Let me start with a question, "Do the URGENT tasks on your daily TO-DO list outnumber IMPORTANT tasks?". If your answer is in affirmative, or your TO-DO list has significant number of URGENT tasks, I personally feel that you may have a time management problem; petentially, if not in actual.
The reason for this understanding is very simple, URGENCY is linked with time. That is, either we have the paucity of time, or the time to complete the URGENT task is in immediate future. What it means that either you had not planned for it, or because of short sightedness / environmental factors, we have to expedite the urgent task. In either case, this can only be done by dedicating resources to address the urgent task.
We may decide to either re-allocate the resources from current allocations, or we may dedicate spare resources (if any). The fact of the matter is, in order to complete the urgent task we need to either disturb the current allolcation or allocate additional resources. This way either we adversely impact the tasks from where the resources has been taken, or we increase the cost of allocation.
This happens because all of us operate under given constraints, and performance is optimized (at least tried to) within given constraints. Therefore, any increased demand on resources would need either a shift in the constraint boundary, or re-allocation witihn pre-defined constraints.
Big deal; re-allocation solves the problem, so what is the hitch? Well, re-allocation solves your urgent problem; however, has the potential to make other task(s) (from where the resources have been drawn) urgent. Thereby trapping us in a vicious cycle of attending to urgent tasks.
So, is there any way out? Yes, and No. Well, what I meant was that Yes, we can address those as long as those are exceptions, and No, if those become norm.
Therefore, the key is,
1) Keep your urgent tasks to minimum, if could not be donw away with completely
2) The re-allocation of resources should be judicious, and should be as per your set priorities
3) Since not everything can be controlled, therefore, communicate the impact arising out of urgency; it will help in answering the re-prioritization and adverse impact
4) Understand that no one can do all the tasks on their own, therefore, direct, guide, support, and delegate. How effective that would be, would depend on your understanding of "readiness"
5) Optimize resource allocation - as per importance / significance
6) Monitor the progress, and control the variations
7) Refine your prediction and allocation of resources by keeping in mind your "effective capacity", and not through theoretical or available capacity, and feeding back the data back into system
Now, let me develop it a little further from s/w project perspective. Many of us have an understanding that identification, definition, allocation, sequencing, execution and control of activities, is time management. In a way, it is true because this is what exactly what we saw so far in this article. However, sometimes this understanding is limited to schedule of a project alone. Still fine, as long as we understand that limited scope from a project perspective, and we operate in a wider scope.
In nutshell, it would be a mystery, as along as we spend significant amount of our time on urgent tasks rather than on important tasks.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Time - Is it the deciding factor in marketing?
On the face of it, the answer is 'YES'; it is the deciding factor. To substantiate the claim we can sight numerous examples from various industries, e.g.
1) Instant noodles - Easy to cook and Ready to eat
2) Ready made curries - Heat it and Eat it
3) Pain killers - Relief from pain within Minutes (or whatever the duration is)
4) Car servicing - Reliable, Same Day service with free Pick-up and drop off
5) Customer Service - Guarenteed within 30 seconds attendance of call
6) S/W Implementation - Quality, with reduced Cost and Cycle-time
7) Courier Service - Guarenteed same day delivery
.... and the list goes on.
You must have noticed, the above points have some words in bold. That is done to highlight one thing, be it product or service, the time as a differentiator makes sense when combined with the main satisfying need / requirement.
In some cases it was convenience, in some it was quality, and yet in others it was the reliability, and so forth. The time was a differentiator, because it was able to satisfy the underlying main need / requirement.
On it's own it can't survive; however, mix it with a underlying need, and you have a potent weapon in your armour. Therefore, first address the underlying need and then stress upon time factor. Can segment have any influence on time, think about it?
1) Instant noodles - Easy to cook and Ready to eat
2) Ready made curries - Heat it and Eat it
3) Pain killers - Relief from pain within Minutes (or whatever the duration is)
4) Car servicing - Reliable, Same Day service with free Pick-up and drop off
5) Customer Service - Guarenteed within 30 seconds attendance of call
6) S/W Implementation - Quality, with reduced Cost and Cycle-time
7) Courier Service - Guarenteed same day delivery
.... and the list goes on.
You must have noticed, the above points have some words in bold. That is done to highlight one thing, be it product or service, the time as a differentiator makes sense when combined with the main satisfying need / requirement.
In some cases it was convenience, in some it was quality, and yet in others it was the reliability, and so forth. The time was a differentiator, because it was able to satisfy the underlying main need / requirement.
On it's own it can't survive; however, mix it with a underlying need, and you have a potent weapon in your armour. Therefore, first address the underlying need and then stress upon time factor. Can segment have any influence on time, think about it?
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