The secret of success: structure and discipline! (ITIL/ITSM people – are you listening?!) October 19, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in business, itil, itsm.Tags: capacity management, change management, IT Service Management, itil, service management, time management, value
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Today I chaired a meeting with 6 other entrepreneurs. (in my role as Forum chair for the Brisbane chapter of EO) The funny thing is that these entrepreneurs are very like-minded and they are all used to making the decisions.
But I didn’t prepare the meeting very well (these things happen) and the funny thing is: due to the lack of structure and strict timelines on the agenda we went 15 minutes over time.
Would the meeting be more valuable with the additional layer of structure and discipline? ABSOLUTELY! It seems contra-indicative, but the more structure and discipline you bring into an organisation the more you get done and the more satisfaction people get from doing it.
Same thing is true for the IT industry – from where I am standing I see a lot of time (and money) being wasted because of people going around and around in circles, going off on tangents due to a lack of structure in the organisation.
Think about it – when did you feel most valuable in your job? When you get a lot done! Most of the times this would be the day before you go on a holiday. You get so much done because your have your priorities straight, have a clear plan on what you want to achieve, have a vision of going home and leaving behind a clean desk and an empty inbox; and you structure your days around these disciplines…
So tomorrow – when you get back to work, just think about the benefits of structure and discipline when you do a walk-through of an ITIL process, embrace the benefits of discipline when you sit in on a CAB meeting.
Ultimately you will feel more valuable as a result of it.
Procrastination… why am I so good at it?! August 20, 2008
Posted by ivankamenken in Uncategorized.Tags: business, facebook, time management
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OK – today is a bit of soul searching… As I have mentioned before, I need to get the materials ready for the cloud computing workshop that I am running on Monday. The material MUST be ready by tomorrow… which gives me less than 12 hours to finish it!!
It is amazing.. I have tidied up my desk, cleaned my keyboard, made a full backup copy of my ‘my documents’ on our new ‘mybook’ external drive (amazing technology and I still can’t get over the fact that you can purchase 1 Terabyte of storage for less than $200!!!) and a million other things that are very important but have NOTHING to do with the workshop! Which reminds me… I need to update my facebook profile!
Why am I so good at procrastination? I would love to be more like my husband – he is so practical and disciplined. He has a list with things to do and he simply does them. Starts with number 1 and walks through the list… Drives me crazy!!!
Because this is what I do:
- I look at my todo list
- Do the fun jobs first
- Look at it again
- Add some little things that need to be done.. not important but definitely have to be done
- I do the new things I put on it
- Start on the important thing but get easily distracted
- look at todo list again
- add some stuff to the list
And this goes on and on… at the end of the day I have done a lot except for the ONE thing that I had to finish! Yes, the MUST BE DONE thing at the daily huddles works as I am now held accountable by my staff as it is pretty clear when I haven’t done the one thing that I had to finish… but usually it is the very last thing I do during the day… and it means that I will be home around 9pm again today..
You know? I think I am just afraid about finishing the thing… because it is better to sound really busy when people ask. What do I say when I have finished when they ask: “Hey Ivanka, how are you?” I can’t say – I am really busy - working on a deadline.
What will they say when I reply: “I am great! I finished all my important tasks for today and it isn’t even 11am yet!
Maybe it is the fear of not being taken seriously? That as a business owner and director you need to sound busy and important?
Hmmmm… that is not a fear I want to give in to! I am stronger than that! No more procrastination – I am going to finish what I start.
Gotta go… have a workshop to finish!
Ivanka
To do….. must be done August 15, 2008
Posted by ivankamenken in Uncategorized.Tags: goal, target, time management, todo
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Don’t you find that your TODO list keeps growing and growing? I know mine does… and I noticed that for a lot of people in my office the same was true.
Every day we start with a TODO list, only to find that by the end of the day most things are still on the list – and then some!
I think this might have something to do with how our brain works… I am no scientist or academic scholar, but I think that our brain tricks us into this false sense of security “it’s OK that you haven’t done this task yet, after all – it’s a TODO… it’s to be done sometimes in the future… not necessarily today”
My brain tells me this most of the time! (nasty little thing) so I decided to change the rules of the game. Not just for me but for everybody in the company:
Every day during our huddle we tell each other what we are working on and what our roadblocks are and we finish with one (1) thing that MUST BE DONE before the end of this working day. And the next day we tick it off the list. Did you do your ‘must be done’ yesterday? If not – why not? what happened? I thought it was a MUST be done…
This little game of changing semantics makes us focus on the one thing that is more important than anything else. I MUST finish this today to stay on track to achieve my target for today/this week/month/quarter/ year
It makes us think about the steps that are needed to stay on track and the things that need to be finished to achieve our goals.
It also stops the brain from playing games with me – every time it tries to tell me that it’s OK to procrastinate I say back to it: NO it is not a TODO… it’s a MUST be done today!
And you know what? It works!
Enjoy achieving your goals today – I know I am…
Ivanka
