Welcome
Welcome to the Foresight Newsletter, a free monthly publication of Prevoyance Group Inc. This newsletter shares project management tips and observations that I hope will prove informative and enjoyable.
Contents
Foresight is a monthly newsletter published by the Prevoyance Group, and this month contains four sections:
Project: Take a Year End Inventory
Life
Heard in the Hallways
Travels with Patrick: Joy Where You Least Expect It
Project
The end of the year is often a hectic time. Many companies end their year with the calendar year, so in addition to the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, you may also be sweating through an impending go-live, year end close or key deliverable date. Combined with personal pressures to implement "New Year's Resolutions," there is a palatable push to focus on the now, while also creating plans for the coming year.
Before getting too caught up in the resolution making game, take a few quiet hours, perhaps coupled with a glass of your "holiday cheer" of choice, and reflect on the past year. I would even go so far as to recommend putting pen to paper or fingers to keys, and examine the past year in three dimensions:
1) Key accomplishments of the past year
2) Failures and lessons learned in the past year
3) Notable professional and personal developments
This list need not be more than two or three pages, but should prompt you to think of past accomplishments, and failures in the light of what they can teach you for the future. The third item forces you to think back to events of the past year, where often you;ll uncover several pleasant memories that have become lost in the present muddle of mental shopping lists, action items and other minutiae. During this activity, there's nothing wrong with reveling in the past. Ponder all your accomplishments and give yourself a pat on the back.
From here, consider in addition to the usual list of "resolutions," to create a "stop doing" list. While a typical resolution is to lose weight, this assumes you can add a behavior to counteract what you may have been doing your entire life. Resolutions are often too unspecific to really be helpful. A better strategy might be to resolve to visit the gym more often, and add "Eating dessert 4 nights a week" to the stop doing list. This is an entire book in and of itself, but the point is not to focus solely on adding "To-Do's" to an already full plate, but rather to also focus on getting things off that plate. Evaluate activities that are taking time away from doing that which you love, and also add those to the "stop doing list" and you may find free time you did not even know you had.
When I hear people complain about not having enough time in the day, I always think of a quote that I am going to paraphrase here:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and Mother Theresa all had the same 24 hours in a day.
These great leaders were not only masters of the to-do, but also intelligent enough to know what to stop doing.
Here's to a Happy, Healthy and less productive (in the right areas) New Year to you and yours!
Life
- As bills arrive in the New Year, take a few minutes to evaluate the service you're being billed for before writing out the check. Are you using too many or too few mobile phone minutes? Is it time to change plans? Could you get a better deal from a different supplier, etc.?
- Make a fun resolution in addition to the usual "exercise more." Resolve to leave work 30 minutes earlier on Fridays, or dedicate one night each week to dinner with a friend or significant other, or engage in your favorite hobby for an extra hour each week.
- Balance the hectic time that occurs around the holidays with a little quiet time. Spend an evening at home with a loved one, or take a relaxing weekend trip somewhere the weekend after New Years, when prices and crowds have fallen.
- Try some old fashioned courtesy in the New Year. Hold open doors, give other drivers the right of way, etc. It's interesting to see the reaction you get from a white-knuckled commuter when you let their car go first during the usual cutthroat race to and from work.
- Add a list of long-term "projects" to your to-do list, whether it is something specific like learning Spanish, or a rather lofty goal like being a better person. When you see these items as you review your to-dos each day, it will trigger you to take the series of little steps to accomplish that goal, and prevent it from falling into the back of your mind for another year.
Heard in the Hallways
I work with several Europeans, and they are quite amused by the US aversion to wishing anyone a greeting other than "Happy Holidays." Perhaps in our zeal to avoid offense we are missing the point of Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, Ramadan or any other time of celebration. When I am wished a Happy Chanukah I feel like I have shared part of the well wisher's tradition. Although it is not my own, I feel honored that someone would share their tradition with me, and remember me during a time they hold dear.
In that vein, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Travels with Patrick
New Years is one of my favorite times of year, mainly because I met my wife on New Years Day several years ago. I was in a bit of a "rut," both personal and professional, and circumstances found me stuck in Boston, for a project that was cancelled the day I arrived after cutting a holiday in London short. A few days before New Years, with no firm plans, a friend in the same boat and I decided to make a trip up to Montreal, Quebec.
We spent the 31st at a favorite bar in Old Montreal, spoke of the past year, and enjoyed a glass of cheap champagne at the stroke of midnight. After taking a walk around the bar, I returned to find a young woman chatting with my friend. A few minutes later, her friend arrived, and we struck up a conversation as our two amigos attempted to connect on some level. Little did I know that the "wingmen" would score a victory that night, as the woman I was talking to would become my wife in 2005.
When you least expect it, life changing opportunities really do happen! Have a wonderful and prosperous New Year!