Strategies To Maximize Time – Part 1

Posted on 8 April, 2011 at 11:45 PM by with Leave a Comment

Time_Management

There is no denying in the truth of the saying, “Time is precious.”

You never seem to get enough of time. Even if you are given thirty hours in a day, you still won’t be able to get enough of it. Somehow, some things will come up and you will end up wanting more time. Time is a precious commodity. Once it’s gone, it cannot be recovered.

The fact is: when you are busy, time flies swiftly. But when you are not, time seems to be at a standstill. This is true when you are killing time because there is nothing else to do under the circumstances.

How do you maximize the use of your time? It would be worth your time to consider the following strategies:

  1. Check your schedule at the start of the day. Review it in its entirety. You may notice that portions of your day may be hectic, while some may not be too frenzied. Distribute your activities evenly throughout the day.
  2. Keep note pads handy so you can keep track of your schedule. It also helps to remind you of your tasks and commitments. Note pads and schedule notebooks help you avoid overlapping of activities. In case of overlaps, determine which one is priority.
  3. After spreading your schedule for the day and you still feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks to be accomplished, you may have to forgo some of them. Re-schedule other tasks for another day.
  4. What you are actually doing is very much like cleaning a closet. When your closet is in order, you avoid being accidentally hit on the head by falling objects upon opening its door. Also, if it is in order, you will likely find spare spaces available.
Articles, Lessons Learned

Are you a Leader or a Servant?

Posted on 1 April, 2011 at 11:45 PM by with Leave a Comment

Leaders don’t stay at the top. They go down with the people below and trying to bring his team up. If you are just staying at the top, arm folded and looked down at the team. You are not a good leader. Leaders should always add value to the team. You may be a good manager because you know your job well.

You are not a good leader because you cannot lead a team. So what if you can manage, your team is not following you. You can escalate the matter to the higher management. As a person, you are not able to lead the team, simple as that. Your leadership skill in business world is not the same as in military. You can’t raise your voice and the team will follow. Business world requires soft skill.

Needs to climb the mountain of obstacles together. Not alone. TEAM work is required.

TEAM – Together Everyone Achieves More

There is a project coordinator, Jenny (Not real name) was one typical example for lacking leadership. When she first came on board to the organization, there was no proper process, no procedures. She hit many walls by asking many departments how to do the job properly.

As the project management team grew, the boss would like to set up a proper Project Management Office.

Her boss would like to give her a more high profile Project Management Office duty, thus had recruited an assistant, Gina (Not real name) to help her in the normal administration work.

In a logical sense, Jenny should be passing all the knowledge to Gina, so that Jenny can focus on her high profile administrative duties. Unfortunately, the knowledge was not passed totally. It was handed over partially instead. Jenny just gave Gina high level steps, understanding and expected Gina to explore or find out how to do the work herself. This caused Gina to be very lost. When Gina approached Jenny for queries, Jenny will raise her voice and replied. Gina was hurt.

Nothing was done, but relationship soured.

This simple scenario showed that Jenny’s poor leadership skill. She had not showed her team the proper guidance to do the job. When Gina approached Jenny for assistance; that means Jenny had not passed the knowledge fully to Gina and that is why Gina is not able to proceed with the work. Jenny should pass all information, knowledge to Gina and check with her that she is informed of all things.

If Gina is not comfortable with the knowledge. She should ask. And Jenny, being the superior should be more patient to the team member and not throw temper at her team.

Lessons Learned: If you want to delegate duties to others, ensure the recipient are well-equipped with relevant tools and knowledge. Or else when the team member leaves the organization, you will have to recruit someone else and start the training all over again. The cycle will repeats. That is not fruitful and unproductive.

Articles, Leadership, Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned in Cloud Computing

Posted on 25 March, 2011 at 11:45 PM by with Leave a Comment

New technology appears every time and always be gearing towards enhancement.

Cloud Computing is the new trend in the IT industry.
What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. A cloud service has three distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting. It is sold on demand, typically by the minute or the hour; it is elastic — a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time; and the service is fully managed by the provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access). Significant innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, as well as improved access to high-speed Internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing.

Clients will subscribe to the hosting service, thus reducing the capital investment.

If the trend is moving toward this direction, in fact, it IS right now.

There will be 2 angles at looking this technology.

From Business point of view,

  • Companies need not to engage much manpower to maintain the hardware, (especially the in-house team). Fewer manpower is required. Most of the services are hosted in the service provider.
  • It is a reduced expenditure on capital assets. The company will have little hardware to take care. Pay the hosted service and the business is on.
  • Justifiable to management that it is an Operating expense rather than Capital expense. Companies will need not to or reduced stress over the depreciation cost, maintenance cost, number of license count and so forth.
  • Company IT infrastructure are simpler, just direct , sufficient access to the service provider and need not worry about the equipment hats needs to invest.

From employees perspective

  • Many people will soon be out of employment, lesser manpower is required, because of the in-house works / efforts are outsourced to service provider
  • Lesser job opportunities are available in the company. Older workers will have to upgrade themselves in order to stay relevant in the job

Lessons Learned:

When technology automates, it does ease everyone by not capturing anything manual and even a manpower reduction.

The downside of it is, there will be a trade-off for manpower. Most of the services are outsourced to service providers. Thus, the unemployment rate will rise. Older staffs will need to upgrade themselves academically or technically in order to stay relevant in the job.

Looking at the other side, there is no requirement for more headcounts to service the internal assets.

With human around, there is always some kind of negativeness, such as low productivity, efficiency, performance and so forth.

How are you going to measure a person’s productivity, efficiency or other means. There are also intangible benefits like well versed process & procedures, internal security etc.

Articles, Employment, Lessons Learned
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