Course notes: Time Management for Technical Leaders

These are my notes on Patrick Kua’s Time Management for Technical Leaders.

Main insight: plan, split scary tasks, time box and rest. Aim for a WIP of 1.

Notes

• Focus on how you can have the biggest impact with the time you have.
• Eisenhower Matrix:
  
  • Do: emergencies, major outages, crisis, someone quitting.
  • Decide:
    • Manage technical debt.
    • Building relationships.
    • Schedule time.
    • Research.
  • Delegate: See Camille Fournier’s delegation matrix.
• Biorhythm: Keep track for a week on how is your energy level on each task.
• Defrag your calendar: group together similar nature tasks.
• 2 minutes rule: Do now anything that takes less than two minutes.
• Parkinson’s Law:
  • “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion”.
  • Time box.
  • Spit into smaller tasks.
• Pareto’s Law.
• Carlson’s Law: Multitasking is bad.
• Law of Diminishing Returns (Illich’s Law): You need to rest.
• Hofstadter’s Law:
  • “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law”.
  • Prepare plan B.
  • Early feedback.
  • On planning, think about all possible bad scenarios.
• Law of The Least Effort (Laborit’s Law):
  • “Human behaviour drives us to do what makes us happy first”.
  • It is human nature to avoid stress.
  • Eat the frog first.
  • Give yourself a reward.
  • Get started by baby steps.
• How to kill dead time:
  • Meditation.
  • Make notes.
  • Call someone.
  • Do nothing.
• Slack. Great book.
• Productivity Systems:
  1. Get Things Done:
     • Open Loops:
       • When you worry about when and if something is going to get done.
       • Source of stress.
     • Three steps:
       • What is the outcome.
       • What is the next step.
       • Reminder.
     • Bucked things per timeframe.
  2. Pomodoro Technique.
  3. Personal Kanban:
     • Visualize your work.
     • Limit WIP to 1.