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Posts from the ‘Workshop’ Category

Dec 20

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Daily Dose 61: 5 O’Clock Quitting Time

Mom was a simple, straight forward stay-at-home mom, at the time when every mother stayed home. Our one car went to work with our dad. The milk man, the bread man, and the insurance man all routinely came to our home, the side door. The first two left FOOD, which greatly interested us as children; the third came to collect money, which held no interest for us whatsoever.

Our first teenage babysitter came one night when I was probably in fourth or fifth grade. Other than that, Grandma Wilson appeared for a week or so whenever a new baby was born, or mom was home with us. My dad even did the grocery shopping every other Friday night (on payday, it turns out) after coming home for dinner and picking up one of the children for their turn on the shopping adventure.  Read more

Dec 18

Daily Dose 59: 80/20 Principle 2

If the good news about the 80/20 principle is we can expect major results for reasonable effort, what other news do we need to hear? As with most topics, time spent considering the balance points is usually time well spent.

The other side of the 80/20 principle is if we can accomplish 80 percent of result with 20 percent of input, then doubling or tripling input will not, indeed cannot double or triple result. We already know about this, the law of diminishing returns. Read more

Dec 17

Daily Dose 58: 80/20 Principle

Out in the realm of abstract math—not to be mistaken with arithmetic that simply connects or separates concrete numbers by straightforward operations like adding and subtracting—the mysterious “they” have repeatedly demonstrated in a variety of applications an interesting mathematical aspect to life. Roughly 80 percent of outcome almost always comes from something close to 20 percent of input. Read more

Dec 16

Daily Dose 57: Multitasking and Dovetailing

Years ago, multitasking–doing several tasks at once–received positive press. Organized people deftly performed two, three, and four things simultaneously. Having such employees meant increased productivity and profit margins.

Recent studies dampened the enthusiasm. Turns out, once put to the test, these organizers did not attend as well as they thought to their various assignments. Concentrating on one task, then moving to another, (i.e. changing focus) brought better results. The subjects believed they performed well, but the hard cold facts disproved their impressions of their performances. Read more

Dec 13

Daily Dose 54: Bits and Bites

Sweet Bites

In our house bits and bites happened two ways: for the children it meant an occasional weekly cycle of receiving treat tidbits for very distinct, specific practicing, chore, or school tasks. They might get one M & M for practicing a scale once. Five times, five M & Ms. Another day might be one goldfish cracker for playing four measures of a song. Or maybe they would get a  slice of a snack cake for doing a math problem or reciting one verse. These were not big rewards, just a little fun way to spark up the practicing, school work, or chores once in awhile. In our low budget atmosphere it made bags of M & Ms, and boxes of Little Debbie cakes go a long way! Read more

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