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July 05, 2007
On Entrepreneurship: Increase Productivity - Avoid “Part-time-ism”
If you ever find yourself looking for ways to get more productivity out of yourself and/or members of your own team, my rule #1 is: “Avoid Part-Time-ism”
While it is easy to delegate multiple tasks to the same person, you are more likely going to see the MOST productive results when the person doing the work for you is DEDICATED to the task. Same goes for yourself. If you are the one trying to get something done, better to focus your energy on one thing and “make it so.”
Whenever you don’t use a dedicated resource to get a task completed, the task will be at risk. At least this has been my experience.
And if you are an Entrepreneur, how do you deal with "Part-time-ism" on projects that matter to you? - please share your stories in the comments below.
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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Jeff Pulver
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Posted by jeff on July 5, 2007 12:01 PM | Permalink
Additional resources: Watch PrimeTime TV Shows | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos
Comments
No advice. Just - Amen.
Posted by: eliesheva at July 6, 2007 08:51 AM
Part time-ism is a fact of life for people starting a new business. Yes, it would have been great to have all the resources lined up from the beginning - but no one will put the money until you show result. I don't think there is a solution for that.
Having said that, I use the following thumb roles: 1. Always have one key activity which is the center of your work
2. You can only handle 3 tasks at a time. Finish one before you start worrying about another one
3. If someone needs something urgently - he will find you. Don't worry if you have email backlogs and missed calls without a voice mail.
Posted by: Kfir Pravda at July 6, 2007 02:09 AM
"Part-time-ism" is something that many of the companies that I have incubated inside the offices of pulver.com have suffered from over the years. I'm not sure of the cure when the budget does now allow for the luxury of hiring dedicated resources.
Posted by: jeff pulver at July 6, 2007 12:52 AM
hmmm - well jeff i have a web sited called curiostityitis.com for people who suffer from an over active imagination - i have been know to say "inspiration is bad enough but curiosity is killing me" but on the other hand i am still battling with a comment while filming a conversation with benoit mandelbrot in a snow storm - when i asked him - what is his relationship to curiosity - to which he responded "i fight curiosity" - i am not sure how i feel about it but i do think his comment relates to your part-time-ism question - i think we are products of an isms of schism that keep tearing us apart so i would say - follow your passion and if you don't know what your passion is then think about this - if you can not do something then don't do it and if you can't stop thinking about something then you might do something interesting - food for thought - geo
Posted by: geo at July 5, 2007 03:10 PM
One of my personal challenges is to find a way to dive deep on things instead of surfing across a series of projects. The problem there is that if I'm to embrace what I've learned through my strengthsfinder experience ( blogged about here), then I should accept the fact that my strength isn't in dedication to a single purpose r product. I'm reasonably good about multi-threading.
And yet, I recognize and agree with your thought. SOMEONE has to be locked down. It's a sure sign of what could go horribly wrong.
Posted by: Chris Brogan... at July 5, 2007 02:23 PM
interesting post jeff. i do part-time-ism on all of my projects, and all of my employers are happy with my work. but it does get me wondering how much more i could be doing.
Posted by: julien at July 5, 2007 02:06 PM