Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to write your own operating manual. Letting
Speaker 1: people know about how you work can make you more
Speaker 1: productive and hopefully limit the chances for misunderstandings. Today's tip,
Speaker 1: like some others this week, comes from Amantha Ember's new
Speaker 1: book time Wise. In this book, Amantha shares tips from
Speaker 1: lots of successful people on how they work and make
Speaker 1: time feel more fun. One of the tips is called
Speaker 1: why you need a one page operating manual. Amantha interviewed
Speaker 1: Darren Murph of git Lab. Murf noted that he had
Speaker 1: created his own one page document, which is, as MRF
Speaker 1: puts it, an operating manual of how you can quickly
Speaker 1: get up to speed about working with me. It explains
Speaker 1: how I like to be communicated with, what I hope
Speaker 1: to learn and working with you, and what you need
Speaker 1: to know about me, things like personality type, my working style,
Speaker 1: and when I generally prefer to work. Amantha notes that
Speaker 1: reading this manual only takes a couple of minutes, but
Speaker 1: you'll learn more in those few minutes then it would
Speaker 1: normally take in the two weeks or longer that it
Speaker 1: takes to understand a coworker that you are meeting for
Speaker 1: the first time. I think this is a wise idea.
Speaker 1: It's just efficient. Now. I know that it might seem
Speaker 1: a little presumptuous to create such a manual. I mean,
Speaker 1: perhaps the idea comes across like those artist contracts where
Speaker 1: they specify the kinds of candy in the green room.
Speaker 1: I mean, really, I know I am a generally agreeable person,
Speaker 1: and I am happy to work with agreeable people, and
Speaker 1: I hope that as fellow human beings, we can figure
Speaker 1: each other out. However, if you start to think this through,
Speaker 1: you can realize that there is a ton of knowledge
Speaker 1: that you learn in time, but that it would be
Speaker 1: better to know at the beginning. For instance, maybe you
Speaker 1: like to work at ten pm. You certainly don't expect
Speaker 1: anyone else to work at ten pm, so people shouldn't
Speaker 1: think anything about your late hours, or they shouldn't wait
Speaker 1: up for your emails. That's good to know. Or maybe
Speaker 1: you don't eat meat. Most agreeable coworkers would like to
Speaker 1: know that before they propose a team kick off dinner
Speaker 1: at a steak restaurant. Since I work for myself, I
Speaker 1: have all sorts of other quirks that I am sure
Speaker 1: drive people crazy for the first week or two until
Speaker 1: they figure him out. For instance, I don't use an
Speaker 1: electronic calendar. I love my paper calendar, and I'm probably
Speaker 1: not changing now. You can send me an electronic calendar
Speaker 1: in right, but if you are waiting for an acceptance
Speaker 1: to actually put it on your calendar, you might need
Speaker 1: to wait for a while, since it's not a standard
Speaker 1: part of my workflow. In any case, you might think
Speaker 1: this through and write something down. If you are the
Speaker 1: sort of person that lots of people seek out to
Speaker 1: work with, it might be helpful to post this somewhere publicly,
Speaker 1: like your website or your linked In profile. If you
Speaker 1: have a more standard job where you just work with
Speaker 1: new coworkers from time to time, propose that everyone creates
Speaker 1: such a document before your first team meeting so you
Speaker 1: can all read up on each other. Who knows, you
Speaker 1: might find out that you and one of your colleagues
Speaker 1: are equally in love with the Oxford Comma. Now you
Speaker 1: can bond over that, and if nothing else, creating this
Speaker 1: document will boost your own self knowledge. Sometimes we just
Speaker 1: work in certain ways because we always have. We don't
Speaker 1: think about it committing these approaches to paper. Lets us
Speaker 1: think about them and think about why we do them.
Speaker 1: Knowing yourself, it's just always a good thing. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,
Speaker 1: then breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For
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