do away with paper entirely, but as I looked at the stack I thought there had to be a better way to deal with all this information.  I decided to go through the paper and see how much of it could actually be handled better in a “paperless” way.  What follows is a list of my notes on how I can make my life more paperless:

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