Calendars for Humans: How to undo the all-day cram

This talk covers 2 things: 1. A new way to manage your calendar –
b/c that’s where rubber hits road. You may have WIP limits and a pull system in place, but when invites flood in, and you accept them, the calendar becomes a push system.
2. How to get buy in from the boss to experiment w/ new calendar approach. Getting buy-in to change meeting madness is tricky – but it can be done! In this session, Dominica addresses the too-many-meetings problem and provides actionable takeaways to help you optimize your time. Learn how to influence the boss and get buy-in to improve your team’s capacity to get real work done.

Transcript

1. Calendars for Humans: How to undo the all-day cram Dominica DeGrandis
2. @dominicad
3. CSRA Team Sparrow Hawks Kevin Kirkpatrick @dominicad
4. @dominicad
5. The all day cram The 30 minute jam The triple booked wham @dominicad
6. The 30 minute jam @dominicad 10 meetings a day - perpetual stop and go - exacerbates context switching
7. Back-to-back 7am to 7pm meetings leave zero flexible time § no room for unexpected important urgent work § disappointed people § cancelled meetings (how often cancelled?) § How much time is wasted rescheduling meetings? The all day cram
8. A canceled meeting creates rework – which has a cost The triple booked wham If the no-show person disagrees w/ decision made by the others, then rework occurs to rehash out that decision. @dominicad A canceled meeting creates rework – which has a cost
9. @dominicad 1. Maker calendar: Creative people (developers, designers, writers) 2. Manager calendar: Decision makers 3. Combo calendar: People who do both 3 Calendar Solutions How to undo the all-day cram
10. Ultradium cycles: brain naturally gets lull in concentration every 90 – 120 min when awake b/c brain wave frequencies rise, then sink. https://www.polyphasicsociety.com/polyphasic-sleep/science/rhythms/ Maker calendar
11. Unstructured time after dept meetings Manager calendar Leadership is in a position to make everyone meet at their frequency. mgrs meet w/ other mgrs during prime maker time Office hours DND Office hours LT daily LT daily LT daily LT daily LT daily DND
12. Office hours A regular cadence of office hours signals times when people can schedule time on your calendar, or drop by for important discussions. @dominicad Viz Eng/Ops
13. Set a regular cadence to let people know when you are available and when you are not available. @dominicad Do-not-disturb hours
14. Combo calendar - before 8:00 am 9:00 10:00 11:00 Noon 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 pm
15. Combo calendar - after D1 D1 D1 D1 Pomodoro time DND 8:00 am 9:00 10:00 11:00 Noon 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 pm
16. @dominicad Pomodoro’s • Break down work into time- boxed intervals separated by short breaks. • Set timer for 25 or 30 min and work intensely to finish task before timer rings. • Pomodoro’s provide intense focus time.
17. “But that won’t work here.”
19. Dominica DeGrandis @dominicad Thief Too much Work-in-progress (WIP) TOO MUCH Work-in-Progress (WIP) Too much WIP: When demand exceeds capacity. Lots of partially completed work. WIP is leading indicator of CT. Multitasking is an opportunity to screw up more than 1 thing at a time.
20. @dominicad UNPLANNED WORK
21. @dominicad CONFLICTING PRIORITIES
22. @dominicad Inspired by Troy Magennis & Larry Maccherone, “Doing Team Metrics Right,” http://focusedobjective.com/team-metrics-right/ How to get buy in to undo the all-day cram Measure at least one metric trend in 4 different areas. • How fast • How productive • How good • How predictable
23. MATERIALS: § Blank balanced flowchart § Data spreadsheet www.ddegrandis.com @dominicad Balanced Flowchart Exercise
24. Look at Flow time www.ddegrandis.com.co @dominicad Balanced Flow chart exercise – How Fast?
25. Look at Throughput www.ddegrandis.com @dominicad Balanced Flow chart exercise – How productive?
26. www.ddegrandis.com Look at Quality change failure rate (CFR) # of FD done items # of total done items @dominicad Balanced Flow chart exercise – How good?
27. Consider the 90th percentile to discuss the probability of finishing work within so many days. 90th percentile filtered on business requests www.ddegrandis.com Balanced Flow chart exercise – How predictable? @dominicad
28. Line of commitment @dominicad
29. “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” to almost everything.” ~Warren Buffett https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/756.Warren_Buffett
30. Dominica DeGrandis @dominicad Want to talk more about time thieves?
31. Email: dominica@SendYourSlides.com Subject: flow To receive: • copy of this presentation deck • Videos of my talks • 73 pg excerpt of Making Work Visible • 45 min excerpt of Making Work Visible audiobook • Balanced Flow Chart exercise • Tasktop article on tool integration