So I'm just going to say I was very successful in business because I used a paper three-ring notebook system that was similar to day planner but was not day planner. I think it was called Time Systems.
I was smart as hell with computers in fact used to program databases and wrote my own contact management program as well. But the fact of the matter is the paper system even after computers came along turned out to be far better because I was never tempted to play with the computer and instead only had a list of stuff that actually needed to get done rather than tweaking the goddamn font or background or whatever on the computer which people spend hours and days doing. Not to mention the fact you had to turn it on and you had to have a battery when things got portable. Not to mention the fact that you still can't see most phones in the bright sunlight which means you've got to go find a shady place to do work. And if you turn the brightness up on the phone so you can't you can't see it the damn phone it's going to die before the day is done which means you can't do half your work. Yet that little yellow pad with a damn pencil which cost you pennies and doesn't leave an electronic trail for God knows whoever to look at it some point in time works every time in the brightest sunlight or anywhere else and never runs out of battery.
And if you do actually want to keep records of things that piece of paper is going to last forever and you're never going to have to retain an old computer with an old operating system just to look at your old database system to see what the hell you did with your whole life and your sales calls. I literally have my old times system management book and can look at that just like the day I wrote it and see everything I did for those years. I can see all the contact names and remember who they were and what they were. And for the period of time when I switched to computers I literally have to pull out an old IBM PC running doss or Windows to get the old system to boot up and then I have to search it or I have to figure out how to export that data and import it into the newest latest system and figure that new system out and have a new computer to do that all to bring in a comma separated values file that are more easily could have found in my alphabetically indexed time systems printed three ring notebook.
And in fact even though today I have a phone that will do everything if I really want to get stuff done and really want to be productive I pull out a yellow pad and I make a paper list. And either that get that list gets done or it doesn't and there's no tweaking the paper and playing with the fonts and getting distracted on the internet.
The only thing I wish a paper system could do was take dictation like my phone can so I don't physically have to write stuff down which for me is more difficult than for many people. Other than that when you actually want to get stuff done write it on a piece of paper. It's undeniable with no excuses and it's hard to roll things over to the next day. You don't just hit a button. You've got to carry it through the day as an undone task and see it all day long sitting there and then you got to fold the paper over and you got to write it down on another day. Or even better you don't even let yourself to fold the paper over until everything on the page is actually done. It works much better.
And in fact every major successful person and I'm talking tops of companies here not mid-level good sales people, every major successful person I know uses this piece of paper method on a yellow pad rather than a computer and that way they don't get lost in the compute. In fact a whole lot of them still don't even know how to use a computer very well and that means they haven't wasted years of their life learning computers.
If you're not in the computer business it's really pretty much a waste to learn computers.
And quite frankly companies putting their sales people and other people on things like Salesforce and forcing them to use those systems may make centralized reporting much easier but it cripples their sales people probably 30% in productivity. So you get better reporting on 30% less productivity in your whole corporation than if you just let people use a piece of paper and you touch base with them every once in a while to make sure s*** was getting done.
I was going to say something similar. With Time management, whatever works for you, works.
Write down what you want to do BEFROE you start a day of work, before you check your emails and get drawn into other people's issues, before you turn on the machine, write it down. Get one task done before checking emails, and then write THOSE tasks down that came up and meeting times. Then turn off IM and Email. Get your shit done. I check ERmail only 2-3 times a day, and I generally get a days worth of uninterrupted work done by Lunch.
The new asshole app is IM. People expect you to be online at all times, all day, for whomever in the company might want a question asked or to just shoot the shit because they are bored. What a time saver for the question asker, but what a time waster for the askee. I got chewed out by my boss once, Boss: "You weren't online the last 3 days! WTF?" I pull out my lists, said, "I did this, this, this, and that. No one called me with an emergency or sent an Email. What happened?" Boss: "Nothing, but people saw you weren't online." Me: "And?" Boss: "Well, they noticed." Me: "Why were they checking who is online instead of working? Do they not have enough to do>?" Boss: "No, but, you know, it looks bad." Me: "That I am getting stuff done? that looks bad?" Boss: "It's an appearances thing." Me: "So, I need to be online to answer anyone's questions, at any time, interrupt MY work to do theirs for them? is that what you are saying?" Boss: "No. Carry on. This is annoying." Me: "So is people checking up on others and then tattling."
That's paraphrased, of course, but I actually had a conversation like that. I was pissed, and we don't have a formal boss-subordinate structure, so it's not like he's my "boss" boss.
No, they're not taught by anyone how to manage time (Gen X takes the blame here). Add to this instant nibble-sized pieces of shit on social media, videos online lasting less than a minute, and almost no scenes on TV lasting more than 30 seconds (most less than 10).
They literally have not been trained to manage time at all.
There is also an insidious obsession today with process, not outcome. I'm seeing it everywhere, even in terms of where private and commercial money is being spent. I started to notice it years ago, with the advent of these physical 'incubators' for ideas, spaces where people can gather. There was some quasi-religious notion that if you just diversified the people present in a space, suddenly and counter-intuitively, everything would be better. I recall getting into debates with professors in business school about the idiocy of the nuspeak terms like 'innovation'. All of the drivel and catch-phrases that seemed to be making things move in the business world. If you put innovation on something, I mean literally the term, you had a 50% greater likelihood of attracting attention, all else being equal.
We've seen the evolution of these co-working spaces. Also the billion-dollar sector of business consulting just continually growing, like a balloon filled with hot air. Part of me thinks this is a pure effect of bureaucracy, and the people who understand the development of this business-services market space realize that it is strictly sociological effects (people in decision-making roles wanting to 'distribute' their responsibility and culpability by making every decision based on outside consultants).
I know people working for market research consultancies and others working for 'I/O psych firms' who are in flourishing companies (in terms of cash flow) that literally just sell other businesses 'business intelligence' and especially 'culture building'. It's all directed internally. It's like a self-improvement phenomenon for commercial entities that doesn't really take into account what their end product is, but just focuses on how they can be better at 'the process'. It's all human-resources centered. Build a culture. Make everyone think they're at home while they're working. Increase diversity. Streamline HRM. Be the best company you can be!
In the end it has all felt to me like a lot of make-work, list-making, and has resulted in huge spends for information that a couple of intelligent folks could have reasoned their way to over coffee and ten minutes alone. For example, a woman I know who works for a market research agency just gave the final presentation of a project. The client paid $350k for this project that took roughly three months. The client wanted to market a pharmaceutical at the LGBT community. They paid that amount of money for my friend's team to ultimately deliver a fancy slide-deck saying they should spend their advert budget on a social media site dedicated to homosexual dating.
$350k for this 'intel'.
Two smart people could have developed this strategy after thinking about it for a few minutes.
But again, it's bureaucracy. We have a lot of people in decision-making roles that are more concerned with maintaining their stations than with engaging in the normal competitive dynamics that involve some risk-taking. I blame it, in part, on women increasingly occupying a disproportionate number of these roles. If the decision they ultimately make goes south or doesn't return the right %, they have all of the documentation: they sought outside expert opinions. Everyone agreed to pay for this service. So now they can't be blamed. Of course, I'm not exempting men from this either. I just think, at a more fundamental level, the gender admixture has changed the entire competitive landscape in companies, changing the conditions that determine the successful strategies.
It's not just women in the workplace. It's also a religious situation we have with people and their understanding of AI and 'big data'. If you just say 'machine learning' to most people, you'll have them.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect explains this. The irony that most midwits don't understand it notwithstanding, the key is that they showed that the defintion of competence is the ability to recognize competence. As such, people who fail to distinguish between process and outcome do so because they don't recognize and appreciate a competent outcome and how to get there. They obsess over process as a magical formula for delivering good outcomes because they don't recognize what competent people do.
my fucking boss does this, I hate it, I'm pragmatic minded and just want to do the work, but he keeps trying to act like he's the fucking dali lama. He's also a rich, liberal gun control nut.
It's the boomers, they're the parents of the millenials. GenX had no contact with them until they entered the workforce. The failure of Zoomers is GenX's fault.
Try to reproduce this system for less than 3 hours of your time and then tell me 3 hours of your time is it worth $95. And if 3 hours of your time isn't worth $95 then you're not using a system like this to get business done and you're not making much money. Because let me tell you for any top executive in any company having a system like this that's already pre-printed and looks nice and feels good and it's simple can save them 3 hours and in 5 minutes that person can be using this system and make one single phone call for a business acquisition or a sale that will make them thousands of dollars. So $95 is peanuts.
if you are a married woman and hire another man to complete tasks around the home your husband doesn't it is 100% certain you will fuck him instead of your husband, too.
[ + ] Spaceman84
[ - ] Spaceman84 4 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:43:06 ago (+4/-0)
[ + ] Nosferatjew
[ - ] Nosferatjew 3 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 13:40:48 ago (+3/-0)
The above system has served me well for decades, and is way more cost effective than some $100 proprietary piece of shit.
I also have a $15 planner/schedule that I replace every year.
[ + ] solomonpapermaster
[ - ] solomonpapermaster 3 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 12:01:11 ago (+3/-0)
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 3 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:19:23 ago (+3/-0)
[ + ] Clubberlang
[ - ] Clubberlang 3 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:46:12 ago (+3/-0)
[ + ] Crackinjokes
[ - ] Crackinjokes 3 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 08:42:05 ago (+3/-0)*
I was smart as hell with computers in fact used to program databases and wrote my own contact management program as well. But the fact of the matter is the paper system even after computers came along turned out to be far better because I was never tempted to play with the computer and instead only had a list of stuff that actually needed to get done rather than tweaking the goddamn font or background or whatever on the computer which people spend hours and days doing. Not to mention the fact you had to turn it on and you had to have a battery when things got portable. Not to mention the fact that you still can't see most phones in the bright sunlight which means you've got to go find a shady place to do work. And if you turn the brightness up on the phone so you can't you can't see it the damn phone it's going to die before the day is done which means you can't do half your work. Yet that little yellow pad with a damn pencil which cost you pennies and doesn't leave an electronic trail for God knows whoever to look at it some point in time works every time in the brightest sunlight or anywhere else and never runs out of battery.
And if you do actually want to keep records of things that piece of paper is going to last forever and you're never going to have to retain an old computer with an old operating system just to look at your old database system to see what the hell you did with your whole life and your sales calls. I literally have my old times system management book and can look at that just like the day I wrote it and see everything I did for those years. I can see all the contact names and remember who they were and what they were. And for the period of time when I switched to computers I literally have to pull out an old IBM PC running doss or Windows to get the old system to boot up and then I have to search it or I have to figure out how to export that data and import it into the newest latest system and figure that new system out and have a new computer to do that all to bring in a comma separated values file that are more easily could have found in my alphabetically indexed time systems printed three ring notebook.
And in fact even though today I have a phone that will do everything if I really want to get stuff done and really want to be productive I pull out a yellow pad and I make a paper list. And either that get that list gets done or it doesn't and there's no tweaking the paper and playing with the fonts and getting distracted on the internet.
The only thing I wish a paper system could do was take dictation like my phone can so I don't physically have to write stuff down which for me is more difficult than for many people. Other than that when you actually want to get stuff done write it on a piece of paper. It's undeniable with no excuses and it's hard to roll things over to the next day. You don't just hit a button. You've got to carry it through the day as an undone task and see it all day long sitting there and then you got to fold the paper over and you got to write it down on another day. Or even better you don't even let yourself to fold the paper over until everything on the page is actually done. It works much better.
And in fact every major successful person and I'm talking tops of companies here not mid-level good sales people, every major successful person I know uses this piece of paper method on a yellow pad rather than a computer and that way they don't get lost in the compute. In fact a whole lot of them still don't even know how to use a computer very well and that means they haven't wasted years of their life learning computers.
If you're not in the computer business it's really pretty much a waste to learn computers.
And quite frankly companies putting their sales people and other people on things like Salesforce and forcing them to use those systems may make centralized reporting much easier but it cripples their sales people probably 30% in productivity. So you get better reporting on 30% less productivity in your whole corporation than if you just let people use a piece of paper and you touch base with them every once in a while to make sure s*** was getting done.
[ + ] Clubberlang
[ - ] Clubberlang 2 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:39:48 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] MrDarkWater
[ - ] MrDarkWater 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:22:38 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] cyclops1771
[ - ] cyclops1771 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 09:19:09 ago (+0/-0)
Write down what you want to do BEFROE you start a day of work, before you check your emails and get drawn into other people's issues, before you turn on the machine, write it down. Get one task done before checking emails, and then write THOSE tasks down that came up and meeting times. Then turn off IM and Email. Get your shit done. I check ERmail only 2-3 times a day, and I generally get a days worth of uninterrupted work done by Lunch.
The new asshole app is IM. People expect you to be online at all times, all day, for whomever in the company might want a question asked or to just shoot the shit because they are bored. What a time saver for the question asker, but what a time waster for the askee. I got chewed out by my boss once,
Boss: "You weren't online the last 3 days! WTF?"
I pull out my lists, said, "I did this, this, this, and that. No one called me with an emergency or sent an Email. What happened?"
Boss: "Nothing, but people saw you weren't online."
Me: "And?"
Boss: "Well, they noticed."
Me: "Why were they checking who is online instead of working? Do they not have enough to do>?"
Boss: "No, but, you know, it looks bad."
Me: "That I am getting stuff done? that looks bad?"
Boss: "It's an appearances thing."
Me: "So, I need to be online to answer anyone's questions, at any time, interrupt MY work to do theirs for them? is that what you are saying?"
Boss: "No. Carry on. This is annoying."
Me: "So is people checking up on others and then tattling."
That's paraphrased, of course, but I actually had a conversation like that. I was pissed, and we don't have a formal boss-subordinate structure, so it's not like he's my "boss" boss.
[ + ] totes_magotes
[ - ] totes_magotes 3 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 07:45:27 ago (+4/-1)
They literally have not been trained to manage time at all.
[ + ] CHIRO
[ - ] CHIRO 6 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 11:19:07 ago (+6/-0)*
We've seen the evolution of these co-working spaces. Also the billion-dollar sector of business consulting just continually growing, like a balloon filled with hot air. Part of me thinks this is a pure effect of bureaucracy, and the people who understand the development of this business-services market space realize that it is strictly sociological effects (people in decision-making roles wanting to 'distribute' their responsibility and culpability by making every decision based on outside consultants).
I know people working for market research consultancies and others working for 'I/O psych firms' who are in flourishing companies (in terms of cash flow) that literally just sell other businesses 'business intelligence' and especially 'culture building'. It's all directed internally. It's like a self-improvement phenomenon for commercial entities that doesn't really take into account what their end product is, but just focuses on how they can be better at 'the process'. It's all human-resources centered. Build a culture. Make everyone think they're at home while they're working. Increase diversity. Streamline HRM. Be the best company you can be!
In the end it has all felt to me like a lot of make-work, list-making, and has resulted in huge spends for information that a couple of intelligent folks could have reasoned their way to over coffee and ten minutes alone. For example, a woman I know who works for a market research agency just gave the final presentation of a project. The client paid $350k for this project that took roughly three months. The client wanted to market a pharmaceutical at the LGBT community. They paid that amount of money for my friend's team to ultimately deliver a fancy slide-deck saying they should spend their advert budget on a social media site dedicated to homosexual dating.
$350k for this 'intel'.
Two smart people could have developed this strategy after thinking about it for a few minutes.
But again, it's bureaucracy. We have a lot of people in decision-making roles that are more concerned with maintaining their stations than with engaging in the normal competitive dynamics that involve some risk-taking. I blame it, in part, on women increasingly occupying a disproportionate number of these roles. If the decision they ultimately make goes south or doesn't return the right %, they have all of the documentation: they sought outside expert opinions. Everyone agreed to pay for this service. So now they can't be blamed. Of course, I'm not exempting men from this either. I just think, at a more fundamental level, the gender admixture has changed the entire competitive landscape in companies, changing the conditions that determine the successful strategies.
It's not just women in the workplace. It's also a religious situation we have with people and their understanding of AI and 'big data'. If you just say 'machine learning' to most people, you'll have them.
[ + ] Empire_of_the_Mind
[ - ] Empire_of_the_Mind [op] 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 23:15:37 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] thoughtcryme
[ - ] thoughtcryme 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 10, 2022 04:43:33 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Sector7
[ - ] Sector7 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 10, 2022 19:14:30 ago (+1/-0)
Correct. Hence the $350k for this 'intel'.
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 2 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 08:17:58 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] Clubberlang
[ - ] Clubberlang 3 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:35:56 ago (+3/-0)
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 2 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:38:39 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] diggernicks
[ - ] diggernicks 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 11:00:46 ago (+2/-2)
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 21:44:58 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] diggernicks
[ - ] diggernicks 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 22:00:54 ago (+0/-0)
I hear imax is hiring, you'd be the perfect candidate for the job
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 22:10:45 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] diggernicks
[ - ] diggernicks 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 22:13:37 ago (+1/-1)
Do you often proposition random male strangers on the Internet for oral sex?
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 22:14:46 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] ForgottenMemes
[ - ] ForgottenMemes 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 16:26:06 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] diggernicks
[ - ] diggernicks 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:59:55 ago (+0/-0)
Seek help
Trump derangement syndrome sufferers think you're a little off
[ + ] totes_magotes
[ - ] totes_magotes 2 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 09:02:13 ago (+3/-1)
[ + ] Native
[ - ] Native 3 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 16:23:34 ago (+3/-0)
[ + ] ForgottenMemes
[ - ] ForgottenMemes 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 16:22:42 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Clubberlang
[ - ] Clubberlang 2 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:35:02 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:47:32 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] usedoilanalysis
[ - ] usedoilanalysis 2 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 06:13:24 ago (+3/-1)
[ + ] Gowithit
[ - ] Gowithit 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 09:40:04 ago (+1/-0)
http://www.flylady.net/d/control-journals/
[ + ] Clubberlang
[ - ] Clubberlang 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:42:17 ago (+1/-0)
2nd of all
And to reiterate everything you just ignored.
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 07:41:13 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] usedoilanalysis
[ - ] usedoilanalysis 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 09:53:26 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] KyleIsThisTall
[ - ] KyleIsThisTall 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 12, 2022 12:25:16 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:24:57 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 2 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 03:19:54 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] Empire_of_the_Mind
[ - ] Empire_of_the_Mind [op] 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 03:22:45 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 03:27:55 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] MichaelStewart
[ - ] MichaelStewart 6 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 04:58:34 ago (+6/-0)
My FUCKING SIDES lmfao!!
[ + ] Crackinjokes
[ - ] Crackinjokes 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 08:48:49 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Jiggggg
[ - ] Jiggggg 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 15:16:41 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Empire_of_the_Mind
[ - ] Empire_of_the_Mind [op] 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 23:17:55 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Jiggggg
[ - ] Jiggggg 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 23:22:47 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:40:36 ago (+0/-0)*
[ + ] Clubberlang
[ - ] Clubberlang 2 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:42:59 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] Gowithit
[ - ] Gowithit 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 14:30:43 ago (+0/-0)
I might as well use the paper to write a letter to Santa clause.
[ + ] Gowithit
[ - ] Gowithit 0 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 14:35:30 ago (+0/-0)*
He said he would complete to the best of his know how everything on your honey do list.
I was very tempted but well...craigslist.
[ + ] Empire_of_the_Mind
[ - ] Empire_of_the_Mind [op] 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 23:18:54 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Deleted
[ - ] deleted -3 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 07:40:52 ago (+3/-6)
[ + ] Clubberlang
[ - ] Clubberlang 3 points 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 10:49:59 ago (+3/-0)
[ + ] diggernicks
[ - ] diggernicks 1 point 2.7 yearsOct 9, 2022 09:51:56 ago (+1/-0)