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Posts Tagged ‘work’
The art - and instinct - of productivity
I just completed David Allen’s excellent book, Getting Things Done:The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. I found that some of his tips I do instinctively, yet perhaps not yet naturally, but this book helped me apply practical principles to time management. Plus, he shows us that it’s not always easy to get to “what is the next action?” in collaborative environments. Much discussion may go into that very question.
I love to be very busy, and the Getting Things Done book helps me realize that I’m as busy as many others, and perhaps less busy than some. He even says that you can have as many as 50 Next Action items on your list when you combine work and home actions and projects. What a relief it was to read that! I’m not overly busy or scheduled, I’m merely able to write down what it is that needs to happen next. I also found it a relief to keep all home and work action items in one place.
My favorite description of the natural instinctive planning process that some people can hold in their brains comes from This Woman’s Work, Dawn Friedman’s blog. She’s a writer and mom in Columbus, Ohio. The post is titled “Life inside my head” and my favorite sentence has to be this:
“Then there’s baby wardrobe — if I use the really good all-in-one dipe to take her to grandma’s then I won’t have it for the playdate tomorrow, which is ok except the other ones are a wee bit leaky so I should use the regular poofy diapers and then I’ll need to put her in the other outfit with a big enough tush but that one is maybe a tad too warm so I better check the weather forecast before I make a move at all.”
Sheer parenting inventory time management awesomeness. What are some of your favorite examples of extreme time and resource management?
Levels of difficulty and stress in a technical writer job
I have been thinking lately about how to measure the level of stress and difficulty you could expect from a particular technical writing job. Would it be the type of content you write? The output requirements? The deadlines? This post is a result of some ideas my coworkers and I discussed over lunch the other day.
There’s an article called “What Do Technical Writers Find Stressful?” on the techwr-l website. The author divides the stress into categories and then describes each one in detail. Here’s his list:
What categories would you add to the list? What brings you the most stress as a technical writer?
My next question that I’ll try to answer is, how would you discover the stress level of a job while you’re still interviewing for it? Here are my suggested questions.
- Tell me about the last product release, did the doc go out with errors or did it go out late? Give me a specific example of your choices between quality and deadlines.
- Do you feel like you get enough information about release changes? How are changes typically communicated to the writers?
- How many meetings do you attend each week? (Interpreting the answer might be tricky - more than 15 hours a week of meetings probably means there’s plenty of communication, but how will you get the actual work done in 25 hours a week?)
- What processes are in place for product releases? How closely are the processes followed? Does the team use any Agile methodologies? Is it Waterfall method? Is there no method?
- What platforms does your help support? Do you have any concerns about accessibility? How about multiple language requirements?
- Give me an example of how you gather information from developers or business analysts when you need to write a new procedure.
- What are the specs on your computer? Do you run the product on a separate computer or separate server? Do you have two monitors to run the product and to author the content?
In your interview, also try to read the stress level of each writer and manager you talk to. There may be clues in the amount of preparation they had for the interview itself, and whether the writer needs to immediately go to another meeting. What other observations might offer clues to the stress levels there?
I agree with the Brazen Careerist that one question not to ask is, “How many hours do you work per day?” This is a personal question that has to do with the individual’s work and life balance and may not reflect the department or the company at all.
Let us know your personal favorite interview questions when you are a candidate for technical writing and related jobs in the comments below.
Related links about asking questions as a job candidate:
- Your Turn to Ask Questions
- Questions to ask at a job interview
- 10 questions you should ask in an intervew
Simplest of style guides
Ah, simplicity. Elegant. Succinct. Basic. Good.
Welcome to ASI, new writer. Here are the basics:
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Write well, quickly, in the active voice and the present tense.
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Put punctuation outside the quoted material.
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Maintain gender neutrality. (”He” and “she”: bad. “They”: good.)
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Replace semicolons with periods.
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Use numerals for all numbers.
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Make cross-references target-neutral.
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Insert AIT variables.
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Publish Word documents or HTML files only.
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If it’s not here, look to The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications.
Quick and fast 401k investment allocation strategy
My very first disclaimer for this post is this - if it’s quick and fast, it’s probably not that good. That assessment would be truthful, but as I wade through all the benefits signup at a new position in a new company, I am looking for all the shortcuts I can. This trick is one I learned from a hardware engineer two jobs ago, at Entek in Cincinnati, Ohio.
His super secret method for quickly allocating his initial 401k investments was… drumroll please… an easy-to-remember math trick. Think about these four numbers 40, 30, 20, 10. They are descending in order, four values, multiples of ten, but most importantly, they add up to 100.
So for your initial 401k allocation, look at the risk levels for all your investment choices, whether they are mutual funds, bond funds, or stock. Then, depending on your age and aversion for risk, select four investment choices in descending order of risk. If you are “young,” say under the age of 30, and have many years to save for retirement, put 40% of your investments in a high risk investment. Then put 30% in the next highest risk, 20% in the next highest risk, and 10% in a bond fund. As your account grows, check the allocations and re-allocate if needed, and as you age, change the risk level of the highest percentage amounts you have invested. Here’s an example:
- 40% high risk (but only choose funds that invest in things you want to have in your portfolio)
- 30% moderate risk (or whatever risk level will let you sleep at night)
- 20% moderate risk (or whatever risk level will let you sleep at night)
- 10% bond fund (or something similar that is low risk)
Yes, it is a pretty silly method for allocating 401k investements, and of course returns are not guaranteed, but it allows you to make that snap decision on investments to get the account set up, and then re-allocate later.
