We have 4,000 weeks to live. That’s one of the discussion points in a podcast with Oliver Burkeman, author of 4,000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. Oliver’s book outlines philosophically how we spend those 4,000 weeks. I wish I had this insight when I started in construction as a field engineer. On the average project, we […]
Tag: Cal Newport
Cal Newport and Task Containment
A common complaint of the “modern quality system” or “process” is that it has too much documentation or takes up too much time. I don’t disagree. There exists a better method to managing quality that I’m implementing at my current organization, and Cal Newport’s new book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, […]
Simplify First, Automate Last
Many organizations wait for the perfect tool to automate their systems, yet we forget that automation is not a means of simplification. Simplifying a process and automating it are two separate actions. We must simplify a process first before automation. I recently wrote about waiting for the perfect tool and task containment as a means of simplification in design […]