Ep. 14 — Habit Tune-Up — Publishing Strategies, Surviving Side Hustles, Productivity for Support Roles, and Cultivating Balance in the Pursuit of Depth¶
Full Title: Ep. 14 — Habit Tune-Up — Publishing Strategies, Surviving Side Hustles, Productivity for Support Roles, and Cultivating Balance in the Pursuit of Depth
Ticketing Systems Are a Revolution in Productivity
Summary:
Use a ticketing system to organize your work. A trello board can be used for different types of work or different work statuses. Introduce efficient work floes for regularly occurring tasks. The trick there is to present these as processes that’s going to make their life easier, Alrigt says....
Transcript:
Speaker 1
Have we told the originator of this request where we are? All that is taken out of the the personal cognitive space of the it support professionals and put into the system itself. It relieves a lot of cognitive resources. Ticketing systems were a revolution in i t productivity. The amount of cases that can be successfully handed per i t professional greatly increased when we added the digital support, right? So that’s just an example of there is a lot of gains to be had in terms of how much you can get done, how well you get it done, and how you feel if you’re very organized about what’s on my plate, what status, what do i know about it? So you could, for example, you could use a ticketing system. I have used ticketing systems. Let’s i my role as director of graduate studies at georgetown, where it’s just me and my program manager. The only people who have access to it, the students and faculty we serve. Don’t even know we’re using a ticketing system. But for us to actually have, you know, tickets for each of these emales where can write back and forth to each other, whats to status, where i can assign something to him, and then he can work on it, and he can assign it back to me, and we don’t have to just send emales back and forth to coordinate this work made is much more effective. But if you don’t want to use an actual ticketing system, it’s something as simple as a trello board. I talk about this a lot, but you can just have columns on your trello board for different types of work or different work statuses. You can have cards for each of these tasks. You can move em between the different columns to represent their changing status. And then, of course, you can flip the virtual card over and attach files and write information or add check lists. So everything you need to know about an obligation is there in one point. That’s crucial. Hanna, get things out of your inbox into a much better system. The final thing i would say, is, to the extent possible, you want to introduce efficient work floes for regularly occurring tasks. So there’s something that you deal with a lot in your support roll that at the moment requires, let’s say, multiple back and forth emale messages that it unfold throughout a day and therefore become an extra source of attention fragmentation that it hurts your efforts to be more sequential, taking things on one by one. Maybe there is a more structured work flow here, more structured cess that allows you to get that task done without so many emales, or in a way that requires much less cognitive overhead or planning. You know, let’s say you’re doing, one of the things you commonly is schedulling meetings for someone that you support. There is a lot of tools that can greatly simplify this process of scheduling meetings. Hat means you don’t have to send back and forth three messages, like, o k wind is goodabout this. I bob can’t do it at one with two o’clock work. You know, instead, the person you support can just maintain an acuity calendar where they maintain their availabilities, and then you’re able to just book things directly into there, and they get all the relevant details, and they don’t have to have any sort of extended back and forth with you. That’s just an example. But basically, keep thinking, is there some regular rules or processes or systems we can put in place that would take this regular, curring task and reduce the overhead? Now some of these processes might just be internal to you. The people you support have no idea that you’re using them. It just helps you batch and organize and get through regularly occurring types of work more easily. In some of these processes, you can work with the people you support, and they would be involved in them as well, and it makes things easier. Usually. The trick there is to present these as processes that’s going to make their life easier. If you come at it from this is going to make my life easier, but your life more complicated, the sort of unfortunate, power dynamic reality of support rolls is that they will probably say, i don’t like that. No, i don’t like that one bit. But if it’s like, who i found the way so you can save some time, then they might be on board. Alrigt, so it’s a good question. You know, and i don’t know if i talk enough about this in my existing writing, about the different types of rolls in the knowledge work setting have different types of strategies that get you to the same place of taking advantage of the reality of the human brain. You know, i call this sometimes nurro productivity, this idea that when we think about how to run an office, we should do so with the reality of how the human brain operates in mind. And i do talk a lot about that for makers, people who, you know, programme or write books, and what want to do there is keep them with undistracted concentration. But again, it’s, if you’re a manager, for example, the way you do your work well that respects the reality of your brainis going to be different than it is for a maker. And if you’re in a support role, then how you’re going to structure your work to better take advantage of the reality of the human brains you can be effective, is ong to look differet than it does for a manager. So i’m glad you ask this question. I will say, handd them a new book, which is not coming out till march. But in that book, i get really into that distinction between makers managers and what i literally call minders, but basically supports thaf i get really into that distinction. And so i’m glad i had a chance now to preview some of those ideas. O kay, so i think we have time to slip in one last question. Hi.
Speaker 2
Ca, thanks for your awson podcas, i haven’t missed a single episode since you started it, and i find ef anxiously waiting for the next episode, which i inevitably end i end ot finding superhelpful. So my name is marco, and i am a softer engineer based in belfast, in the u k. And my question is about living a life where all the important areas are well taken care of. I’ve heard you touching on this, and yet, broadly speaking, i would like a work, but also family, faith, finances, health, et cetera, to be well looked after. Now, i find that if im having a particularly busy time at work, the other erras tend to fall behind. And similarly, if we are under pressure financially, it’s hard to be focused at work. You get the point. So what’s a good system or approach that i can use to systematically, daily, or weekly, or whatever the case, make sure that every area of my life is healthy and well taken care of. Marco,
Speaker 1
first of all, i appreciate the kind words about the podcast, and i appreciate your question. Now, i think, technically speaking, this question falls a little bit outside the normal boundaries of what we tackle in the habit tune up minny episode, where i tend to try to focus on more concrete habits about your work, how to be productive and how to be effective even when times are disrupted. But i think i want to tackle this question here anyways, because it is important. If you feel like your focus on your career itis going to diminish other aspects of your life that are very important, then it’s going to be hard for you to and focus on your career. It can be hard for you to care about tuning up your habits if you worry that the impact itself is going to be broadly negative. (Time 0:17:19)