Foreign Coffee – DAY 7 of 19
DAY 7
Tuesday
6th March 2007
This morning we were up bright & early. We found an all you can eat breakfast buffet at a place called “ P.F. Chang’s“, right here in the hotel. Eggs, Bacon, Potatoes, Doughnuts, Pastries, Muffins, Cereal, Juice & Coffee for $6.99 each – this price was specific to those staying in the Aladdin Hotel. Definitely the best place we have eaten at so far.
The DIMA show begins at 14:00 today, so now it is time to wander about & find out where the shuttle will pick us up from.
The iPod Camera Connector worked great with my Fuji FinePix E550 digital camera. It also solved our memory card issue, as I was able to transfer all 196 of the photos I’ve taken so far, straight into our iPod!
It turns out that there is no shuttle for DIMA show, despite it being part of PMA, the shuttle service only starts on Thursday when PMA starts.
We caught The Deuce down the strip & walked the rest of the way to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Its a massive place, even by Wikipedia’s standards.
I attended a 14:00 – 15:10 session entitled, “What’s E-Paper and When Will It Be Used For Photos?” Apparently it is estimated 4 or 5 years before this technology will be used for 8×10 inch photo replacement. “This technology” in essence, being the process of combining the current technology of digital photo frames with that of being able to print on flexible materials like fabric. In essence, it relates to the technology of having a computer monitor which you could effectively fold up and put in your pocket once you are done using it. It’s like the original Beyond 2000 show all over again, hehe.
I then attended a 15:30 – 16:40 session by Bob Losyk, entitled, “How To Manage Your Time When You Are Wearing Too Many Hats.” It was a Time Management session aimed at managers & bosses, but it was interesting & informative none-the-less. Some of the noteworthy points made were as follows:
TIPS FOR TIME MANAGEMENT
1. Learn to say no!
2. Learn to delegate.
3. Get some “hiding time” during the work week, ½ hour to an hour.
4. Analyze your bio-rhythms and structure work time accordingly.
5. Do a time control log of work over a 3 week period – adjust as needed.
- Log your time throughout the day, note where time was lost to interruptions, plug this information into the following Quadrant Map:
|
|
URGENT |
NOT URGENT |
|
IMPORTANT |
QUADRANT I |
QUADRANT II |
|
NOT IMPORTANT |
QUADRANT III |
QUADRANT IV |
QUADRANT I : CRISIS
QUADRANT II : DISCIPLINE
- Make a contingency plan for things that can go wrong.
- Includes Recreation, De-Stressing and Exercise
QUADRANT III : DELUSION
QUADRANT IV : WASTE
6. Attempt to keep a clean desk – try not to handle a piece of paper more than once.
7. Before leaving the office, make a list of what you expect to accomplish the next day with priority designations for each item.
8. Center your time on the high payoffs, concentrate on results.
9. Know your worst time consumers and strive to eliminate them.
10. Make planning and scheduling a way of life – Goal Pro 6 or Eudora Pro can aid you with this.
PLANNING & SCHEDULING
* Flexibility is the key to planning and scheduling.
* Have only one calendar with both business and personal items on it.
* Consider a TO DO list with before work, during work and after work sections.
* Always estimate the time each task on your TO DO list will take.
* Remember that most tasks take 25% to 50% longer than the time you have allotted.
* Do your most important work during peak times when you are alert. Schedule meetings and appointments at a different time.
* Make a NOT TO DO list to keep you from wasting time.
* Be aware of conflicts between personal priorities and business priorities.
* Every person who is a time waster causes tension & stress, avoid them.
PRIORITIZING YOUR TO DO LIST
1. Of my long range priority goals, which should I work on today?
2. Which of these projects gives me the greatest return on my time?
3. Which project, if not worked on, presents the greatest threat to my job?
4. Which immediate items from previous lists should I work on today?
5 Which of these will give me the highest return?
6. What will happen if I ignore them?
——-
7. Now, divide your list into A, B, C and D.
8. Arrange you’re A’s into A-1, A-2, A-3, etc (you can only have one of each).
9. Do the same with B’s and C’s.
TACKLE PROCRASTINATION
* Ask yourself, “Who can help me achieve this & what information do I need?”
* Not everything has to be done perfectly, but should be done well.
* Use positive self-talk. Do it now!
* Break things down into small tasks/parts
* Get the hard part out of the way first.
* Tackle the hard parts during prime time
- Find out at which parts of the day you are at your perkiest, do your most difficult tasks during this time.
* Set a deadline
- A goal is just a wish without a deadline.
* If you are doing things that are tension relieving, i.e. deliberately allowing interruptions, then you are not meeting your goals.
* Reward yourself when a daunting task is completed.
* Make things more fun and interesting where possible.
* Re-Energize
DEALINE WITH PAPERWORK
* There was a 3 step guide in order to stop paperwork from cluttering up your desk, F.A.D : File – Act – Discard. In other words, file it away, deal with it right then and there or throw it away.
* Multi-tasking: It has actually been scientifically proven that multi-tasking isn’t actually all that good for you. When concentrating on 2 mental tasks at once, it then creates a situation where there is now not adequate brain power available for either task.
CLEANING UP STUFF
* Most people’s number one time waster is trying to find something.
* Ask yourself the following:
- When did I last use it?
- How frequently do I use it?
- Is it outdated information?
- Does someone else have this information?
- If I ever need it, could I find it?
- Will I ever miss it?
- Is retention required by law?
* Don’t keep junk because it cost you money to obtain it.
EFFECTIVE MEETING MANAGEMENT
* Why have it at all? Determine needs and outcome.
* Who should attend. Keep it small.
* Develop a written agenda and stick to it.
* Have a starting and ending time.
* Don’t schedule it regularly.
* Try meeting without any chairs.
* Allow no distractions or interruptions.
* Stick to issues – not personalities.
* Use fewer words.
* Summarize and ask questions.
* Circulate minutes and results.
BEFORE DELEGATING ASK
1. Is there enough time?
2. Are they already overworked?
3. How much trouble is it for them?
4. What is the worst case scenario?
5. Do they want the job?
DELEGATION GUIDELINES
1. Does it have to be done?
2. Select the best person.
3. Don’t over delegate.
4. Communication exact purpose, expectations and limits of authority.
5. Let them know you believe in them.
6. Set a time frame or deadline.
WHAT TO DELEGATE
1. Recurring routine details and decisions.
2. Jobs that take up large chunks of time.
3. Jobs you’re least qualified for.
4. What you don’t like.
5. Duties that develop others.
Wayne & I both attended the Opening Keynote “The Long Tail : Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More” by Chris Anderson, from 17:00 to 18:00. It was pretty interesting, it was about how if you only offer people the top 10 selling items, obviously that is all that they will buy. However, there is a much larger market out there for items which aren’t on the top 10 list, such as those offered by Amazon and Ebay, this being The Long Tail. Also, we each got a free copy of Chris Anderson’s book, “The Long Tail”.
The rest of the time, the two of us attended parallel lectures on the same stream.
The Deuce came right past the Convention Center in the evening, which was great. Unfortunately however, the bus also went past the Beverage Convention where a large number of inebriated, noisy, frat boys boarded the bus we were on. Oh should we be so lucky… 
One of them kept commenting again & again about wanting to see boobs & was it possible for us to stop off at a nudie bar… *sigh*
Back at the hotel, I purchased some 2nd generation iPod Nano skins, those Gizmobies things, I purchased the “ Red Shrine” one for Mark & the “ Lightening” [ LINK - ] one for Tarenn, including the double purchase discount, they came to $30.00. It is about time that Tarenn upgraded his 1st generation iPod Shuffle to a 2nd generation iPod Nano anyway, hehe. Total was $32.33 including tax.
For dinner, Wayne and I tried out an Italian place called Sbarro. Oddly enough, the guy behind the counter didn’t understand us when we asked for lasagne, must be something about the American accent that I don’t know, lol.
SBARRO
1x Lasagne $ 8.49
1x Large Slice, Deep Pan, Hawaiian Pizza $ 4.99
1x Large Mountain Dew $ 2.69
Tax $ 1.25
Total $ 17.42
The pizza was pretty big, 1 slice was equivalent to 2 to 3 slices of pizza back in South Africa. The pizza wasn’t great though, I would take a deep pan Scooters or Pizza Hut over it any day.
Anyway, time for bed, we have to be at the conference by 7:00am tomorrow morning.
Leave a Reply