Category: Work

A couple weeks ago, I developed a new system for my daily things to do.  I’m not sure if it will hold long term, but I’m pretty intrigued by it so I thought I’d share.  Its based off of the Pomodoro system, but without the pomodoros.

It’s a simple mix of analog and digital.  In the morning, I very quickly skim the emails to make sure I don’t have any new calendar invites for the day and then print out the daily calendar from outlook.  This calendar page then gives me a sheet of paper to take notes from voicemails.  After voicemails I skim the emails more carefully to make sure there isn’t anything that needs to be immediately addressed.

Once that is completed, I then pull up Microsoft OneNote which holds my god-list list with all the tasks that need to be done for all my projects.  I scan the list and pull off the items I want to work on for the day.  The god list idea came from following the various lists that Mark Foster has played with over the years.   Unlike Mark Foster who does a simple undifferentiated list, this list is categorized by project, furthermore every item on the list is highlighted with a responsible party, so I can keep track of major items and the project status.  The daily printout and selection concept comes from the Pomodoro Technique, even though I don’t currently execute the 25 minute pomodoro routine at this time.

Once I have this daily list written down, I take a deep breath, prioritize the items, take another deep breath, and start on the first one.  I am generally pretty good at estimating time, and will end up knocking most of the items on the list, with a couple less urgent items left uncompleted at the end of the day, which is fine by me. 

The god list and the daily sheet play together hand in hand.  The daily sheet ensures that I don’t miss any appointments for the day and keeps me focused on that tasks that need to be accomplished immediately.  It also gives me context for the day, and I know that if I need to chase something that comes up out of the blue, something else on that daily list won’t get done.  If that trade is acceptable, I go ahead and address it.  For everything else, the god list is that it is my release valve.  If there is a task that I need to address but is not immediately urgent, I write it on the god list, highlight it showing that it is my responsibility, and then forget about it.  With several projects burning at once, it is important to have each day in context as well as a simple list that gives me an immediate snapshot of all of my responsibilities.

The one bit of occasional maintenance that would not be obvious from the notes above is that I aspire to be an inbox zero guy.  I will quickly scan the emails in the morning, and then about once a week when things get out of hand I purge through my inbox and sent folders.  I try to file or delete all emails.  If an email points out a task that needs to be done, I add an entry in my OneNote god-list and then file the email in its project folder.  For the rare important unresolved emails, I’ve played with the idea of filing a copy of the email in a separate OneNote page with the project and task as the title, but that seems too unwieldy so I still just leave those it in the inbox.  So I’m not a true zero guy, since I usually end up with a couple emails in my inbox.

The biggest issue I need to work on is making sure I carve out time to do the One thing, aka the important but non-urgent items Q2 items in Stephen Covey’s matrix.  Part of the problem is that I’m still relatively new at the job, so a lot of things are coming at me fast.  Hopefully with time discernment will come.  As I write, it seems that I need to prioritize training more than I have previously….once I take care of my biggest batch of fires that will push me through the month.

I was thinking of one of my favorite clients and the brain went to the question “why?”  What made her such a good client?

I think it was her mix of enthusiasm and experience.  There is the heated enthusiasm of novices, which is cute but ultimately frustrating when the team ends up constantly reinventing the wheel.  There is also jaded experience where one’s joy has been sucked out over the cruel passage of time.

But when one finds a good mix, it makes for a great working relationship.  A consultant is hired by the client to help them help themselves.  And the consultant can best accomplish that when the client starts with a strong concept of the destination, even if they aren’t sure how to get there (after all that’s why the consultant was needed).

While it is important to have a client who grasps the basics, it’s also a joy to work with someone who is still open to new and different ideas.  A good client is interested enough in the project to realize they aren’t the only person with the answers.  You want to work for someone who wants you for more than the final physical deliverables.

There is a balancing act with enthusiasm and experience, and when you’ve come across who’s got it, cherish it while it lasts.

Twice in my career, my compensation has jumped by about half twice.  Not surprisingly, both jobs came via referral from a friend who worked at the new firm.  More importantly, both of these guys had been unemployed for some time.

While it certainly can’t hurt to hang with people who already have juicy jobs, there is something counterintuitively opportunistic about picking up the check for with someone without a gig.  This guy isn’t just open to opportunities, he is actively looking for openings in a way you aren’t.  His full time job is to find one.

If a place is hiring, there’s a chance it’s not just one single position that needs to be filled.  So aside from being a good person and treating your buddy to lunch, there might be a crass benefit on the other side.

I woke up this morning thinking about a project we were just released to start a last week.  This is the first project where I didn’t take over mid-stream, so it has been a bit of an adventure figuring out how to set it up within the state’s system.  Fortunately, I am working with an architect who was familiar with the process and the agency that requested the project.

It’s only the beginning, so there are plenty of ways for things to go sideways.  I certainly learned that difficult lesson working on my own never ending house remodel.  However, the bigger lesson from that remodel is that every job is a transaction.  In this case, I am purchasing expertise and the contractual deliverables.  Yes, I own the project and the money, so it looks like I have the power, but ultimately we’re equals in this trade.

On Facebook, someone posted about a conundrum where he was given too much work to do, informed his boss of the problem, told to just get it done, and then chastised for not getting everything done in a day.  This was my response.

“You’re a tough situation. What I have done differently in your scenario above to make sure there is a clear gameplan before your boss walks away.

“It is appropriate to give your boss the initiative in setting priorities. If he doesn’t, then you need to propose a specific work plan. Such as “In the 11 hours we are allowed to work, I think I can get ABC done, which means that DEF may be pushed back till tomorrow, does that sound good?” Don’t let him leave without forcing him to give you a clear idea of your priorities.

“And I agree with the previous responder, it is also a really good thing to send your boss an email at the end of the day, “as discussed today, I did ABC, and started on D, unless you need something different, I should get D and E tomorrow. Here are the issues we are dealing with…” Such an email will preemptively deal with his question of “why?” and help him start prioritizing your tasks first thing tomorrow morning when he’s checking correspondence.

“You may also need to have a brutally frank conversation of this nature: “Ok, for me to complete ABCDEF all today, I need to cut corners. Are you ok with executing this work at below our typical company standards to get them all out the door?”  Obviously there are some things you can’t fuck with (such as life safety) but most things can go Chevy vs Cadillac. And again, if there is flexible in quality, then that is a decision for your boss to make, so help him out by highlighting the available options to him.

“Ultimately it’s our job to give honest assessments of work progress to the guys upstairs, so they have the best info for doing their job in allocating team resources.  And if they refuse to listen to reality, there is the final answer, dust off your resume.

Last week, we started an assessment of one of the larger office buildings in our portfolio.  The very first step of the exercise was to figure out the proper points of contact for each of the multiple departments in the building.  The maintenance team pinpointed some potential targets, but ultimately someone had to sit down and find out.

I spent half of Monday calling up and down the building, and then I burned up Tuesday morning blasting out email introductions between the departments and the architect. I joked with a colleague that I spent the first half of this week cold calling and spamming state employees.  It was a glorified version of a high schooler’s first job search working their way down the yellow pages.

As the client, I could have forced the architect handle this task, but I wanted to send a signal that I respect them as professionals, reserving their labors for executing the actual data collection and analysis that they were really hired to do.  This grunt work was a gray area in the contract, and I felt that pulling a power play so early in the relationship would ultimately cost the project in reduced quality in the final delivered assessment.

Maybe I was just played for a patsy by my own consultant, but I think true leadership is earned via service to those you are leading.  Authority comes with my job title, but the true job is to motivate my team to deliver their best work, which is done the hard way.

One of the duties at my new job is architectural plan reviews, which includes both drawings and specs. The hardest part of the task getting started; it is daunting to look at break open the massive drawing set and multiple specification volumes that need official owner comments.

I’ve had a design development set staring at me for a few days now, mutely shaming me every day that passes without any progress. I tried to start the markups a few days ago, but I could not concentrate. The eyes glazed over and I was mindlessly flipping pages. Mercifully, an interruption came up and I didn’t end up wasting too much time on this fruitless attempt.

Last night, I began to review it in earnest. Again, it was slow going to start, but I suddenly remembered to pull out the yellow highlighter (which I use to mark off notes that have been read) and I soon slid into a nice groove.

I’m certain that shear repetition will make this task less daunting after each completed review.  But I also suspect that getting started will become easier because I’ll get better at setting the table sooner rather than later.  When confronted with a mountain of paper, I’ll start by pulling out the yellow highlighter and red pen, letting these simple objects prime my brain for the task at hand.

I just woke up from a dream where we were on the verge of buying another fixer-upper that was in truly execrable shape.  It was an old victorian house with multiple additions over the years with several tenants already living in it.  Our plan was to subdivide it further and rent out the first floor as an Air BnB.  The deal fell through when we went up to the second floor, saw that the floors were completely sagging, and finally realized the enormity of the task.

After all, we had already done in real life with our never ending house remodel.  It was a difficult experience, that constantly loomed over us for several years.  People think that house remodels are fun.  Maybe it’s an enjoyable hobby for a select few, but for most folks, it would actually be an utter slog like we experienced it.

It’s been nice to have our house more or less completed, but the best part of the experience was really learning to work with others.  First, it cemented our opinion that my wife and I make a good pair.  Residential architecture is the most personal physical manifestation of your vision of the future, made that much more intense because you are expending your own limited resources to actualize this vision.  Furthermore, as the homeowner builder, you are continually confronted with decisions long after the main design exercise has been completed.  Having gone through this crucible, we now have tangible proof that we will ultimately come up with the best solution to any problem, even if we don’t agree at the start.

On top that, it was the first time that I was the owner, both of the building and of an enterprise.  As an architect, I’ve always tried to sincerely keep the owners’ best interests in mind, but when you also must cater to your boss (any employee’s true client) it just isn’t the same as being the actual owner of the building. As the homeowner-contractor, we were also suddenly thrust into the position of being a temporary GC, one who would be living in the results.  Since we were on a tight budget, we had the pleasure of working with several subcontractors who delivered subpar work.  As someone who has never been in a management position or owned my own business, this was a sudden baptism into conflict resolution.  No one comes out of it happy, but we did get them to come back out and redo it to a meet a minimal standard and come to an acceptable compromise.

Silly as it may sound, this quixotic house remodel experience was the best preparation I could have for my new job as a project manager for the state.  Now, I’m well practiced in being an Owner.  When I first started the house remodel, I deferred too much the experience of my subcontractors. After being disappointed several times, I’ve learned that I need to carefully supervise their work.  I’ve now taken this mindset working with my consultants. I respect their expertise, but I won’t blindly trust their recommendations. These are my buildings and I am gong to live with the results. I’ve always been fair, but now I know to be firm.

It wasn’t a fun process, and I don’t recommend doing your own house remodel if you aren’t in the AEC industry, there’s gotta be less painful ways to learn these lessons! Even though it turned out great for my career, I ain’t doing it again, in real life or the dream world.

I just came out of a design meeting for a new $45 million dollar college building.  One of the consultants was a cost estimator who I had worked with at my previous company, so I was quite happy to see them in the room.

We had worked together on some small tenant improvements and they were always detailed, responsive, and professional.  When I scheduled a project, they were honest about their capacity, and even if our deadlines got moved by the client, they made sure I still had something presentable.

I would naturally catch some oversights and disagreements during early drafts, but the comments were always minor.  They carefully thought through every item and were always prepared with clear explanations whenever I challenged their conclusions.  In short, I loved working with them.

Now that I realize that this whole time they’ve also been working on other projects with a bunch of extra zeros, and my esteem only goes up further.  At the old gig, my jobs were small but they were the most important thing in my world, and I never doubted it was the same for them.   For one’s sanity, any good professional will be forced to prioritize their tasks, but having done so you can’t forget that each client has hired you to deal with their top priority.

It can’t be an easy juggling act, but when you can make the little guy as happy as the big boys, you are indeed a true professional.

Yesterday, I was fishing around for consultants to work on a specific task and I closed the email asking for references to other companies who would do this work, if they weren’t interested in the opportunity with our company.

On the way home, I suddenly realized I was practicing something I had learned at the very start of my career.  I finished college at the bottom of the dot-com bust in 2001.  Work was not easy to find, and I had to resort to the classic brute force approach to finding interested firms, going down the phonebook calling every architect on the list.

After multiple repetitions, I remember a transition from focusing on the opening pitch to honing my response for the inevitable rejection.  That of course was exactly the line I preemptively used in the emails to my consultants yesterday.  This time I’m on the other side of the exchange, offering money while fishing for labor, but its the same thing. And it was the same when I was in private practice calling around manufacturers fishing for products.

The skills I honed almost twenty years ago scrapping for work are still being used today.  So when you get handed some crummy little task (like cold calling down a phone book), go do it well.  The skills you practice might serve your entire career.