Are you really in charge?

Yesterday I was in an “Exam Board” which is the decision-making meeting that confirms the degree award that students will receive. It’s my job to check all their marks and present the results to external examiners who scrutinise our work. At the point of the meeting where I had to …

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Reading book

How good are you at reading?

Earlier this week I was in a meeting where someone questioned a document. The item had been approved for distribution, yet there was a clear and rather glaring error in it. Oops…! Worse still, the “approved” item had been read by a group of people who had all “checked it” …

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Have you done anything of note this week?

Earlier this week, I was giving a presentation to business leaders about artificial intelligence in the workplace. After my talk, there was a period of discussion when one man said that he was a bit of an ostrich in terms of new technology. He said that he had his head …

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Can you do boring tasks?

Last week, not far from the M25 in Buckinghamshire, the biggest-ever boring machine in the UK started its slow churn through the Chiltern hills to dig a tunnel for the HS2 rail system. It will take three years for the device to complete the 10-mile tunnel in a non-stop effort. …

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Fence painting

When did you last paint your garden fence?

If you are a “big change” business, then you are like my garden fence. Leaving it unpainted for so long has created much more work, at a higher cost, than if it had been tended to every year. Ignoring reviews of your online activity for long periods also means you make more work for yourself and raise your costs.

Time management techniques use diaries like this one

Time management techniques don’t work when you use the Internet

Time management techniques do not always work. No matter what the time management gurus will tell you, it isn’t always possible to follow the rules about productivity or use the techniques that will supposedly transform your day. So what do you do when all time management techniques fail?