Entries from December 2007 ↓

How to attract best talent? What is my next job like? Salary is a huge factor but not the only one. Would I work for tons of money doing job I hate? For me the answer is "no". I turned down few big $$ offers, no regrets. I did so since offered job or the culture did not resonate with me enough. Values represent what I am, it represent what organizational culture is like. It must match. These are my current values.

• Be on the edge – constantly learn and research, never stop learning. Self improvement is never ending process.
• Loyalty – know your alma mater’s strengths and weaknesses. Be honest with the customers for both.
• Share the knowledge among the team and with the customers – do not keep anything under my sleeves.
• Provide first class service – strive to exceed your customers’ expectations.
• Look for new opportunities – be thirsty to explore new challenging horizons. Doing the same is boring.
• Optimize processes – internal and with the customers, save on logistics and other non-productive activities. Focus on results and less the processes.
• Invest in high ROI activities – be impactful.
• Open discussions – establish shared vision.
• Flat organization  - no bosses and reports, only team players and roles and their respective accountabilities.

Recruiters - make sure to review it before calling me, potential candidates too.

“Things only have the value that we give them” -  Moliere

Lifehacker published motivation post that became a true hit. It is Jerry’s Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret.  Quote from the post:

He [Jerry] said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."

"Don’t break the chain," he said again for emphasis

I adopted it to myself. And then adapted it a bit to my needs:

• I blocked 1 hour each day for blogging – either writing or related activities. Researching, link building, etc.
• I set the rule that I’m ready to post another post only when I have another in the pipeline – not the idea but completely written one. Now here is the situation – imagine I have written post ready to be posted, my hands are itchy to hit “Publish” button, but NO – there is the rule - I need to write another one. No second post in the pipeline, no publish. The only way out is writing another one.
• Here is the best part. When another post is complete I enjoy twice – once for hitting the "Publish" button and twice for another post being completed.

This techniques turns out to be very motivating and productive. I started to publish more frequently. Thanks, Jerry!

Meetings are the biggest waste of time. Lowest ROI ever. Here is what is needed to set and run the meeting:

• Waste time trying to find available time slot suitable for every attendee.
• Waste time coordinating the room.
• Waste time traveling to the meeting place.
• Waste time for unnecessary small talk at the beginning of the meeting.
• Waste time during the meeting to get back on track only because somebody decided to raise another unplanned topic.
• Waste time arguing who’s to summarize the meeting.
• Wasting time after the meeting to clarifying the summary.
• Wasting time traveling back from the meeting.

Is not it a pure waste of time?

But there are a cases when meetings are unavoidable. This is what I do to make most of it:

• Try to avoid it at any cost and suggest alternative communication channels. I always prefer using email. Phone calls yet another evil.
• Start meeting exactly at the time it was scheduled. Do not wait for those who are late. Those who come on time do not have to suffer.
• Make sure I know exactly who attends the meeting. Helps avoid attending meetings that have no impact.
• Define clear agenda beforehand and distribute to the attendees. Helps preparing better for the meeting. Meeting becomes more focused thus productive. "This is what we are going to discuss".
• Set clear goals/outcomes for the meeting. Helps stay on track and reduces noises. "This is what we need to get out of the meeting".
• Summarize action items during the meeting. Saves time for summaries afterwards. Helps avoiding roundtrips for refining the summary.
• Make sure action items identify clear outcome, responsible person, due date/time. Helps avoiding misunderstandings. "Persona A does B due to date C".
• As the meeting ends - read aloud the summary, and after everyone agrees just send it out.
• Finish the meeting exactly by the meeting’s scheduled end time. It should carry out the message "I appreciate my own and the attendees time".

I follow simple rules to make sure I invest my time only in most important things. These simple rules keep me from wasting my time on non-important activities. Focusing only on important activities helps me getting results in less time and with less effort. Here are the rules:

• Define important categories. For example, my important categories are Family, Finance, each Customer is a category, Blogging, Personal Development, and some other. This can a be a good start to define your categories.
• Define outcomes/results/achievements/deliverables in each category. For example, conduct service A for customer B by Date C. Have another baby. Write and publish 1 professional blog post and 1 personal blog post tomorrow. It must be measurable and timely.
• Allocate time for each category. Block time beforehand for each category. This keeps me from using great excuses like "if I only had time for this…".
• Prioritize activities in each category. Each category has a list of tasks/activities to complete. When dedicated to either category I pick the activity that gets me closer to the outcome faster or with less effort.

Once I know what I need to do [activity/task] I can estimate required time and block it appropriately.

That is it. As simple as that. The biggest trick is sticking to these simple rules which is pretty hard. I wish I had a dog to watch me follow the rules [from "4 hour workweek" by Tim Ferris]:

This simple practice keeps me away from workaholism, I spend much more time with my family, I breath with full chest and my mind is clear.

“Man must be disciplined, for he is by nature raw and wild” - Immanuel Kant

  I removed all email notifications in my Outlook. It keeps me from being distracted when new email arrives. I am human being and I cannot suppress the basic instinct of curiosity to check what is in the Inbox when I get notified about new email. When email notifications are off, there is a better chance I will keep my work in focused uninterrupted way. Low context switching, less warm-ups, better results in less time.

To disable email notifications in MS Outlook 2007:

• Tools -> Options…
• In Preferences tab hit “E-mail Options…” button.
• Hit “Advanced E-mail Options…”.
• Clear all options in “When new items arrive in my Inbox” as show in the picture above.