Collaboration

Questions of the week: Will the weekly saving time saved go away? Can you share the ideas you found or shared in the Team Collaboration Call? What are the few ideas Team has applied after Team Collaboration Call?

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I write this article based on the insight of my conversation with my team in our monthly 1-on-1 call. I speak with each one of my team members. This article is a compilation of a whole week's takeaway. You can subscribe to the?Building our Team?newsletter (1700+ subscribers)

Will the weekly saving time saved, go away?

Yes, we can if we remove the focus from it.?

As you know, we have a 9-member women's leadership team doing the team collaboration. There was a deadline for last week which can be done in 1 hour. On average, each member in 73bit can save 2-4 hours per week. So there was no reason to miss the deadline. However, one person missed it.?

Upon investigation, the person confirmed that the current sprint has more workload, and she saved time last sprint. I asked her who gave her more work. She replied she only estimated it and she could handle it.?

I asked her, "But in that case don't you think you should not let go of the 4 hours per week that you have already managed to save?"

Her reply was, "Not thinking about it."

Here is the thing...

As all of you have already done the course and agree that Time is Money

Now, when you save 4 hours a week, you have established that you are creating value out of your time. This time saved, you are investing back in yourself. We do this by learning new skills, reviewing past work and refining the process.?

So consider this time as your second income stream. We must treat this time like we treat money. Will you be happy getting less salary next month than the previous month? (I hope NOT, DON"T WORRY no one is reducing your salary) Similarly, Once we establish our standard weekly time saved, ideally 20 hours a week, that means you can upskill yourself to create 2X value for 73bit.?

What's the point of learning time management and not applying it every single day? It's like running 10 KM to do a job when you have a cycle. If someone asks you why you are not using the cycle??

Your reply is?

"Not thinking about it."?

OR?

"I don't have time to pick the cycle."

We are in the knowledge business the most powerful tool you have is between your ears, and it's called THE BRAIN.

Can you share the ideas you found or shared in the Team Collaboration Call?

1. We can do day-wise planning and weekly planning so that we know what needs our attention and then prioritize it.?In our planning, we can include the team members so that the deadlines are met, and there is no miscommunication. It doesn't have to be on call(to save time); we can document it.?

2. I had a bottleneck concerning the deadline towards the end of the month while delegating the task to team members. We discussed how we could do partition delegating. For example, 2 team members can work on the target for starting 10 days, then the other 2 team members can work on the target for another 10 days and rest 2 team members can work on the target for the last 10 days of the month.?

3. Saving the interruption or distracting tasks like corresponding to the messages and documentation for the end of the day, preferably when you can move around and take a break.?

4. Everyday in the morning, before starting work I will do a todo list, and from that todo list, i will prioritize my work accordingly so that I will won't be overwhelming for the day because I will be knowing which task I should finish first

5. Break large tasks given to me first, i will that task into small chunks so that I can have a clear understanding of how task can be done, and also I can understand that task properly when it is broken into small places of tasks if I stuck somewhere in the middle of the task I can ask for help from any senior instead assuming thing by my own in this way I can have better understanding how to finish that task and also it will save me a time?

6. Before estimating any task, I will invest the task properly first, then I will give a couple of hours for the buffer time so that if any setbacks happen can still be manageable to complete the task according to the estimation.

7. Investigation is better rather we run for a solution. Sometimes the things in the first expression look very difficult, but we can find it can be easily fixed after investigation.

8. Whenever a senior is busy and can’t help you, utilize time to learn new concepts. E.g Learn to write a test case.

9. We can skip those calls and meetings which do not require our presence.

10. If a task comes to me, I first think about how much time it will take to complete it and set a target of half an hour before that time to complete it perfectly.

11. First, complete the easy task?and divide the bigger task into small chunks

12. Analyze the ticket first before testing that ticket and Switch to another ticket immediately when stuck on the first ticket.

13.?Try to make short formulas to avoid bracket mistakes: I am currently working on a dataset, so this idea helps me to avoid mistakes and rework.

14. Set a timeline for your daily work in the To-do list:??This idea is really helpful to me and for all so that you can divide your daily work accordingly, and it will help to achieve a timeline for that particular task.

15. Prioritize your daily work: Prioritize your daily work according to important and urgent work.

16. Analyzing the ticket and estimating time.

17. To follow daily time log without delaying

18. Discussing things on status calls to save time.?

What are the few ideas Team has applied after Team Collaboration Call?

1) Automation is something that can save you more time?

2) Taking breaks in between long tasks will help you perform better.?

3) Changing the work desk (surroundings) will give you a new space to think effectively.

4) A dedicated Team will give better results.

5) I have observed that there is no need to be available immediately for team members instead, give them time to think

6) Keeping the data of the repetitive work to make things more efficient for the utilization next time

7)?Have buffer time for handling urgent tasks.

8) Estimate each task in advance and ask yourself, "How can I do this in half time?"

9) Assigned the ticket as per the capability?

10) Using the Pomodoro technique, we can avoid lethargy at the end of the day, which would indirectly save time for us.

11) Preparing notes about an issue and sharing the steps will save time rather than having a call.

12) Setting expectations as checklist so we can avoid calling

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