Over the past few years, I built healthy habits of reading more and more books. This year, to start with, I picked up – “Rework,” which was in my long pending list to pick up. “Rework,” authored by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, is an outstanding business book. For me, this book would be in the category of demystifying the myth of some of the old business models and how to run a focused and high performing team for a successful business.
One Page Summary
This time I tried to capture notes and summary in a different way ( hand drawing business icon and representation ). It is not perfect, but when I reflect, I can recall an entire book looking at these images. I will continue the same for the next books and blog posts to improve upon my drawing.
While I am reading this book now, I follow several of these philosophies, Jason and David, mentioned in the book; at least over last few years. However, I wish I would read the book a couple of years back.
“Do what makes sense today! Less is good – Stay Lean, Agile, and Flexible. Start building something and avoid too much of analysis paralysis by talking and wasting time over meetings, documents, and reports.”
While this books talks about several things including Team, Progress, Productivity, Competitors etc, the key focused alwas has been same.
Don’t worry about starting with Small. Small itself is a destination. So, Just Start.
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Here is some of my key takes from the book:
Planning is Guessing
Do what makes sense today. Decide what you are going to this week. Looks for what you are going achieve in the next two weeks! That’s it. Long term planning is a waste of time.
It does not mean that we don’t need a long term vision. Execution has to be lean and fast — that’s why we move into an agile and sprint based model with a very shorter duration of the sprint.
Estimation is also guessing unless you make it small. Small gives clarity and helps achieve things faster.
Interruption kills productivty
Our day is under siege by interruptions. It’s up to us how we fight back. Avoid unnecessary meetings where there is no agenda, only talk about abstraction with no real work, no problem solving the only discussion. Avoid emails when the team is collocated – talk in person and solve the problem, rather than wasting time over emails.
Notifications are killers; each time you see information, it’s a context switch. It’s expensive for your productivity.
I work in the “Zero” notification mode. Nothing is going to change if you missed a few updates. You can catch up with them later or ignore them.
Get into “Alone Zone” or “Team Zone” of work. Work for Better Hrs. Not More Hrs. Go to a meeting with Agenda, Maintain Time, Invites who are required, and talk about the problem.
Impose Deadline
Focus on what won’t change and invest there first. Don’t make a long list of ToDo; it’s just a guilt trip for future, more mess, and more stress. Break it small and impose a deadline.
The deadline brings clarity. Focus on what matters most, commit to a date, build it, and release it. Every quick wins count.
Don’t Be Hero
I liked this part, and I have personally seen many of these heroes. They estimate work for four hrs. And continue doing for 8 hrs. eventually goes for weeks. Stop that! We don’t need such a hero.
When we estimate something smaller and can’t achieve it even double time, it’s time to ASK for Help. Ask another opinion. They are not going to do your job for sure, but It may give you a different direction to solve the problem quickly.
Avoid getting into this trap. Ask Others for Help!!
Be Decisive
Take small decisions. Don’t change the angel directly by 180 degrees. Do it Slowly with little change and decision. Smaller decisions always better for revert and give clarity. Be Decisive in meetings.
Don’t keep things for later to make a decision. It’s stacked up. Take a decision and move on.
Many More….
- Respect who does the real work, say No to the delegators who tell what to do without knowing what it takes to do that.
- Be Real. Be the one who you are. When there is a crisis, call it out and seek help.
- Say “No,” be honest with you what you have and make that important
- Build Trust, Be Influential, Be Original – Share what you know.
- Focus on You.
- ASAP is a Poison
“The easiest way to build something great product is to make something you want to use.”
I will highly recomand to read this book if you really want to rethink the way we operate today.
Do share your thoughts.
Featured Images : pexels.com
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