How to manage crib notes, Ohm’s Law and do-lists

Published 2:36 pm Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Tests sometimes produce useful advice. A high school teacher recently gave his students some very good advice about preparing for an exam they were worried about. He told them to prepare crib notes for themselves — and then leave them at home.

The original, stealth dimension of “

crib notes” has been neutered by modern practice, which often allows the use of student notes during exams, but the term still describes the small pieces of paper on which students would write the bare essentials of the exam material.

His point was that the process of boiling down what we needed to know to a few words would force us to focus on what was truly important, what we had to know, one of the essential elements of studying for an exam. Equally important, it would give us a summary we could commit to memory. We then wouldn’t really need the notes.

The teacher understood the underlying principal of note-taking, summaries and lists: they are primarily memory aids. That is why unprepared students intent on cheating on an exam often find that crib notes aren’t as helpful as they had hoped. If the notes don’t trigger any memory or familiar thought, they are pretty much useless.

The value of lists is undeniable. Humans being what they are, lists are needed to keep us focused on the sequence and completion of tasks. This is especially important when some or many of the tasks are familiar enough to become routine. That’s why check lists and do-lists are relied on so heavily by doctors, airplane pilots and power-plant engineers.

In our business workplaces today, do-lists rule. Whether they are printed or appear automatically on your smart phone or workstation, lists for individuals, managers, teams, task forces and departments surround us. In theory, they help us organize our day. In practice, though, sometimes they are the enemy, especially of good management.

Do-lists are undermined by two factors: routine and Ohm’s Law.

Routine is the comfort food of human activity, providing stability and predictability in a world where both are hard to find. While most of us say that we hate routine, today’s workplace and today’s life, for that matter, are increasingly filled with stress and we look to routine for some relief.

Ohm’s Law is the electrical version of the “water always flows downhill” rule; electricity will follow the path of least resistance. Ohm’s Law in workplace behavior terms tells us that it is easier to put something down on a do-list than it is to do it, or even think about it.

Still, with all their faults, do-lists are very helpful in today’s world. They are the sign of an organized mind, or at least an organized approach to things.

From a management standpoint, though, organization is only a part of the picture. The tasks of management are often summarized by the abbreviation POLC, for Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. Making lists is a process that, at its best, can be helpful in organizing. Forcing it into planning, controlling or especially leading, though, is where managers stumble.

Cluttered, overused do-lists lower productivity. Productivity itself is the result of combining motivation, skills, focus, energy, environment and judgment. To use a do-list effectively, a manager has to figure out what it will contribute to that equation and how best to insert it. Good management is a lot more than just going over a worker’s do-list and saying, “Where is it?”

Instead of simply adding an item to a worker’s do-list, you should ask yourself, “Does this team member have all of the factors needed to complete the task?” If, for example, you are not sure how the team member prioritizes tasks within his or her workday, then you need to find out. Talking it through is often all it takes, and you can learn a lot that way about how things get done, or don’t get done, in your workplace.

At minimum, don’t make the mistake of assigning “Priority 1” to a project without understanding what else is on a worker’s slate. There is nothing more frustrating and demoralizing at any level of an organization than having a do-list filled with “Priority 1” tasks.

Managers who really care about productivity and effectiveness should maintain do-lists for themselves. And there are worse ways to begin and end your workday than by taking a few quiet moments to review them. But the high-school teacher’s wise advice on exam preparation works for managers, too: Focus and enhance your memory by preparing and using your do-list, and then leave it at home.

James McCusker is a Bothell economist, educator and small-business consultant. He can be reached by email at otisrep@aol.com.