As Building Engines has experienced tremendous growth over the past several years, my personal areas of management, responsibility, and associated tasks have grown along with it. Like many of the clients I speak with, I struggle with the challenge of managing my ever-increasing workload. The common conversation I have with myself is “how do I prioritize all of the things I have to do when everything seems like an urgent priority?” – Sound familiar?
Like thousands of other people, I’ve recently become a devotee of David Allen’s excellent book and program called Getting Things Done or, GTD as it is commonly called. The book offers many valuable lessons and strategies for processing information and prioritizing tasks, projects and the people responsible for them. One that stood out to me most deals with the simple process of acting quickly (and only once) on incoming information (i.e. emails) –
- Do it (if it can be accomplished in less than 2 minutes)
- Trash it (delete)
- Defer it (create an action)
- Delegate it
You would not believe how valuable adding that simple discipline to your daily routine can be.
As I began to delve into the actual processes suggested by Allen and GTD, I was struck by how similar they are to what a Web-Based Operations Management platform offers to real estate and facility managers. It is really all about having the right tools in place for data collection and then automating as much of the workflow as possible so that you can easily prioritize items. The better the system you have in place, the less time you lose worrying about the process, and the more time you have to devote to the things that are truly deserving of your attention.
One final point emphasized by GTD that is also true about the Building Engines platform is this: The best system in the world is of little value if you don’t have the discipline to stick with it and maintain it. It’s a lot like that other thing we all plan to stick to that requires discipline and consistency… exercise. However, just like exercise, results from that effort will be recognizable, measurable and lasting.
