Last week was just one of "those" weeks. Demand for delivery, both at home and work, went through the roof and everything was needed to be done by the end of day yesterday.
Times like these heighten calls for efficiency, efficacy and a sense of enlightenment. A very pertinent question also gets raised: How do we accomplish everything that we need to in a very limited amount of time?
There can be a lot of right answers for the question I pose. One of them could be to get a bigger pool of resources. Another way could be to set real expectations with the stakeholders to begin with. Yet another technique might be to do what some of us usually do - extend our day ad-infinitum and "get it done"!
We have realized, more at home than work, that there might be another possible course of action that we can take. There are situations, which we face almost everyday, where preemptive action can help us tremendously. For example, we know that our son requires a set of things for his day care. Instead of waiting to pack his things when they are needed, i.e. in the morning, can we get some things done at night? Sure. Would that give us more time in the morning to, let us say, get to work on time? Yes. Then the exercise turns to answering another question: Are there other things that we can accomplish, in anticipation of their demand, before the demand really appears? The answer is mostly in the affirmative, with caveats and barring exceptions of course.
Having learned this lesson at home, I tried to take it to work. What part of my weekly (or daily) work can be done before someone asks for it? If there are, let us say, 3 meetings that I need to attend at work each for an hour, can I put that time in into my time sheet (due weekly) before the meeting (caveat: editing of the time may be required if the meetings run longer or takes less time than anticipated)? I would think so. Doing this might help me in the long run because I would have to spend less time when I finalize the time sheet for submission. I would definitely like that.
The same rule, of preemption, can be followed at a lot of different levels. For example, communication to and from a team to stakeholders can be to let them know of something that is about to happen (good or bad) to rule out any surprises.
Preemption may not always be possible or feasible. There are times, however, when accomplishing things before they are needed to be done can lead to a couple of goals that what we all strive for:
Times like these heighten calls for efficiency, efficacy and a sense of enlightenment. A very pertinent question also gets raised: How do we accomplish everything that we need to in a very limited amount of time?
There can be a lot of right answers for the question I pose. One of them could be to get a bigger pool of resources. Another way could be to set real expectations with the stakeholders to begin with. Yet another technique might be to do what some of us usually do - extend our day ad-infinitum and "get it done"!
We have realized, more at home than work, that there might be another possible course of action that we can take. There are situations, which we face almost everyday, where preemptive action can help us tremendously. For example, we know that our son requires a set of things for his day care. Instead of waiting to pack his things when they are needed, i.e. in the morning, can we get some things done at night? Sure. Would that give us more time in the morning to, let us say, get to work on time? Yes. Then the exercise turns to answering another question: Are there other things that we can accomplish, in anticipation of their demand, before the demand really appears? The answer is mostly in the affirmative, with caveats and barring exceptions of course.
Having learned this lesson at home, I tried to take it to work. What part of my weekly (or daily) work can be done before someone asks for it? If there are, let us say, 3 meetings that I need to attend at work each for an hour, can I put that time in into my time sheet (due weekly) before the meeting (caveat: editing of the time may be required if the meetings run longer or takes less time than anticipated)? I would think so. Doing this might help me in the long run because I would have to spend less time when I finalize the time sheet for submission. I would definitely like that.
The same rule, of preemption, can be followed at a lot of different levels. For example, communication to and from a team to stakeholders can be to let them know of something that is about to happen (good or bad) to rule out any surprises.
Preemption may not always be possible or feasible. There are times, however, when accomplishing things before they are needed to be done can lead to a couple of goals that what we all strive for:
- Success, and more importantly
- Satisfaction
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