Gall's Law
Friday, February 09, 2007
Here's a nice rule of thumb I found:
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.
Gall's Law - WikipediaLabels: heuristics, systems
Pedestrian processes
Thursday, February 08, 2007
My last post may have made it sound like I am just going to throw process out the window altogether and just get along based solely on a handful of heuristics. That's close, but not quite it.
The problem with process is that it can tend to become overly complicated. Complexity that you don't really need just saps your productivity. On the other hand, if something is totally freeform, with no process at all, you will miss out on the opportunity for leveraging efficiency.
So, my goal is to have processes that are as unobtrusive and pedestrian as possible.
I find things like simple lists and checklists are often enough to do the job. And if they are applied consistently and methodically, they let you work through things without much thought - and you might even be able to think about something else while mindlessly working your way down the list.
Labels: lists, process, productivity
