Time Management - Marc Mancini
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136<br />
<strong>Time</strong> <strong>Management</strong><br />
without too many features that I don’t need?” and “Will I benefit<br />
in any way from these features?”<br />
For example, let’s go back to the venerable fax machine. You<br />
might seek the following features, since they would enormously<br />
benefit your efficiency, productivity, and time management:<br />
• Automatically feeds multi-page documents from a loader.<br />
• Prints on plain, bond, letter-size paper, rather than thermal<br />
fax paper.<br />
• Sends documents automatically to multiple stations.<br />
• Stores text in memory when paper or ink/toner runs out.<br />
• Memorizes frequently used numbers for one-touch or<br />
speed dialing.<br />
• <strong>Time</strong>-delay transmission allows sending documents when<br />
phone rates are lower.<br />
To find a fax machine that has all of these features would be<br />
marvelous. The problem: the Pareto Principle. 80% of your<br />
usage will come from three or four features. But a model with<br />
all these capabilities may also possess dozens—even hundreds—of<br />
options that you may almost never use. The additional<br />
functions add to the cost, could complicate operations, and<br />
will multiply the chances of something going wrong. You may<br />
even forget about these extra features.<br />
You should also read research reports or articles and talk<br />
with friends before making a decision about makes and models<br />
of time management tools to purchase (see Figures 10-1 and<br />
10-2 on pages 137-138).<br />
TEAMFLY<br />
Is It User-Friendly?<br />
A true story. A teacher asks her first-graders to define the<br />
word genius. One student’s response: “Genius: When you<br />
turn on a machine and it works.” That youngster already<br />
understands that devices aren’t always user-friendly. It<br />
shouldn’t take a genius to figure things out.<br />
Along with technological advances come technological complexities.<br />
The Pareto Principle, which maintains that we get 80%