Putting It Off Until Tomorrow

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Sandie Kimball

Procrastination (from the Latin “pro”[for] and “cras” [tomorrow]) is “the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of lower priority, or doing something from which one derives enjoyment, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time.” Or as our mothers might have told us, “Don’t put off ‘for tomorrow’ what you can do today.”

As a project manager, one of my chief responsibilities is to address the tendency in other human beings to procrastinate by tracking action items, holding regular meetings to keep tasks on schedule, and making sure the project is completed on time.

So this means that a good project manager never procrastinates, right? Well, if that were true, then every project in the world would need to be assigned to one of the few project managers who actually function that way. If they even exist.

But what about the rest of us real people who tend to seek pleasure (e.g., the immediate gratification achieved by cleaning up your desk) and avoid suffering (e.g., the fearsome prospect of preparing an agenda for a meeting that you think no one really wants to attend)?

For me, in the best of cases, I force myself to defer gratification when reality requires it and I enjoy myself later (for instance, preparing for an important Tuesday meeting on the previous Friday so I can enjoy the weekend and still have time to make any last-minute changes on Monday).

In the worst of cases, however, I fool myself into believing a task that is easy for me won’t take very long, so I “save it for last” (for instance, my blog post is late because I spent two hours clicking on links I found in the Wikipedia definition for “procrastination”, during which research I had to stop several times to clean my glasses, which led me to think maybe I need to get my eyeglass prescription checked, which led me to add “make appointment with optometrist” to my task list in Outlook, for which I will hit “Snooze for 1 day” every day for weeks before I call the optometrist, because when I call, they will put me on hold; and oh yeah, I have to look up the phone number, etc. etc. etc…)

Is it ever actually OK to procrastinate? Vacations are one example. Even though we are all busy in our jobs, if we don’t allow ourselves time to suspend all our tasks while we recharge our batteries, we will eventually burn out. Taking time for “planned procrastination” is something we shouldn’t put off indefinitely.

So how do we defend ourselves against procrastination? My physician recently suggested that the first step is not to label myself as a “procrastinator”. She said that gives me a built-in excuse to continue procrastinating, since naming myself that makes me look at it as an intrinsic part of my nature. Instead, I’ll tell myself today, “I procrastinated writing my blog post, but now that it’s done, I feel better. In fact, being done with it feels better than doing all the things I did to put off the task.”

Now I just have to remember that feeling the next time I want to start filing all the old emails in my “Sent” box to avoid doing something else…

Posted in Time Management | 2 Comments

How Do You Measure Success?

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Amy Tatton

It’s easy, right? (If your answer is yes, then let’s have lunch so you can teach me how!) If you’re like me, you might think, “I will be successful…once I accomplish this, after I have that, when I have a family, etc.” The list goes on and on, though it may be slightly different for us all. Have you ever met a major goal and still not felt satisfied? If so, what’s the problem? Having such goals is obviously wonderful and it must feel amazing to set out to do something you said you were going to do, but I know that sometimes when I’ve met the goal, I don’t feel different. I expected to feel different.

Part of the problem may be that the goals we set for ourselves are too often a solution to meet a need. Maybe you want to feel important, so getting to a certain level in your career is what you’re seeking, or you want to feel alive, so traveling around the world is what you aspire to. Perhaps you crave stability, so you desire to have a family and a home. Distinguishing the solution from the goal is important so we can do our best to fulfill the need and implement the best solution. Maybe you can fulfill the goal of feeling alive just by shaking up your daily routine instead of depleting your savings to lug your family through airports around the world!

This concept is just as true at work as it is in your personal life. Identifying a solution as the goal is entirely too easy. If we do this, we might consider our projects successful because we’ve met the goal: for example, implemented a specific system. However, once implemented, we find that our customers are still frustrated and unhappy or nothing has changed. Maybe the goals were not properly identified, which, as you can imagine, could significantly impact the entire project. Take, for instance, one of the goals for the new Yawkey building – reduce patient wait time. The data showed that the changes implemented did result in less wait time in many patient processes, and in general, overall patient satisfaction was at a record high following the opening of Yawkey. However, one surprising discovery was that, though wait time did decrease for blood draw for the patients, they were actually less satisfied with lab services. Turns out that what was really important to patients was a comfortable waiting area.

So, when you’re working on a project, think critically about the goals of the project and make sure they are indeed what you’re trying to achieve, not how. With any luck, your customers will feel differently after you’ve helped them achieve their goal!

Posted in Accomplishments | Comments Off on How Do You Measure Success?

Mind your manners!

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Meagan Turner

I drove to work this morning. I took my normal and familiar route and settled in for the 8 mile grind that is Boston rush hour. Immediately I’m reminded of why I prefer to take public transit. On a ½ mile stretch on RT28, I am cut off by 4 cars at different times. The car behind me honks. They must think I’m letting these cars cut in line. I try desperately to keep my calm, pleasant mood but this traffic may get the best of me.

Why do people behave so badly when in traffic? If we were standing in line at the bank, I doubt that people would just walk up and get in line in front of me uninvited. It must be something about the car that makes us feel powerful, distanced, or immune to the normal social rules that we all follow. Is it just because we don’t have to face the person which gives us the justification of bad traffic manners?

Does this behavior happen in our work lives?

Posted in Work Life Balance | 3 Comments

Where’s my iPhone?

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Michael Madden

A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to go back home to Ireland for a week. The purpose of the trip was to attend my high school reunion. Because my wife, two daughters, and I are going to Ireland in August for my brother’s wedding, I got to go alone this time. As you might imagine, I was very excited to see all my old classmates and also to be able to visit family and friends.

It was a great night with my classmates and so much fun seeing guys that I had not seen in about 25 years. Most of them had not really changed too much and were still recognizable. It was also great to visit my family and friends and spend some quality time with them. That is where the story of my iPhone comes in.

My sister had offered to give me a ride to Dublin (where she works). While visiting her new house and coming from my parents’ house, I managed to misplace my iPhone. It was either in her car, my parents’ car, or in my sister’s house. After searching each place numerous times, nobody could find the elusive iPhone. We tried the application “Find myiPhone” but that did not work because the phone was powered off.

All of this initially caused me a lot of stress. What if I missed an important phone call? How can I keep up to date on all my emails? What about my music library? How could I know the current weather conditions in seven of my favorite cities around the world? What about all the great Groupon or Living Social deals I might miss out on? And finally, what am I going to do if I can’t be reminded via LinkedIn of what a colleague of ten years ago is now working on?

This all occurred on my second to last day on vacation and when I left for the airport the next day, the iPhone was still missing. These were very tough days for me because I suddenly found myself alone and isolated. Or was I? As it turned out, over the next week or so I began to get used to the idea of no iPhone, no text messages every 20 minutes or so, no alerts, no emails that could not wait a day or so, not constantly checking my email and thinking that every email needed to be answered immediately.

In fact, after a few days I began to like my sense of freedom and a sense of getting my life back. I soon realized that I could continue to do things without my iPhone but it was just that bit more inconvenient. Now I had to find the house phone (sometimes challenging when you have two young kids), fire up my PC (wait about five minutes), open Microsoft Office, check my emails, and open a browser to check weather in various cites (why I need to do this is still a mystery even to myself). But, I was coping and starting to enjoy the newly found feeling of liberation.

All of that ended, though, when a courier from DHL dropped off a package that my sister had mailed from Ireland. Inside was the iPhone. I cautiously opened the package and turned on the phone. All of a sudden, life as I was used to returned and I began my old ways again. My wife even commented, “I can’t stand that phone of yours as you always have your head buried in it.”

Now several weeks later I have had a chance to reflect on all of this. Having an iPhone is a great convenience and a wonderful time saver. It increases the efficiency of doing everyday tasks. There is no doubt that this has been a reason for its huge global success. I really can’t imagine (at this point in my life) not having an iPhone (or any smart phone).

But I do remember that week or so when I was living without one and after a few days I did get used to the feeling. There is something to be said for not being reachable 24×7, 365 days of the year. It has also made me realize that not every email needs to be answered immediately. In fact, as I commented to a colleague of mine before, it’s surprising the number of email questions that get resolved after not replying to them for a few hours. I’m not advocating that one do this, but rather commenting on something that I have seen.

I’m wondering, where do you fall on this debate? Do you have an iPhone or a smart phone? Have you ever lost it, and if so, how have you coped? Did you need any counseling?

This author can be reached 24×7 at michael_madden@dfci.harvard.edu or texted at 617-905-6636.

Posted in Communication, Work Life Balance | 5 Comments

It’s the Thought that Counts

Posted on December 17, 2012 by admin

‘Tis the season! Honestly? I wish Christmas were more like Thanksgiving — all about the gathering of loved ones, watching the Macy’s parade, catching a football game, and eating the traditional dinner. I especially like that the “giving” in Thanksgiving is simply giving “thanks” for blessings and “stuff” that we already have.

I’d like to believe that my family has personally kept the economy going even when times were tough. There have been so many Christmases and so much stuff – some items still in use after 25 years (my Braun coffee bean grinder), but many quickly forgotten.

I do remember my first Christmas as a newlywed – I was a mere 19 years old and had very little money. I was taking time off from school, working as a Ho Jo waitress so I could support my husband as he finished his degree. Somehow he found the money to buy me a proper kitchen knife and a Le Creuset skillet. I was speechless and for those who know me, that was really something! I wanted to feel grateful, but at the same time, I had secretly hoped for something that was personal and truly just for me.

As a child, I do recall repeatedly requesting a pony – nothing more, nothing less. I got the pony all right. You betcha! We named him Wyo. I got a silly toy pony mounted on springs that you could bounce on, which, by-the-way, grew old quickly (the bouncing, not the never-aging, fake pony). I guess I wasn’t specific enough. I should have clearly stated: a real, live, three-year-old pony, broken, about nine hands high, black and white pinto mare, with a gentle disposition.

And then there were the gifts that I gave my parents. Back in the day, I wasn’t very good at coming up with ideas, and they were equally not forthcoming with suggestions. Large shopping malls were non-existent, and there was no Internet to help with the gift-buying process. Needless to say, my father received enough Old Spice and Drambuie to last two or more lifetimes. My mother had a drawer full of waltz-length nightgowns from Stowers in downtown Clinton. Why didn’t she tell me, “I’m all set with nightgowns?”

How times have changed! My family has turned holiday shopping into somewhat of a requirements gathering process. I receive emails with links to things they would like, and if applicable, they include other specifications such as color and size. This hasn’t always worked smoothly. Like the year that a link from my stepdaughter went to a pretty, soft green tee shirt, but what arrived at my door was hideous mustard green. When placing the order, I didn’t pay attention to the default color selection. Then there were the shoes in a men’s size 9 instead of women’s size 9. I am not sure why, but the link went to a men’s version of the shoes.

Over the past several years, I’ve learned a great deal about this gift giving business. I have learned the hard way that gift requirements should never be vague or ambiguous (All I ever asked for was a pony). They can specify things that are not wanted, right? (My parents were too sweet!) Requirements should be well documented and validated to confirm that they are accurate. Mistakes can lead to sad, disappointed little faces (my pony), and can cause schedule issues (I was not able to get the green tee in time for Christmas). Mistakes can increase cost (needed to pay extra shipping). In the world of business analysis, poor requirements gathering may ultimately cause a project to crash and burn. At least with gift giving, it is, of course, the thought that counts, though I wouldn’t recommend saying this to your project sponsor!

Posted in Requirements | 1 Comment

Escaping Sandy

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Ron Munroe

Mine was among the communities that lost power in Hurricane Sandy; my house was out for 2 ½ days. Blackouts are humbling affairs.

I worked from home that day and wondered anew whether the ancient trees surrounding my house would survive this storm. In a previous storm, a huge limb snapped and crashed to the driveway. At its widest point it was 9 inches across and the branch was about 50 feet long. Its falling made me feel vulnerable. What other trees or branches could succumb if swept by a strong gust from the wrong angle? That prompted me a few months later to cut down several trees close to the house. My perspective about them had changed; whereas I previously saw them as arching gracefully toward the house, I now viewed them as leaning menacingly, easily pushed by the wrong gust to crash through the roof. Removing a few trees would provide some peace of mind for the next storm.

The morning of Sandy had strong winds and rain, but it just seemed at first like an above-average storm. But by noon the wind was loud and the trees were rocking wildly. I started to avoid the parts of the house near the next-closest trees that we had chosen not to cut to keep costs down. (I was second-guessing that decision.) But by late afternoon the storm had calmed and I started to believe that we might survive the storm without losing trees or electricity. But that turned out to be wishful thinking. At around 6 pm the power went out for about 30 seconds, then a few minutes later for a minute more. Finally the lights went out for good.

I’m not much into preparing for emergencies, but previous storms had caused me to do some minor risk planning for events like this. Thus, with the small flashlight I had stuck in my pocket, I was able to easily find and light the candles positioned throughout the house to provide enough light to navigate. We waited a few minutes to see if this may be a brief black-out, as has happened before, but this one appeared determined to settle in for a while.

On reflection, I’m amused to realize that I did not even attempt to make the most of spending time in the unpowered house in some creative way. It seems that virtually everything I do at night requires electricity. I usually watch TV, use the PC or read. A few years ago we switched to an internet phone that needs power. Even my Kindle e-reader needs background light. The iPhone worked, but I wanted to preserve its battery in case I really needed it later.

No, we didn’t opt to just “be present”, maybe engaging in conversation by candlelight, or sitting quietly in contemplation. We bugged out and found the nearest restaurant that had power, hot food and drinks – emphasis on the last – and stayed until we were tired enough that when we went home, we could fall asleep immediately. The next day, I worked later than usual so that when I went home I could head right out to a restaurant again for dinner, then return late enough to fall asleep again. Thankfully, power returned by nightfall on the third night, so a third night of escaping wasn’t necessary.

I wanted nothing to do with that dark husk of a house when the power was out. It wasn’t until writing this post that I really thought about that. Yes, blackouts are humbling.

Posted in Risk Management | Comments Off on Escaping Sandy

Shhh. Do you hear that? Me neither.

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Deb Cote

My life has gotten a lot quieter recently.

Did I become an empty nester?
No

Did noisy neighbors move away?
No

Did I start to lose my hearing?
No

So what happened?
The elections are over.

Mitt no longer calls.
Barack doesn’t write anymore.
Scott doesn’t drive over in his truck to visit.
Elizabeth doesn’t interrupt Revenge and appear unannounced on my TV.
It’s quiet.
And I like it.

This silence got me thinking about project communications. How much is too much, and how much is too little? Industry estimates suggest that project managers spend as much as 90% of their time communicating to stakeholders. That’s a lot of time. Is it necessary?

Considering the stakeholders who could be on your project (sponsor, business owner, steering committee, customers, team members, vendor(s), purchasing agent, legal counsel, staff of other impacted projects) and the amount of project information, it’s not hard to fathom the need.

Another communication statistic is that employees won’t believe a leader’s message until they’ve heard it seven times.

So do stakeholders get sick of hearing from you? If so, focus on your information distribution methods. If folks are ignoring you, important information may not flow back and forth. Talk to stakeholders about their communication preferences. If your sponsor wants brief updates highlighting issues and resolution plans, don’t send her weekly status reports full of verbose detail. Does your team prefer 30-minute weekly check-ins vs. 60-minute biweekly meetings? Try to accommodate.

And if you see Scott drive by, wave. Take a picture. I heard he might be selling his communication vehicle.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Feel the Fear

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Sandie Kimball

On a recent trip to Vermont, my husband and I had some time on our hands and decided to try ziplining. I had heard several great stories from friends about how much fun they had ziplining, so I was excited!

The practice run, which was about twenty feet long and ten feet off the ground, was a piece of cake. Imagine my surprise when I got onto the first real platform, looked down, and froze like a scared rabbit. Literally. I was shaking all over and my mouth was dry. To demonstrate how safe you are when you’re hooked into the saddle, one of the guides said: “Try this”. With feet planted on the platform, he put his weight into the saddle, leaned back into thin air, and let go of the rope. Then, with a huge grin on his face, he threw his arms out to his sides as if to say “Look Ma, no hands!” Hair prickled at the back of my neck. The last words out of my mouth before I completely lost the power of speech were “I’m not doing that”.

Everyone zipped off to the next platform until only the guide and I remained. I thought to myself: “You’ve kayaked with alligators; you can certainly do this”. I grabbed the line, but my arms and hands felt so weak I could barely hold onto it (especially problematic, as this particular “canopy adventure” required hand braking and rappelling). It became apparent that much as I wanted to, my body was not going to let me do this. The guide asked if I would like to go tandem with him. I tried to say “yes, please” but could only stutter a few meaningless noises. Finally I nodded my head vigorously and we took off.

Once on the next platform, I concluded that I wasn’t having fun yet. The guide told me the zips would continue to get longer, faster, and higher, and he offered me the option of taking the “escape zip”. I eagerly accepted. He radioed someone that he had “an evac”, and a minute later (after one more short zip) I was safe on the ground. I’ll never forget his kindness and compassion as he waited with me until the van picked me up.

As we rode back to the station, I stammered a question to the van driver about how I could kayak with alligators, so why couldn’t I do this? He said that some people reacted differently to various types of stimuli, and the only way you could know how you would react was to try it. He told me I should be proud of myself for trying it. Another sweet guy.

I learned a few things that day. First, the human body’s fight or flight response is an amazingly powerful thing. Second, I’m not one of those people who thrive on an adrenaline rush, especially if it involves heights. Third, sometimes “feel the fear and do it anyway” is not the best answer.

As a project manager, I’ve worked on projects that simply did not feel right. I always ask myself first if I’m just intimidated by the complexity or frightened that I’m going to fail. Often the answer is to bring on more resources or recommend a scope change. But sometimes the right decision is to recommend that the project be canceled. A canceled project isn’t a sign of failure. Frequently the cause is bad timing, lack of funds, or insurmountable resistance by stakeholders.

The ability to trust our instincts and recognize the cues in a threatening situation is an important characteristic of a competent project manager. In the case of an ill-fated project, reality calls the shots. If we don’t listen, we might actually lead the company down the wrong road.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Risk Management | 3 Comments

Floored by Project Management

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Meagan Turner

A few weeks ago, I had a house full of contractors. The scope of the job was to remove the existing carpet in three rooms of the house and to install hardwood flooring. We planned the project way ahead of time and determined the budget for the job as well as the timeline. The time estimate was a week for the work.

Easy enough, right?

Day 1 – when removing the carpet in the living room we found water damage to the sub-floor that resulted in additional scope, budget, and time. A new subfloor would take additional materials and additional time, both resulting in more money. But it had to be done.

Day 2 – an important stakeholder, my husband, decided that since the baseboards are torn out while the work is in progress, it would be nice to replace them since they are old and littered with paint drops. This is another item that would require additional materials, time, and money.

Day 3-8 – the work continued. Various crises popped up (problems matching the stain, how to keep the cats off the steps while the polyurethane dried); all were quickly handled but added time to the schedule. In a blink of an eye (it seems) our 5-day job had almost doubled.

Day 9- we’re done! Floors look beautiful, the polyurethane has dried without kitty paw prints on it, the stain on the floors and baseboards match the other stains in the house and everyone is happy!

So what’s next?

It’s hard not to get caught up in the relief of finishing a project. It’s important to go back and identify what we could have done differently, what we could have improved, and what worked well. This is true even for home improvement tasks! These are arguably the most important projects we manage! We’ll be having a lessons learned session at home this weekend. 🙂

Have you had a similar experience?

Posted in Learning, Lessons Learned, Work Life Balance | 4 Comments

Oh The Things I Could Know if Only I Had More Time!

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Amy Tatton

Sometimes I wish I just knew how to do everything. Ok, not everything. I don’t really care to know how to program code for the systems we support in IS (shhh…don’t tell anyone), but so many things related to my job and my life would be so much easier if I were a pro at them. For example, I really wish I could throw together fantastic movies with my countless pictures and videos, with the perfectly selected song of course. It’d be really helpful if I knew how to sew. Think of the great gifts I could make! And one of these days I’ll sit down and read the manual for our very sophisticated camera or maybe I’ll take a class so I can use more than a fraction of what it’s capable of. I’m just getting started. That’s just some of the stuff I want to learn at home!

I wish I knew even more for work. I’d love to be a better artist and have the skill to create videos/tutorials with this trendy whiteboard technique I’m seeing everywhere these days. I could make even snazzier eLearning courses if only I knew Flash. And how cool would I be if I could incorporate Twitter into my classes and adjust the content of what I’m teaching real-time as they’re planning to do at a conference I’m attending in a couple weeks? And my goodness, my life would be so much easier if I were a Photoshop whiz. I use it to create some images for the eLearning courses I create and I use it for our PMO PROJECTor newsletter, but I know that what takes me an hour could be done in mere minutes if I were savvier. How do I know this? Because my husband uses it almost daily and when I cry to him in frustration about spending the last two hours on something, he usually says, “Oh it’s easy, just do this…”. If only I could keep him by my side when I’m working on stuff!

In my last post I asked if training is the answer? In this post, I think the answer is yes. If I just had more training and practice on these skills, I have no doubt I could do them well. So what’s the problem? For me, and probably most people, it feels like time is the issue. Where will I find the time to learn all these things? And should I? Is it better to be really skilled at one thing than have a little knowledge about everything? Maybe it varies by individual. For me, I need a balance. I’ve been doing this training stuff for over 10 years now; if I’m going to stay interested, I need to evolve and stay on top of new trends. However, there’s only so much time in a day and I’m only one person. It’s a lot of pressure on myself to expect to be able to do everything and be great at it!

How do you do it? How do you carve out time to learn the new things you’re interested in? What do you want to learn more about? How do you reconcile that maybe you can’t be great at everything? Or can you? If so, please tell me your secret?

Posted in Learning, Time Management | 6 Comments