Work Smarter, Not Harder 课程笔记

Career, Course

中文名为更聪明而非更辛苦地工作：个人时间管理及工作效率。
大部分都是Cliche。内容也很少，完全可以压缩在一个20分钟的视频内，文本就更短了。

Smart Work Habits Just Don’t Happen

Productive vs. Unproductive Work

注意区分productive和unproductive work。
if you worked and worked all day long, and you’re not 100% certain at where your time went, you might have been engaged in unproductive work. You were doing something. You weren’t lounging, but you weren’t completing the work that was really gonna further your goals right at that time. You weren’t completing the work that really needed to be completed right at that time. Sometimes this means you get distracted by something that is work related but not related to the task at hand. Maybe you start looking for some information that you do not need until later.

Creating a Work Plan

一定要定计划，可以与时俱进修改，分清轻重缓急。其实就是很多年前那个important/urgent组合。

Steps Help to Create a Plan:

  • Review job responsibilities.
  • Ask someone for help.
  • Keep notes.
  • Break tasks down into smaller steps.

A Sample Work Plan Includes the Following Parts:

  • Priority
  • Description
  • Due date
  • Who the work is for
  • Steps to take
  • Estimate of time needed
  • Start date

How Long Will Tasks Take?

  • Ask a supervisor or a coworker
  • Keep detailed notes
  • Break large tasks down into smaller steps

Additional

也不要天天关注这些Time-Saving Tips，而是要关注自己到底要用时间来完成什么，专注于事情而非时间。

You don’t build the lift you want by saving time. You build the life you want, and then time saves iteself.

Rather than lookint to save bits of time here and there, start by asking yourself exactly what you’re saving that time for.

Time is the Most Limited Resource

The Myth of Work-Life Balance

We often, maybe even mostly, let out schedule schedule itself; Ignoring the fact that time, not money, is our only true leadership asset.

Tom Peters提出个人品牌概念的人。
Time Is a Limited Resource. 把时间用在对自己有用的事上。
Work Life Balance is a personal decision。和价值观有关系，而且不断变化，自己觉得舒服就好。Spend your time in a way that supports your goals and values.
You Teach People How to Treat You. 所以就应该真实作自己，要有界限，以免造成错误期望。

Where Does the Time Go

Time tracking allows oneself to reveal what is actually done throughout the day. 手写记下就可以，我用的ManicTime也不错。
Keep Yourself Honest. 关键就是Honesty和Decipline。
Daily Time Log Jugglers
Strategic Reserve Time = Basic job functions - How many hours to complete this work
Work Strategic Reserve Time = time available to work - all scheduled work
Personal Strategic Reserve Time = time available to do all tasks - all commitments

Create Your Own Strategic Reserve Time Chart.
Strategic Reserve Time Templates

Additional

有几种不同的productive people类型。可以测试自己的类型。
The Night Owl, The Early Bird, The Multitasker, The Mono-tasker, The Procrastinator, The Connector, The Lone Wolf, The Firefighter

我竟然是The Early Bird，感觉还有点意外。

  • You get up early. Insanely early. You find your peace—and most productive hours—in the first slice of the day.
  • ROLE MODEL:
    The godfather of productivity, Benjamin Franklin. As he put it in Early Rising: A Natural, Social, and Religious Duty: “There is a feeling of life about the morning sunshine, provoking cheerfulness and vivacity, and he is a great loser who has not his eyes and his heart early open to welcome it.”
  • TIP:
    Spend these quiet hours on your most high-value tasks. Energy Project CEO Tony Schwartz wakes
    up and immediately throws 90 minutes at the most crucial job for the day. Author and investor Whitney Johnson wakes up and writes before her inner critic can start criticizing it. How to be most effective on email: Don’t do it first thing, says Julie Morgenstern, author of the clearly stated Never Check E-mail in the Morning. “Early birds get a jump-start before the true pressures of the workday hit,” she says. “Use those hours for the deep-thinking work.”
  • KILLER APP COMBO:
    Fantastical lets you scroll through a full-day view of your events. Carrot offers prizes for completing tasks—and (hilariously) reprimands you if you fall behind.

Little Tips That Make a Big Impact

How Long Will This Take?

Estimating的工具：

  • Experience is the best tool
  • Keep good notes。记下自己完成某任务所需大概时长。
  • Use tables
  • Use spreadsheets

Variance = Initial estimate of time required to complete work - How long the work actually took
Analogous Estimating: 根据完成同类任务所需时长估计。
Parametric Estimating: 使用过去的数据，包括Variance，来估计。
Estimating Template

Managing Communications

Schedule Specific Time for Communication.
Or, wait until there’s a need to spend time on communication. 有闲的固定时间再看email。

Expand your inbox to use multiple folders: 邮件分类。

  • Do it Right Away
  • Action Folder。用时超过2分钟。
  • Pending Folder (requires follow up)
  • Information Folder

Keep Similar Information Together: 同类东西都记到一起，以免需要查询多处。

  • Calendars
  • Contacts
  • Personal items
  • Work items

Time of Day vs. Productivity: Schedule your most challenging work for when you are most productive. 好钢用在刀刃上。

Let’s Bring It All Together

Some Thoughts About Multitasking

To do two things at once it to do neither. - Publilius Syrus
Switching Cost: 项目之间切换需要的时间。
**最好一段时间专注一件事。**如果不能不多线程，写笔记记下自己下一次从哪里开始，可以减少switching costs。

In Summary

  • Work Plan
  • Set Priorities
  • Work-Life Balance
  • Time Tracking
  • Strategic Reserve Time
  • Estimating
  • Similar Tasks
  • Time of Day

Set a goal, make sure it’s measurable, give yourself support, keep track, have a reward for when you meet you goal, and don’t beat yourself up if you don’t. Just look at your results to see if there’s something you can do differently. And try again. With that thought in mind, go be fabulous.