On Friday (Dec 3, 2021), for the first time I realized the power numbers hold. I had been developing the process to track the deliverables of Theory Lab since a few days, after encountering a few problem statements. Thanks to Mr. Nitin, our mentor for Project Management, I was finally able to merge my structure + Rucha's structure (one of my colleagues) to bring all the common deliverables and team deliverables under one schedule.

As soon as I broke down every allocation an individual has (including team + personal objectives), and mapped them according to the hours available to them per week, I could instantly feel the relief! I will never forget the 'awestruck' feeling I had. Perhaps, that is why Mr. Nitin was laughing so hard seeing my expression!

I suppose this is what a 'learner's emotion' is.

When we feel that there are too many things to do (which is common in most fast-paced environment), what we need is to lay them out in front, allocate time to them and place them in our schedule. To quote Mr. Nitin, and also our CEO, Mr. Tarun⁩ -

"If a task is not on your schedule, you won't be able to do it."

This basically solves half of our problems with time management.

1. Having the full day planned before work.

2. Keeping enough buffers in between for urgent changes in schedule.

Here also... To quote Tarun, "Your bandwidth is what is left over, after you have considered the buffer time".

3. Keeping a separate record of what you had initially planned to do and what you actually ended up doing.

This will help in tracking the discrepancy between the plan and the executed schedule to further improve it.

4. Finally, not following any schedule/structure blindly. At DeepThought, there are numerous structures lying around. Observing which systemic structure is being used for what purpose, can help us break the systems down to fundamentals. Once we get hold of the fundamentals, the fun starts - playing with lego pieces to suit your own objectives!

Disclaimer : Beware! It's addictive.

My current playground in DT...

1. Is there a way to fuse Quick Sheet, Plan Sheet as well as a task-breakdown sheet? The challenge is to make the sheet equally lean.

2. Can there be a system to help us leverage the agility of DT? To thrive better in chaos? To get settled into a new organizational structure quickly? Will it increase our efficiency of experimentation?

...