Understanding your Job

Back in February I wrote a post about transitioning your job effectively to a new person.  I have used the same concepts and approach when helping people be more effecient and effective at their jobs as well.  What I find is that people don’t fully grasp all of the things they really do in a given day (or week, month).  Once they write it all down and analyze what they are doing is when an increase in productivity can be seen.

The tricky part is analyzing what you do and finding areas that can be improved.  People can be so deep in their work they can’t see around it – bringing in another person, which is the role I have played, is extremely benficial.

Original Post – here

photo credit: beija-flor

My Twitter account is unlocked

My Twitter account   billweber that is tied to my primary email has been unlocked/unfrozen/whatever and I can start to play around with it.  Most of my readers are people I know anyway so feel free to follow me and I will do the same.

Back to the Grind

The golf trip was great – weather between 65 and 75 and sunny everyday, very windy at times but I’ll take it.  Overall I played pretty well shooting scores of 93, 84, 88, 86 and 97.  We played 36 holes on the 19th and 20th and 18 holes on the 21st.  My hands and forearms were pretty fatigued by the time we played the last 18 – the score of 97 should make that obvious.  My chipping the last day was terrible, tired hands made for lots of chunked chips and poor distance control around the greens.

There were many highlights – nailing my new hybrid from about 210 yards and just missing a 25 footer for eagle, a 9 iron from 135 yards to within 2-3 feet, made a few 10-15 foot putts and lots of 280+ yard drives.  Overall I averaged 89.6 for all of my rounds – the last round of 97 raised that average 2 strokes.  I track my scores at freegolfinfo.com (not sure of another good free tracking service) and it calculates my handicap at 15.5 right now… I’ll take that.

Pictures from the trip after the jump…

I am Going on Vacation

I heading to Manning, South Carolina for a golf trip with a few buddies of mine Wednesday through Sunday – can’t wait.  I purchased a new hybrid and putter but it is highly unlikely I will get to hit them before I leave – they arrive via UPS tomorrow.  I should be able to get on a driving range while I am there and hit the hybrid around.  I am taking my old putter so if I can’t get comfortable with the new one quickly I can swap it for the old one.  The weather is supposed to be fantastic all weekend – Thur 75/some clouds,  Fri 58/some clouds,  Sat 65/sunny.  Little chilly on Friday, but 58 feels like 80 given the weather in Cleveland lately.  I have only played one golf course outside of Ohio (Kentucky) which is crazy considering I have been playing golf for probably 15 years.

I’ll post some pictures, course reviews and comments on the villa we are staying in when I get back.

-Bill

photo credit: hopvietravel.com

I Want to Twitter!

Over a year ago I signed up for a twitter account with my gmail account and off I was – well not really.  I  knew nothing about it, what it was good for or what to do with it.  Well lots of people seem to be twitting (tweeting? twittering? tweet-meeting?) or something like that and I want to figure out what it is all about.  Somewhere along the line my account was deleted (I assume I did this and just don’t remember) – so I followed the restore your account rule here… and nothing.  It says 4 to 6 weeks… yikes!

Any tips or help you can offer?

- Bill Weber

Dropbox – 2GB online storage, no gimmicks

Came across this earlier this weekend and wanted to share – Dropbox.  Dropbox gives you 2GB of storage for your files – you can upload/download via browser or you can install their software (no ads, or spyware) that will allow for drag and drop features on your PC or Mac.  They offer a 50GB account for $9.99 per month or $99 per year.  My flash drive is 2GB so the free account should suit me just fine.  But if you are a pack rat or have large files to share – $100 is reasonable.

I have seen lots of these services that are tied to Microsoft Live (an account I don’t use) or similar – this one isn’t.  Until Google allows me to use my gmail space or google docs space for all kinds of files, I will stick with Dropbox.

Also – use this link when you sign-up and get 256MB more storage space.  I will get 256MB more as well so it is a win-win situation.  Referrals are limited to an extra 3GB – meaning after 24 referrals I could have as much as 5GB of storage space – awesome.  Anyone can refer so if you get referrals after you sign-up you can have more storage space as well.

- Bill Weber

Take Control of Your Schedule

The entire time I was reading this article I was in awe – what an awesome way to take back control of your day at the office.  It is a 5 to 10 minute read and worth every minute.

Thinking through the feasibility of setting boundaries of when you are available, when you are not available, when you are open for meetings and for how long… may be a stretch for some.  However, the point is not to copy and paste this example into your life – but there are pieces and parts that may provide a bunch of structure in your day and at the same time provide what seems like an unlimited amount of freedom.

I originally read this on the David Allen blog – RSS feeds here.

- Bill Weber

photo credit: jay_que

Watch it Grow

I added a page to the main navigation to track the progress of my desk plant with pictures – “Watch it Grow“.  Stupid – maybe.  Interesting in 6 months – maybe.  This is a lot like project 365 except I am not always at our Independence, OH location where my desk is.  I float between Independence and Beachwood locations. So each day I am at my desk I will snap a picture, probably 3-4 times per week.

It’s a spider plant baby from a larger one plant at home.

Link to the Page

- Bill Weber

Getting Things Done – Almost Done!

I am near complete with the re-reading of David Allen’s Getting Things Done .  I am at the beginning of chapter 9 “Doing: Making the Best Action Choices” and have about 65 pages remaining the book.  While reading last night, I came across this sentence – “If you have a bunch of things to do on one to-list, but you actually can’t do many of them in the same context, you force yourself to continually keep reconsidering all of them.” This really hit home for me.  I know my biggest obstacle to overcome is thinking of things in context (tasks grouped by how/when you can do them) – Calls, At Computer, Errands, At Home, Work, etc.

I am still living in the one to-do list world for the time being.  I am slowly but surely starting to incorporate GTD into my workflow… and yea, it’s a bit uncomfortable.  I relate it to golf.  In golf lots of things are “backwards” – you hit down on the ball to make it go up, you hit the ball from the left side and it goes right to left, you hit it from the right side and it goes left to right – doesn’t FEEL right.  I am figuring out, much like golf, you have to trust what you are doing is correct.

I will check back in in the next week or so, I imagine I will have the book complete by then.  I am looking forward to implementing more and more of the workflow changes to my daily life.

- Bill Weber

photo credit: sookie

Creating a Transition Plan – Effectively Moving On

In a fast paced consulting environment it is very common for resources to change projects several times per year – especially for junior resources.  Commonly, at Rosetta, we are asking junior level business analysts to assume more responsibility so more experienced business analysts can take on more value-add roles with our clients. This is the basic leverage model of many consulting firms.

This presents a real challenge for the person “rolling off” the project – you must…
1. continue to operate at a high level on your current engagement
2. effectively transition your current responsibilities to someone else
3. quickly become effective on your new engagement

In this post, I will visit item #2 – effectively transitioning your current responsibilities to someone else.  I believe that, of the three points above, this is the most critical.  Being effective at #2, will allow for minimal impact to your current engagement (#1) and maximum impact to your new engagement (#3).

There are three keys to an effective transition…
1. Task Transfer
2. Shadowing
3. Structured Oversight