The Usual Suspects

Fri April 23, 2010

As a bonus, this week I wrote another piece- extension on Manage Smart. Aka time drainers these are habits weaved in our lives that suck on time like a parasite! Spot them and flog them on SPOT. Some of my detested ones.

a) Smsing in the same room-don’t bother smsing back unless urgent and important.
b) Repetition. Do it once and do it well. Make it a policy to edit and finalize tasks as they occur. These suspects also take shape of lingering decisions, prolonged ‘discussions’ and unclosed decisions
c) Search killers. Similar to repetition yet important to deserve a separate bullet is our important R&D. Prior any assignment, I search like no Google tomorrow. And of course because I have no time, dump the search in an obscure folder guaranteed to never be of use again. Organize search to expand current and save future time.
d) Save the tough for the last. Wrong. Tough is top!
e) Aloo gosht conversations. Hi hellos, weather, gossip and alas, vague feel talk. These endless communications serve no purpose, drain energy and distract immensely.
f) Lameness of sameness. In school I hung out with the same gang post 2. In college, post 4. At work 6. Same people. Same topics. This naturally comfortable phenomena wreck time balance. Diversity of people results in diversity of tasks done.
g) Set minds. Sometimes our mind is the most usual suspect. Common crimes:
i) Weekend boundaries- inability to understand the weekend is the break from work.
ii) I don’t have time. With this belief 100 hours are not enough.
iii) Time spent is directly proportional to significance. It’s not. It IS proportional to excuses, ill balance, inefficiency and others. I met a friend after quite a while and in a room full of people, we felt we are on our own, connected and entranced by our own conversation! Quality over quantity!
h) LS: listing syndrome. I suffered this. I had lists for my lists and I spend more time making them than working. Einstein said I would spend 95 out of 100 minutes analyzing a problem and 5 to solve it. Understand the difference between understanding a task and listing a task.
i) More. When something/someone is fun, inspiring etc, it’s natural to want more. Learn to say no to yourself and others, NO MORE please.
j) Problem participant. They are like a presenter’s difficult audience. They want help, advice, share, time- all the time. Tip. Give them the edge of responsibility and learn to assertively ignore.
k) Indulging in usual suspects. Don’t tackle these slowly with love. State your purpose and intent to make most of everyone’s time. Be guiltless. And steer clear.

Till next weekend. Always Ajju