I saw this post over at the Management Craft blog by Susan Reid, author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai. This rings so true: there’s just never enough hours.

How much time is there in a day? There are 24 hours. That’s 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds. That’s how much time we all have in a day. So why is it that some people get more things done in their day then others? Because they’ve come to understand that it’s not about time. It’s about their priorities.

There is such power in being clear about what’s important to you. Knowing what’s important not only defines your priorities, it also gives you a basis from which you can determine what to say yes to and when to say no. Once you have your priorities in place, then the only question to ask yourself is, “Does this or doesn’t this activity support my priority?”

Prioritize and be effective. Which begs the question. How do you prioritize? How do you track your “to do’s” or tasks? Let me know your system via comments here.

Or, said another way, is your product communicating with your client? If your product is a report, is your client reading it - fully? If your product is a plan, is your client understanding it? Are they getting ALL the information they need? No? Then whose fault is that? It’s yours. It’s your responsibility to make sure your client gets what they need from your product. If they’re not reading it, then maybe you should provide the info orally. Maybe you need an executive summary. How about presenting text graphically? Use photos instead of graphics?

Stop for a minute and put yourself in your clients role. Play the part of your client. Is your product providing what you [the client] need? Got ideas about how we can communicate better? Let me know.

Oh, and check out what Seth has to say about this issue here.

I am no longer the young engineer who wished I had some of that gray hair that everyone said it took to really get someone’s attention. Now I have the gray hair, and I am beginning to understand that philosophy. Sure the young guys can tell me how to enhance our frame connection that allows our offices to communicate at over 1.5 mb/s because the latency is obvious from the slow response to the ping or how to increase traffic on our blog, but there are just some things that you don’t have a good perspective for until you begin to count your experience in decades, not years.

I thought one day of things that I wished that my boss would have told me when I was a young engineer. I learned about the technical tools of my profession from some of the best, but I was thinking about those intangible things that only an older professional could share with his protégé. I recently gave one of those talks to our younger engineers, and some of them asked that I list that out. So here is my list.

1. The golden rule is an excellent lifestyle
2. If you really do treat others like you would like to be treated, your career will be filled with very pleasant memories and life-long friendships.
3. Be a servant whenever you can
4. As you move into positions of authority, go out of your way to serve others, and consider yourself last.
5. Be modest
6. Always be smarter/cooler/better looking/you name the good attribute, than you think you are.
7. Earn your salary
8. When you finish today’s work, be sure that the salary that you are paid was earned and not just collected.
9. Respect your elders
10. You have never walked in the shoes of someone who is 20 years older than you, but they have walked in yours. Give them the respect that comes with age. It is earned.
11. Take pictures and keep diaries
12. At least once a year, get a good picture of you in your work environment, and preferably with someone with whom you work closely. Make sure that you save the pictures. Similarly, keep your own “dear diary” and tell your events, feelings, fears, and excitement. These things will be invaluable to you as you grow old.
13. Expect great things
14. Great things will happen to you in your career. Work for them, watch for them, and then, when they happen, appreciate them.
15. Make and keep commitments
16. Don’t leave things to chance. Communicate the commitments that you want to make. Then live up to them. Hold yourself to the highest standard, and don’t compromise.
17. Speak clearly, use good grammar, and don’t use slang or cuss words
18. Your professionalism will suffer greatly if you do not pay careful attention to the spoken words that you use. Profanity is not attractive and it makes you sound silly.
19. Honor the truth
20. Of course don’t lie, but go beyond that. Hold the truth is the highest esteem. It is to be honored. Don’t tolerate others who distort the truth, and expose them for it.
21. Show up early
22. The stress level for any event is much lower when you are early. Plan to be early, and don’t disappoint yourself.
23. Avoid comparisons
24. Your situation is your situation, and his situation is his. Keep them separate. Don’t compare yours to his. Comparison will always create disappointment and discontentment. You will easily find someone whos situation you envy if you set about the task of looking.
25. Develop a unique expertise
26. Learn a specific procedure, subject, topic, etc. to the degree that you feel that you are well ahead of all others in the matter. It will give you great satisfaction.
27. Enjoy yourself
28. Yes, work is work, and it will always have its disappointments and hard days. Don’t settle for that everyday. Find a means that your work will often bring you great enjoyment.
29. Communicate displeasure or satisfaction
30. If you have a problem with someone or something, confront the situation in the proper channels, and do it quickly; you and they deserve it. Similarly, don’t hold back praise or thanks for others. When it comes to praise, it is better to apply a second coat than to not paint at all.

I know that most of these seem to be common knowledge, but if you keep them on the front of your mind, perhaps you will see the positive benefits of the suggestions. It’s for your own good.