After I wrote the last blog, I started reading this book- Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers: by Robert Kriegel,David Brandt.
They talk more in depth about what I said in the blog– about how people don’t take time to switch between different sides of their brain- right and left (creative and analytical sides). They provide an example of a guy who plays golf in office every time his brain feels overloaded.
The authors put their finger on a very common problem in the corporate world today- overwork in a changing environment. When people try to do too much- they do too little and they do it wrong.
They advocate a kind of 80-20 principle. That is, make a list of all the things you need to do and knock off the bottom 20%. That way you feel you have less to do. You also, take more care in doing your work without messing it up.
Take Sushma, for example. What does she do when she finds work load is too much? She throws herself into her work like an athlete attacking the high jump pole. She emerges at the end of the day, only 50% of the work done but 110% exhausted. Some of it is very low quality work, because she is thinking of what she needs to do next…
Instead, what if, as soon as the extra work appears on the horizon, she just stops work? Is that a good idea? No…its a great idea!
She would probably play a game of FreeCell or drink some Masala Chai or play golf or read forwards in her mail box…what ever relaxes her. Not all of it at once and not for too long…just enough so that she feels in control and not “panicky”.
While her right brain is creatively engaged in “timepass” activities, her subconscious is solving the problem. She realizes that if she does jobs B and D assigned to her today, 80% of her work would be done. A, C and E can easily be done later. In fact, she can assign C to someone else. A is not at all urgent and E need not even be done!
This E in fact is the “sacred cow” the book talks about. An activity which has been done for so long that people do not even question it. It may be outdated and a complete waste of time. A process which wastes a gazillion man hours or a review that takes ages and produces no result…
Eliminating such “sacred cows” can free up time to do more productive activities like –making customers happy, getting a new sale or contributing to the profits.
So now, you can also justify why you went out to watch a movie in the middle of work. "I was working using my subconscious" you can say...
They talk more in depth about what I said in the blog– about how people don’t take time to switch between different sides of their brain- right and left (creative and analytical sides). They provide an example of a guy who plays golf in office every time his brain feels overloaded.
The authors put their finger on a very common problem in the corporate world today- overwork in a changing environment. When people try to do too much- they do too little and they do it wrong.
They advocate a kind of 80-20 principle. That is, make a list of all the things you need to do and knock off the bottom 20%. That way you feel you have less to do. You also, take more care in doing your work without messing it up.
Take Sushma, for example. What does she do when she finds work load is too much? She throws herself into her work like an athlete attacking the high jump pole. She emerges at the end of the day, only 50% of the work done but 110% exhausted. Some of it is very low quality work, because she is thinking of what she needs to do next…
Instead, what if, as soon as the extra work appears on the horizon, she just stops work? Is that a good idea? No…its a great idea!
She would probably play a game of FreeCell or drink some Masala Chai or play golf or read forwards in her mail box…what ever relaxes her. Not all of it at once and not for too long…just enough so that she feels in control and not “panicky”.
While her right brain is creatively engaged in “timepass” activities, her subconscious is solving the problem. She realizes that if she does jobs B and D assigned to her today, 80% of her work would be done. A, C and E can easily be done later. In fact, she can assign C to someone else. A is not at all urgent and E need not even be done!
This E in fact is the “sacred cow” the book talks about. An activity which has been done for so long that people do not even question it. It may be outdated and a complete waste of time. A process which wastes a gazillion man hours or a review that takes ages and produces no result…
Eliminating such “sacred cows” can free up time to do more productive activities like –making customers happy, getting a new sale or contributing to the profits.
So now, you can also justify why you went out to watch a movie in the middle of work. "I was working using my subconscious" you can say...
Posts
