Category: learning in public

How to craft a good meeting agenda

When preparing a meeting, it is best to have an agenda, describing what the meeting is about. Having an agenda is a recommendation found in every “how to make a good meeting” book. But as often in business, the theory is well explained, yet the practical steps about implementation are left to guess. So here is a tip, learned at Strategic Blue to create meaningful meeting’s agenda. It goes like this POMO Read more...

Getting today and yesterday in AWS Athena

Interesting links Using Athena from the AWS CLI on Linux Getting today in Athena Getting today in PostgreSQL How to get the metadata of AWS Athena tables Get the number of columns in an AWS Athena table Getting today and yesterday in AWS Athena Dates are always a pain to manage. SQL is no exception with every database doing their way. Today I talk about AWS Athena where the date/time documentation is here, not on the AWS website but the presto one. Read more...

GTD for mums, first steps

A interesting article for all the mums wanting to get organised - https://gettingthingsdone.com/2011/05/mom-gets-the-right-things-done-with-the-natural-planning-model/ If you need support with GTD (Getting Things Done) let me know in the comments a bientot Frank Read more...

The needs of new startup founders

At one point, I focused on the need of entrepreneur, considering them almost a different type of human. But then I understood that we (humans) are all very similar and everyone if given the opportunity, would like to build a business. Still, few can accept the risks (e.g. money, time, energy) associated with building a company. My current conclusion is: If you consider each person working with you as an entrepreneur, great things happen. Read more...

Communities

I’m lucky to have been born in a working family in XX century Europe. This means that I’m part of a very privileged community. When I wake up, I don’t expect bombs to fall on me, I plan to eat three times a day, being thirsty for no more than 5 minutes. I’m part of the lucky per cent of the planet, and if you are reading this blog, you are most likely part of those same basic communities too. Read more...

What makes a great team?

A great team is diverse, disagrees with each other and is passionate to achieve the same goal. And that’s the other half of a great team, a shared understanding of what we are trying to achieve. If you are the leader of a team, my advice is: Get people that do not think like you. Have a clear goal. The most straightforward goal that unites people is survival. It can be the survival of the team, business unit, or the company Please make sure everyone is allowed to share how they think the goal should be achieved. Read more...

Simplifying Getting Things Done: Projects

There is quite a difficulty to understand what a project is in GTD. So I welcome the change of wording proposed by Laura Earnest to use outcomes. the full article is here: http://lauraearnest.com/simplifying-getting-things-done-projects/ PS: I’m very happy to be back in the personal efficiency arena. If you need guidance, let me know, I’ve been working on being able to do more in less time for the last 20 years. Read more...

Medical priority a technique to prioritize in 5 minutes

As an efficient person, you are always busy, and if the workload goes down, you find more things to do, and if it goes up, you manage using methods from this blog, until … Until it gets too much. This is when you need to use what I call the medical prioritization method, and it goes like this: if your doctor were to tell you that by working for more than 4 hours a day you are at risk of dying. Read more...