TL;DR? There are four things you can do to make a huge project not only seem manageable but be manageable, even as you keep saying to yourself, “What was I thinking taking this on?!?” (1) Know what you’re trying to do and break it down into manageable steps as soon as possible. (2) Track your progress in a way that fosters momentum. (3) Be realistic about your energy levels. (4) Plan for implementation in a way that, as much as possible, lets you be mindful but thoughtless (i.e., well-considered but requiring no real decision-making when it comes time for application).
Tag: standard operating procedure
Analyzing time spent: Time management with box and whisker plots
We all know that there are only so many minutes in a day, and that goals like being more productive and effective hinge on things like better time management, that is, working smarter not harder. This is particularly true if you think you’ve got a pretty standard process in place. In this post, I’m going to demonstrate a visualization tool called a box and whisker plot. This tool will help you determine how long you can typically expect your standard process to take, and how to spot when there’s enough variability to say that it’s time to reexamine what you’re doing, so you can:
- streamline a process for yourself, or
- identify when it’s time to schedule a training or other intervention for your staff.
If you can find the middle thing in a list, you can do this time analysis.
Using big data to generate content ideas | A SOP Story
TL;DR? Big data knows what questions people have, and you can capitalize on that to generate an endless list of answer-focused content ideas that draw from and showcase your experience, knowledge, and expertise. Scroll down to the section titled ‘Bringing it together’ for a quick list of the steps. Scroll back up for the nuance.
There’s nothing new under the sun, so what could you possibly have to offer the world that hasn’t been addressed before?
I’m always a big advocate of asking people for help when I get stuck, and, as it turns out, people are telling you what they want you to talk to them about all of the time. If you’re systematic about how you listen, you’ll build up quite a data store to flip through the next time you’re missing your muse and staring down a blank page and a deadline.
Content packaging tips for click-worthy YouTube videos | A SOP Story
TL;DR? You can grow your YouTube channel without falling prey to cheap clickbait tricks and other “dark side” habits; the secret is providing value with your content and being strategic with your content-packaging SOPs. Scroll down to the Video Packaging Essentials Checklist for some content packaging points for your own YouTube upload checklist.
Improve data integrity, data quality, and business insights with standard operating procedures (SOPs)
Is your data worth tracking? This is a question about the quality and integrity of your data – its accuracy, completeness, and fit with your use cases. And it’s an important question to consider, because low quality data can mean that your business insights are ill-informed. I’ve covered some of these points in my posts on clean data and data classification. In this post, I’m going to focus on how standard operating procedures, or SOPs for short, can help you improve the quality and integrity of both your data and your business insights.