There was once a management theory, which incidentally I never care to know, called “working by objectives” which was discarded by current academic thinking. I don't care with fashions and so I don't also mind what is unfashionable. Working by Objectives, as I put it, is sound and makes full sense to me.
How did I get started working by objectives? Surprise enough, simply by writing everyday a “To Do List” and crossing off each item as the day went by and the objectives were achieved.
A daily To Do List kept me on track, showed to me where I needed to put more attention and always gave me great satisfaction when, at the end of the day, I contemplated the items then crossed off.
I still believe in To Do Lists but some people pushed them into the ridiculous by adding strange features which take so long to work out that, if you had gone straight into action, you would have achieved the first two objectives in the same space of time.
Besides than this, a To Do List must not be rigid and some people do not seem to understand this. You can program a computer with a few lines of code but you cannot program a day the same way. So many things happen that are out of your control that you'd rather keep your objectives loose and flexible.
Of course you give them some thought and some planning and priority by putting an A, a B or a C besides each objective, but if you need, and since you have a list anyway, at any time you can just switch into some other objective and keep on making good use of your time.
A to do list is good discipline and I believe that employees as well as managers should always make and follow them. They, like filling a diary, can be made anytime but must be ready by the day before at goodbye time so that all know what they're up to the next day.
The other not so interesting thing which occurs to me is the enormous fuss that some companies make for 5 minutes of employee or management time. I honestly think that if someone works for me and I give him a to do list the day before and he gives me back that list by the end of the day with a strike through each item or an explanation, if it's early I would just tell him to go home and enjoy his time. I wish he would go down to the pub as I would or fishing if that's what he likes. And I mean this honestly.
Because I can only conceive work as done by objectives, once you have achieved yours its goodbye.
This is also the reason why I believe in flexible hours for all. It's achieved objectives, not hours of work, that matter.
The drawback to this is that someone could give you too many objectives for a day but I think that's another problem of potentially easy solution since you would be negotiating your To Do List with your manager.
Happy working by objectives and happy To Do Listing.
