How to work smart

[tim@taskwise]

To me a very clean and tidy office shows me that the person who works in it has nothing to do, (no disrespect to you). So as you see an untidy place as disorganized I see a tidy place as some one who has no work, and why does he have no work?.

No problem no offence taken. We run a very successful software company and I can assure you I have plenty to do on a daily basis. One of the directions we have tried to adopt as company policy is to create a paperless environment. A lot of my work is accomplished remotely, so the ability to access information via my computer is essential. I do except that due to the nature of some organisations workflow, that this is not always possible, but I do believe that a computer is a more efficient place to store and archive business information in comparison to a messy desk.

If we were to look at how much time is spent locating documents on a messy desk and multiple that over a working year, I am confident that the average person would find that they have probably spent the best part of a working week trying to find stuff, multiple this by 50 staff members and you have just lost a year of productivity.

[Dave A]

If we were to look at how much time is spent locating documents on a messy desk and multiple that over a working year, I am confident that the average person would find that they have probably spent the best part of a working week trying to find stuff, multiple this by 50 staff members and you have just lost a year of productivity.

And it's any different when those documents are electronic? The amount of time I spend scratching around for files on my PC at times is beserk

[Justloadit]

No problem no offence taken. We run a very successful software company and I can assure you I have plenty to do on a daily basis. One of the directions we have tried to adopt as company policy is to create a paperless environment. A lot of my work is accomplished remotely, so the ability to access information via my computer is essential. I do except that due to the nature of some organisations workflow, that this is not always possible, but I do believe that a computer is a more efficient place to store and archive business information in comparison to a messy desk.

If we were to look at how much time is spent locating documents on a messy desk and multiple that over a working year, I am confident that the average person would find that they have probably spent the best part of a working week trying to find stuff, multiple this by 50 staff members and you have just lost a year of productivity.

Whilst I agree when you are referring to software, my software is well organized in my PC's, the problem is that the majority of staff cannot speak the English language, never mind spell, so it would be a mountainous task to get them to even find today's date on a PC screen, never mind a file somewhere on the hard drive by using the search function.

It is far easier to have a schematic on paper of an existing piece of equipment, with pen marks making corrections that exist on the PCB, than having a corrected drawing on a PC screen, in which you have no idea where the corrections are. It takes far longer to attempt this on a screen especially as most of the files are in its native format, or the closest being a PDF file.

As is usually said, different strokes for different folks.

It all depends in the kind of environment one works in. Try and repair a machine in the field, using a PC screen as your point of information where you may have 20 to 30 pages of schematics, one leading onto the next - virtually impossible.

[flaker]

thread is a wholly mess

Am now trying to make sense of this thread.am i seeing in somebody's post that this is right and in another post that same is wrong or is it that my medication is now kicking in.....

[Dave A]

You see mess - I see creativity in action

[Martinco]

Am now trying to make sense of this thread.am i seeing in somebody's post that this is right and in another post that same is wrong or is it that my medication is now kicking in.....

Well, this is it ! No two people can be alike and everybody does things he or she finds best. How boring would the world be if all people were the same but as Murdock said...............there are always things that one can strive to improve on. ( Obviously in your own eyes! )

[flaker]

You see mess - I see creativity in action

Then it just had to be my medication last nite

[tim@taskwise]

Well, ladies and gents we have definetley opened up a can of worms here..

[wynn]

My wife does not believe I keep my desk tidy, I think I should let it get really untidy so that she can see what that means.

Just because I have three piles of paper that are not squared away does not mean my desk is untidy, I have one for filing that has been actioned, one for action, one for looking at in due course.

Just because I have papers I am working on and plates of food and cups of coffee all over the three piles is not a sign of untidyness but genius at work.

[Dave A]

The question I find I'm asking myself on this "creative untidiness" issue runs something along these lines:

Yes, creativity does have a disorderly stage. But at some point you have to bring order to move "creativity" to "productivity", surely?

If that's true, is the "I'm untidy because it's part of my creativity" argument valid?

Is the simple truth really that you don't tidy up after yourself when you're done?

I know this much - when I sit down to "be creative", I like clear space to work on and no distractions. From there it can degenerate to organised chaos, but at some point order emerges - I'll step back and go "now that really works!" And deliver an organised product.

The scratchings and workings left on the desk at that point can go in the bin.
It doesn't - it tends to sit in a pile somewhere "just in case" I need to tinker, or reference something.
But sooner or later that's it's ultimate destination.

And I know it even as I leave it lying there.

[Justloadit]

Hi Dave,

You are then saying that every creative idea you have had/done has been singular,and has been an immediate product, and that the creative time is a short span.

I find that I may have 5 or 6 creative ideas running at the same time, but are at different stages of completion. In other words, there are creative ideas that can take years to complete. I have a product now which took 7 years to get to the stage that it is now saleable, and first runs are being exported right now for market exposure. Now I did not work on this every day for the seven years, but it had is times on which I worked on it, made some prototypes, did some field trials, and came back for more changes, but the changes had to sometimes wait while other creative ideas were turning into products. So where do you put the stuff in the interim?

Another creative idea took me over a year to conceive, I must admit nothing happened for that specific year, then one morning it hit me how to solve the problem. It required me to do some lab experimentation, with motors and pumps, under every conceivable combination that I could think of, to prove what I was hoping to achieve. So having a number of motors and a water pumps, with pressure gauges, and valves and voltage 'Variacs', and doing measurements to collect the data to analyze.

During these times, it literally looks like a bomb exploded in the lab. During this time, there is the day to day running of the business as well, for instance there is a hiccup on the production line, the last batch of assembled boards are not quite doing what they supposed to be doing, so using the same test gear as what you are using for experimentation is now used to figure out what went wrong during assembly. If you visit me that specific day, it seems that there is complete chaos.

I think that it really depends on what field you are in, when it comes to determining if one is untidy or one is in the throes of finding a solution. If you are writing software, you may have a very clean desk as all the creative work is done inside the PC and in a file, but when you are working with physical components, and you are determining the results of your applied ideas, which in many instances requires removal of existing components, and applying new ones, and amongst this there is a melt down, there is no ways that it can be tidy, and bearing in mind at this critical creative time you are feverishly wanting to see the result of the next modification, tidiness is the last thing in your mind.

[Dave A]

You are then saying that every creative idea you have had/done has been singular

Yes and no. I have lots of creative ideas, but I'll always work the one at the top of my priority list until it's finished, generally to the detriment of no. 2 downwards.

has been an immediate product, and that the creative time is a short span.

Absolutely not. Getting TFSA going was a 9 month project where it got 80% of my time. (Bear in mind when I kicked off on this, I did not know how to write or publish a web page, let alone all the other stuff I ended up realising I had to learn to finish the job).

I find that I may have 5 or 6 creative ideas running at the same time, but are at different stages of completion.

I used to do that, but found it didn't work for me - too many of those great ideas just ended up not being seen through to the end. Once I had figured out the "puzzle", something else would become more attractive and those finishing touches were just never delivered.

Nowadays I have a pretty strong "Only start what you will finish" philosophy.

During this time, there is the day to day running of the business as well,

I apply pareto and ruthless delegation. 20% for routine, 80% for my top priority project. I find that way you don't linger over the routine stuff. True, there are crises and you have to drop what you're doing... but I make sure my staff would prefer to try to solve things by themselves if they can. (It's not an effort - I'm naturally grumpy when I'm disturbed while in the zone). They'll let me know about the drama and how they solved it at the beginning or end of the day when I'm "open."

then one morning it hit me how to solve the problem. It required me to do some lab experimentation, with motors and pumps, under every conceivable combination that I could think of, to prove what I was hoping to achieve. So having a number of motors and a water pumps, with pressure gauges, and valves and voltage 'Variacs', and doing measurements to collect the data to analyze.

During these times, it literally looks like a bomb exploded in the lab.

Inspiration - you just never know when it'll hit

I'm guilty of that too, although I tend to push everything else onto the back burner until I finished. If it wasn't an in-and-out deal (expected completion in two weeks max) it would have to join the waiting list as another great idea to look at as my next top priority project.

Back to TFSA as example, for about two years after that first 9 months there were a series of tweaks and issues which fell in this category. SEO tweaks, spam issues, reskinning the wiki....


Maybe we're in different situations on this to be debating points anyway. I don't need a new product so regularly that I have to divide time across multiple development projects. I'm really enjoying the exchange of views, though

[Justloadit]

I also enjoy the exchange of views, by doing this, one learns from other people. I always have an open mind, after all, you are successful at what you do, so why should I not learn from what you are doing right?

[Dave A]

I've had my share of success and failure so let's not get carried away here

Take for yourself what you think might work for you - discard the rest.

[Mark Atkinson]

I tend to agree with Dave on most points discussed.

At one time I used to tackle three, four or maybe five big projects at the same time. I then realised that this is just not an option for me. I find that the products we produce are are much better when I have devoted my full attention, time and effort to them - one at a a time. Working on 3 big projects at the same time, as well as managing my studies just results in a whole lot of chaos and counter-productivity.

Take our shirts for example: We basically dropped all marketing efforts on our design business, as well as work on our next big project, in order to get Bafokke Shirts going. I'm really glad we did, though, because in the first 4 months we have had a great response and we got to take advantage of the festive season. Had we worked on the shirts and our other projects simultaneously, it's likely that we may not yet have managed to roll out the shirts.

As for organisation, I like to begin projects with a clean mind and work space. This usually transcends into organised chaos BUT I know where everything is and the "mess" represents my thought patterns up until that point. If anybody tampers with my organised chaos, I imagine I would have to do a whole lot of rethinking in order to get back to the point in development where I was before.

To conclude, I think that each person works best in his own unique conditions. It is up to you to determine how clutter (or organised chaos) affects your efficiency and how orderly your work space needs to be in order to produce your best creative efforts.