Excellence - Perfection vs. Efficiency

I use to work for an organization that put a lot of emphasis on “excellence”. This sounds like a good thing, but it was very poorly defined and tended to become an excuse for wreaking mayhem with the budget. Spending 100% more for a 10% gain toward perfection didn’t seem like what I would define as excellence.

As I thought I about it, I realized the the problem  stemmed from equating excellence with perfection. Excellence is actually made up of more than one dimension. Perfection is one of those dimensions, but you must have another dimension that recognizes we are dealing with finite resources. Usually this is best represented as cost in monetary terms, but it could also represent time and how efficiently we convert that time or money into perfection. This chart shows how the two dimensions together represent excellence.

If you achieve perfection without any control of the expense, you will end up with waste. This takes you out of the green excellence zone. If you only focus on keeping your costs down without any focus on perfection, you will produce shoddy work.

Excellence comes from balancing efficiency with perfection. Basically it comes down to doing the best with what you are given. If you are given a million dollar budget for a project, the amount of perfection should reflect the large investment. If you are given $10,000 for a project, you should still be able to stay in the green zone by making the most efficient use of your resources as possible.

Taking the time to reflect on your work and determining which zone your results belong in can be a valuable exercise.

Here are some questions to ask yourself about your current projects:

1. If I cut costs by 25% how much will it hurt the project? If cutting costs by 25% would have a minimal impact on the project, you may be operating in the waste zone.
2. If I were to increase spending (time or money) by 10% would it result in a better end result? If the end result is 200% better, you may want to try to allocate additional resources or funds to the project.
3. Can I get a better product without spending more? Most projects have a certain amount of unnecessary waste. If you can trim that part and apply it toward other areas, you may be able to increase the excellence without actually spending any more time or money.

Group Interview - Productive Software

If you made a list of the software that helps you stay productive, what do you think people would be most surprised to find on that list?

That is the question Productivity501 asked a number of productivity experts. Below are their responses.

A little program called On The Job from Stunt Software. It’s a simple time tracker and invoice generator for projects. But here’s how I also use it: I have entered what would be my hourly rate based on my projects and income. Then, as I field phone calls, do tasks, and muck around, I click the starter button on the timer, the “Stop” at the end. The value of what I just did immediately appears on the screen. Wow. After one day of seeing how I was using valuable time unwisely–and how much I was giving away to clients inadvertently–my habits began to change. Give it a shot.
Steve Roesler from All Things Workplace (rss)

Being able to see where your time is actually going is very valuable. I like the idea of having a dollar amount associated with it.

Google Calendar and Tada List. Honestly, I think the most surprising thing would be my complete lack of software. I’m a minimalist, and most productivity problems don’t need more technology–they need less.
Scott H Young from ScottHYoung.com (rss)

Good point. I’ve seen lots of people who try to solve every problem by getting a new piece of software. After awhile they have so many pieces of software that they can’t keep up with it. If you can break your common tasks down to their core components you’ll find solutions that you might overlook otherwise. For example, if you think you need a contact management system, you may find that what you really need is a good way to organize a list. Maybe a new piece of contact management software fits the bill, but maybe you can do everything you need even better just using a spreadsheet.

Lookout Search. The search functionality in Outlook sucks. All of my emails, meetings, etc, are in outlook.Using the Lookout Search plugin helps me find information quickly.
John Reeve from Intervals find time (rss)

I have given up on the idea of having an empty inbox and just rely on the search functionality built into Apple Mail. Along with Spotlight I find this makes it easy to find everything. It is good to hear that there are some good options out there for Outlook users.

TextMate. It’s the text editor I use to write my books for the Pragmatic Bookshelf. Because I use a markup language, the formatting doesn’t get in the way of my writing. And, TextMate makes the writing easy–as long as I know what I need to say!
Johanna Rothman from Managing Products Development (rss)

I consider TextMate one of my secret weapons as well. When it is easy to just create a new text file, I find I let fewer things slip through the cracks. What I love about TextMate is the add-in capabilities. If I need to sort everything line by line or wrap it in an html tag, TextMate makes this easy to do.

I think the would be surprised to find hardware on the list. That is, a blackboard and pen and paper. I use to write down notes, ideas and tasks that need my attention on those places, and it works.
Daniel Scocco from Daily Bits (rss)

What I don’t like about paper is that it doesn’t show up in my searches on my computer. Also my handwriting isn’t particularly great, so I don’t enjoy reading things I’ve written by hand. I do have a notebook that I keep with me and although I don’t use it much, it is a life saver for those times I need it.

TextEdit. It’s the most basic software and I use it the most often. All of my writing and coding is done in it — which is about 75 percent of my work product.
Erin PJDoland from Unclutterer (rss)

Before getting TextMate I used TextEdit. (For those of you unfamiliar with TextEdit, it is a simple open source text editor that comes with OS X.) For writing code, I usually use Eclipse for Java and vim for shorter scripts.

When I’m using TextEdit, I usually miss some of the shortcuts I use in TextMate for dealing with HTML, sorting, etc.

Haha… probably my Moleskine notebook. I’ve been a huge evangelist of online productivity tools, but when it comes to mapping ideas and being really creative, there is still nothing close to a blank sheet of paper and pen. You can just let the ideas flow straight on to the paper. Digital tools, although handy, still get in the way sometimes.
Glen Stansberry from LifeDev (rss)

I usually use paper as part of a thinking process. Ever since reading a book on Mindmapping back in highschool, I’ve found this an effective way of thinking. Interestingly when I’m composing music, I find that the actual creative aspect works best (for me) using just staff paper and a pencil. When I come back to edit or orchestrate I’ll use a notation program, but when it comes to writing melodies, the computer tends to get in the way of the creative process. I don’t find the same thing for the written word however.

Productivity501 Store

Productivity501 is launching a webstore with products specially selected to help make you more productive.  In particular be sure to check out the paperless category.

Here are some other items that might be of interest:

• Mozarts Brain and the Fighter Pilot - A great book about how the inner workings of the human mind.
• Hon Leather Chair - My personal favorite work chair that I’ve been using for over 5 years now.
• Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman - The biography of an incredibly gifted scientist.  It is sure to challenge the way you see the world around you.
• Mindmapping - This is the book I purchased years ago before taking an intense college history course that had been condensed down to seven eight-hour days.  Not only did the book help me pass the class, it changed the way I approached note taking.
• Blackberry 8830 - The most productive phone on the market.
• Garmin Nuvi - How I keep from wasting time getting lost while traveling.
• ScanSnap for Mac - The scanner I’m using for my paperless office.

The store isn’t huge because I tried to mainly stock it with items I use myself and related products. 

Tuesday’s Tip: Get a Good Pen

This may seem trivial and not even worth mentioning, but I think it is important. Your performance is related to how comfortable you are with your tools. Even if you spend most of your time on the computer, a good writing instrument is a necessary tool for getting work done.

Since you have to use a pen, you might as well get one that you like. This doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy a $50 ink pen (especially if you tend to lose them), but put a little thought into getting pens that you actually enjoy using. It is a small thing, but the happier you are the better your productivity.

Tuesday’s Tip: Using a Feed Reader

If you have more than one website that you check on a daily or weekly basis, this tip will help you. You probably don’t realize how much time is spent checking a website only to discover that nothing has been updated. You can reclaim this time with a feed reader.

Most website (including Productivity501) publish something called RSS feeds. These contain the text (or sometimes just summaries) of each article in a special format that is easy for another computer program to read. Programs that read these feeds are called RSS readers.

There are two types of feed readers. One is a program that actually runs on your computer. The other are web based programs like Google Reader.

The feed reader will periodically check for updates and download the new articles. You can look at a glance and see how many new articles you have to read and where they are from. Once you mark it as read the article disappears from the new section (it usually stays in an archive if you want to find it later). You can also mark feeds or all of your feeds as read so they don’t show up as new.

If you read more than one website on a consistent basis, you owe it to yourself to try out a feed reader for at least a week and see if it helps save you time and make you more productive.

Tuesday’s Tip: Ziplock Bags for Wires

When we were moving down to Mexico in October, I had several miles worth of various cables that I needed to take with me.  Network cables, audio cables, USB cables, adapters for various devices, etc.  At that point I just had them all thrown into a box and it looked like a huge rats nest.  I got to thinking about how it might look to a custom’s officer and decided I needed something that looked a little less disorganized.

My first idea was to wrap everything up with twist ties, but we didn’t have any.  So I eventually settled on using Ziplock sandwich bags.  It turned out that this worked even better than the ties because it keeps the cables separate so they can’t get tangled up in each other. If you wrap up a wire, put it in a bag and then push all the air out, it tends to stay wrapped up.  The clear bags let you easily find the right cable because you can see the ends without having to follow the wire manually to make sure it has the right connector on both sides.

People Who Come to Distract You

If you work in a traditional office it is likely that you deal with a lot of traffic in and out your door that is little more than distractions. Here are a few tips for keeping distracting people out of your office.

1. Don’t have a place for them to sit — If you have a chair, put a stack of books or papers on it. You can also keep a folding chair behind some furniture for the times you need it. It is much more difficult to get someone to leave once they have found a seat.
2. Stand and come out from behind your desk — If you conduct your conversation standing, it will likely be much shorter. This is a good thing to do before you know if they have something valuable or if they are just coming in to shoot the breeze. If you want them to stay, pull out a chair and return to your seat.
3. Meet them at the door – If you know someone is coming in to distract you, meet them at the door and suggest that they “walk with you” while you talk. You can head on an errand or to the restroom. If you are subtle, you might even be able to walk them back to their desk and then head back to your own office.
4. Uncomfortable chair — I have heard of people who cut the front legs of their guest chair off by a few inches so it leaned forward. They didn’t know why they were uncomfortable, but people stopped staying in his office for more than a few minutes and conversations were quick and to the point.
5. Take notes — When someone comes in, you will likely keep them much more focused if you pull out a pen and paper and take notes on what they are saying. They are unlikely to gossip or chit chat, if they see you are writing everything down.

Do you have any suggestions to add to this list. What other techniques have worked well for you?

Productivity Expert Interviews Recap

Back in June I contacted a number of individuals who run blogs about time management, personal productivity, and organization. I asked them all three questions and posted their answers along with my commentary.  If you haven’t read through these posts, I encourage you to check them out.  The different perspectives and opinions give a lot of insight into common problems and solutions with the way we all approach personal productivity.

1. What is the single biggest way people waste time without even realizing it?
2. What change has made the most difference in making you effective in life?
3. If someone were to read just one post from your site, which would you recommend they read and why?

Tuesday’s Tip: Movie List

Video rental stores are one of the most frustrating places for me. It always takes so long to find a movie and once I get to the store my mind goes blank of all the movies I want to see. On the other hand I really like services like NetFlix because they let you make a list of all the movies you want to see and then send them to you one at a time.

You can use this same idea to help you in the video store. I started keeping a file with a list of movies I want to see on it. When someone says that a movie is good, I just add it to my list. When we want to find something to watch, we use the list to find an appropriate movie for the evening. This has turned what use to be a 45 minute hunt through the video store into a 5 or 10 minute process.

The idea can be applied to other areas as well. When you find yourself struggling to make a decision, ask yourself if in the last 3 months you have had any conversations that would have helped you make your decision if you just remembered. Good restaurants to try, books to read, blogs to read, etc. are all great candidates for their own list.

Tuesday’s Tip: Dressed for Productivity

You’ve heard of “Dressed for Success” well what about “Dressed for Productivity”. I think that the way we dress can have a big impact on our performance. Where I went to college required that all the guys wear ties and all the gals wear dresses to class. There was quite a bit of debate among the students about whether this was really beneficial or not.

Many students met the dress code to the letter, but were extremely sloppy in the way that the were dressed. Overall it would probably be impossible to tell if having a dress code helped make anyone a better student (although it helped guarantee that all the guys knew how to tie a tie by the time they graduated.)

Personally though, I know that my performance is sometimes influenced by how I’m dressed. If I get dressed for business and feel business-like, I function better than if it is 1pm and I’m still working in my pajamas.

Even more important than how I feel is the way others respond to me based on the way I’m dressed. When you meet someone for the first time they make a whole slew of assumptions about you based on the available data. One of the easiest pieces of data to latch on to is how you are dressed. If you are dressed professionally, this influences their opinion about whether or not you are likely to behave professionally.

In fact, there was a study that showed students who were allowed to rate a college professor after only having watched a 30 second silent video of him teaching, gave the same rankings as students who sat in his class for an entire semester.

The point is that they were able to pickup enough information in just a few moments visually to form the same opinion as students who spent the entire semester in class–or perhaps their first opinions were so strong that an entire semester of teaching couldn’t shake what they initially had decided.

When someone sees you for the first time, they are going to make assumptions (right or wrong) about how you are dressed. These assumptions have a direct influence on how the person interacts with you. So if you dress like someone they would want to work with, you’ll find it much easier to get things done than if you don’t. Your productivity in the interaction is determined in a large way by how you dress.

This is easy to take advantage of. If you are going to a meeting, spend a few moments in the morning thinking about what others are likely to be wearing and how you can dress in a way that will make you as productive as possible. If it is something really important, you might even want to do some research to find out what is acceptable dress for particular situations. For example, if you are going for a job interview, it might not be a bad idea to find out how others dress that work in the position you are applying for. Better yet, if you can find out what the person interviewing you is likely to be wearing, you can adjust your wardrobe that day accordingly.

This method isn’t going to suddenly make you an extremely productive person, but if it helps you retain even 5% of opportunities you might have otherwise missed, it can make a big difference.

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