What is productive laziness?
Peter Taylor, The Lazy Project Manager
“Progress is not made by early risers. It’s made up of lazy men who try to find better ways to do the same thing. Robert Heinlein (1907-1988).
I don’t advocate being lazy project managers. I’m not suggesting that we should all just sit down and drink coffee while reading a book, gossiping, and watching the project hours pass and the non-delivered milestones disappear. This would be a terrible idea and lead to a very short career in project management.
Laziness does not necessarily mean stupid. I mean that we all need to adopt a more focused approach in project management and put our efforts where they really matter. Rather than rushing around like busy bees, involving ourselves in non-critical, unimportant activities that others can address or that don’t require attention in some cases, I mean that we all need to be more focused in our project management.
Science behind laziness? being focused
Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 Rule, states that for many phenomena, 80% of the consequences are due to 20% of the causes. Although the idea is widely used, it is often misused. For example, it can be misused to say that a solution to an issue?fits the 80-20 rules? It doesn’t matter if it solves 80% of the cases, it must be implied that it requires only 20% of all the resources required to solve all cases.
Joseph M. Juran, a management thinker, suggested the principle. It was named after Vilfredo Pareto (an Italian economist who observed that 20% of Italy’s property was owned by 20% of its inhabitants). It is assumed that the majority of the results in any given situation are determined by a small group of causes.
So, 20% of clients could be responsible for 80% sales volume. This can be evaluated, and it is likely to be roughly correct. It can also be useful in future decision-making. The Pareto Principle can also be applied to mundane matters. One might think that we wear our 20% favorite clothes approximately 80% of time, and perhaps we spend 80% with 20% of our friends.
Every smart, but lazy person should use the Pareto Principle (or 80/20 rule) in their daily lives. The Pareto Principle is valuable for project managers because it reminds them to concentrate on the 20% that really matters.
Woody Allen once said that 80% of success is showing-up?. I’ve seen projects with a physical project manager, but I doubt that you would have believed that if you looked at the project’s progress, or lack thereof.
I think it is better to understand that only 20% of what you do every day really matters. Those 20% produce 80 percent of your success.
Identify and pay attention to these things throughout your work day.
See www.thelazyprojectmanager.com for more
