Three (Not So Intuitive) Tips to Make Your Work Easier and Better

Ted Williams said, “If you don't think too good, don't think too much.” I've got a bad head cold, so I'm not thinking too “good” at all. Here are three not-so-intuitive tips I use all the time, and that you might have missed:

• Move from “How much” to “How little” thinking.
• Finish something clean, every day.
• Create an overarching goal for every project, program, and any other substantial effort.

Let me clarify the “how much” problem and “how little” helps us finish more work.

Move from How Much to How Little Thinking

If you've ever been in a conversation where someone asked, “How much can we do in the next year/quarter/month?” you've heard that focus on “how much,” or push-planning. There's a problem with push planning. It's the most optimistic view of what people can finish.

Even as an optimist, I've learned over the years that I cannot create optimistic plans if I want to meet them. If I don't care about meeting them—fine. I can be as optimistic as I want.

But I plan in order to deliver. I suspect you do, too.

That's why I moved from “How Much” thinking to “How Little” thinking years ago. How little thinking builds slack into the system and helps us recover from unanticipated risks and emergencies. I apply this at all levels:

• How few projects can I have in the project portfolio and still be effective so we can achieve our overarching goal?
• Can I reduce the size of the backlog? (See Reframe the “How Much” Conversation to “How Little” for a specific example of roadmaps and backlogs.)
• How can we, as a team, manage our WIP limits so we can decrease our cycle time and get feedback faster?

When I changed my thinking to consider “how little,” I started finishing more. That's because I wasn't stressed by “all” of the work. I could make progress every day on fewer items. That's when I realized the power of finishing something clean regularly.

Finish Something Clean Every Day

As a team member, my work might span several weeks. That's why I used inch-pebbles to manage my reaction to my work. Inch-pebbles are one- to two-day tasks that are either done or not done. And done for me meant “clean and finished.”

As a manager, I found it more difficult to use inch-pebbles because I had to work across the organization. That's when I started to use How Little thinking for our management goals. We didn't have to decide everything way in advance—we could decide for now and revisit our decisions when we had more information.

However, the more we leave work unfinished or in a crufty state, the harder it is (for me) to want to return and finish it. The work drags on and on.

Instead, I make sure to leave work clean when I finish it for now. That way, I don't pay the context-switching cost when I move to some other work. (See Context-Switching vs. Multitasking: Postpone Clean Work vs. a Messy Mind for more details.)

I have a ton of starting energy and much less finishing energy. Yet, I like to finish so I can start something new). When I leave work in a clean state, I don't worry about picking it up again later. I don't have to dread any cruft.

These tips work best when I have an overarching goal.

Create an Overarching Goal for All Substantive Work

When I realize I'm starting a new project, I write down a goal. (See Modern Management: Want Valuable Outcomes? Create Overarching Goals.) Sometimes, I don't realize I have started a new project until I've already finished some work. I think of those efforts as emergent projects. I can choose to do them now or noodle on them for a while and decide later.

But all efforts deserve their own goals.

Briefly, decide for this work:

• Why are you/your team/your organization the right people to do this work?
• Who will benefit from the outcomes?
• What are those benefits?

When I start this way, I realize the unique value I can offer.

Why Are These Tips Not So Intuitive?

These tips “violate” the thinking that if people plan more, they can “just” follow the plan. Or that they can have large and long work items that people will have the energy to finish. Or that any vague goal is fine. It will all work out in the end.

The not-so-intuitive part is this: The more specific we are about the work, the less we need to plan. The more likely we are to tackle something and complete it. And that we live up to that overarching goal.

Specificity helps us iterate over the work in a way that linear plans do not.

---

Learn with Johanna

Once my cold finishes with me, I expect to open registration for the Q1 2024 writing workshop.

I published the first iteration of the Project Lifecycles book. I plan to publish the next iteration any day now, once my nose stops running quite so much. That book will help people stop with fake agility and support them as they need to use more agility in any lifecycle.

If you are considering public speaking, please see the self-study workshop for Write a Conference Proposal the Conference Wants and Accepts. Enroll and take it any time you want. If you want my feedback, you can add that at the end of the workshop.

---

New to the Pragmatic Manager?

Are you new to the Pragmatic Manager newsletter? See previous issues.

This year, I started recording these newsletters on my YouTube channel. I post the videos a few days after I send these emails.

Here are links you might find helpful:

• My Books. (BTW, if you enjoyed one of my books and still need to leave a review, please do. Reviews help other readers find books.Thanks.)
• All my Workshops (public, private, and self-study).
• My various consulting offerings
• Managing Product Development Blog.
• Create an Adaptable Life
• Johanna's Fiction

Johanna

© 2023 Johanna Rothman

Pragmatic Manager: Vol 20, #10, ISSN: 2164-1196