Monday, September 12, 2011

Repetition

Although repetition is a good thing when it comes to education and positive feedback, it is a bad thing when it come to work and productivity.

So let's do an exercise together. Is there something you find yourself doing over and over again at work? If not, keep reading so that you can help your neighbor or spouse; if yes, answer these questions with that task in mind.

  1. What is the purpose of this task? (This is to ensure it's not just busy work and must be done.)
  2. Are you the best person to do this task? (This assumes you are in the position to either delegate this to others and/or discuss a reassignment with your boss.)
  3. Can any steps be automated? Can any steps be batched? 
  4. Can parts of this task be shared or even left out, without decreasing its value?
Let me share two examples with you, to better illustrate what I'm getting at. Please note that for both these examples, they were determined to be of value and could not be reassigned.

Two jobs back, there was a report I had to run for my boss every two weeks, and she was a stickler for formatting. Since our database outputted ugly Excel reports, I would spend a lot of time centering, bolding, etc. After a few weeks, this drove me so crazy that I took the time to record a macro. Thereafter, Alt-A would do four formatting steps in one simple stroke. It took me a few tries to get the macro nice and tight, but it was well worth it.

Another example, at that same job, were the forms my staff had to fill out for each project. Ideally these forms would have been outputted from our database, with all the project data already there, but this unfortunately was not possible at that point. I therefore suggested a master Excel grid, with the shared project data on the first tab and carried over to the remaining tabs where new information was to be filled in. (Although many thought this was a great idea, they felt it would be too complicated and another approach was taken).

Neither of these examples require a degree in rocket science, nor is my approach the only solution to removing the inefficiency inherent in these repetitions.

So next time you find yourself repeating steps, stop and think it through--or even talk it through with your boss or peers--and then put that extra "found" time to good use.

No comments: