Phillip Starke
We want to satisfy stakeholder requests, regardless if that means saying yes to a new feature or if it means to answer an e-mail. It's hard to say no. It makes us feel good to always answer, it makes us feel like we get a lot of stuff done. Spoiler alert: we actually don't get a lot done and productivity suffers.
Have you ever started a big project, felt like you were standing in front of this mountain of tasks and you had no idea where to start? I have. And I was only able to slowly but surely climb the mountain by completely changing the way I organize and manage myself.
Let me tell you something. It can be really liberating, to say the three words "I don't know". As soon as you have done it a few times you will find that it turns out to be very easy and that it brings some real benefits.
Oh boy, what a topic this is going to be. Everybody seems to hate them. Yet, they somehow can´t be avoided. So much has been written about them but we still seem to struggle on how to deal with them, meetings.
Raise your hand if you have been in the following situation. A colleague comes to your desk (or nowadays: they call you on zoom) to discuss something. You are busy. You quickly open the Calendar to find a time slot for a meeting. Unfortunately, you have no time right now and are also fully booked in the next days. Thus, you schedule a meeting in two weeks. Right before switching to the Calendar, you were able to catch a very brief glimpse of your e-mail inbox with the approximately 700 flagged or otherwise highlighted items that still need to be taken care of.
I have four core principles that shape my professional life:
Pragmatism beats Dogma
Honest communication is key
Deliver value fast through decisive action
Have fun
What do I mean by these? Well, let me explain…
