It's Not About Efficiency, It's About Effectiveness
Sometimes, technical folks get too obsessed with being efficient, but it's important to be effective, and that asking questions and understanding how to apply efficiency to the right problems and tasks.
@scott_lowe Colossians 3:17 NIV It’s Not About Ef ciency, It’s About Effectiveness Revisiting some ideas about productivity, ef ciency, and effectiveness for IT professionals
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Blogger (10+ years at http://blog.scottlowe.org) • Author (7 books so far, 2 more in the works) • Speaker (Interop, VMworld, DevOps Networking Forum, OpenStack Summit, local meetups) • Podcaster (The Full Stack Journey podcast) • Employee at VMware, Inc., on the CTO team for NSX
in a state of constant change • To cope with this constant change, we have to embrace continuous learning • So I’m often asked: when my job keeps me busy, how do I make time for continuous learning?
“big picture” in mind. (What is it I’m trying to accomplish?) 2. Know how the smaller tasks t into the overall goal. (Why am I doing what I’m doing?) 3. Emphasize the important, not necessarily the urgent. (Does what I’m doing make a difference?)
e-mail: 1. If you can do it in under 2 minutes, do it immediately 2. If it takes more than 2 minutes, add it to your trusted system 3. If you need the message, archive it 4. Otherwise, delete it
is really good at some things, and really bad at other things • Use “of oads” to preserve mental capacity • Scripts (just run the script, don’t have to think about it) • Notes or voice memos (capture information for use later) • To-do lists (don’t go overboard, though) • Less is more (strive for simplicity)
• The brain isn’t capable of truly multitasking (more like hyperthreading) • Trying to multitask just adds latency due to context switching • You’re better off focusing your attention on a single task at a time (Pomodoro technique?) • Guard your attention!
to mean “make things simpler” • Examples: • Simplifying multi-step processes/procedures • Using text expansion utilities • Application macros • Goal here is to simplify and streamline your work ows
and stay on top of industry trends • Bring your spouse/partner/signi cant other along with you for some great organized activities • Visit http://spousetivities.com for more information One more thing...