Peter Taylor reveals how adopting a more focused approach to life, projects and work can make you twice as productive. The lazy project manager illustrates how anyone can apply the simple techniques of lazy project management in their own activities in order to work more effectively and consequently improve work-life balance. This 'productive laziness' approach builds on the Pareto principle that states that for many phenomena, 80 per cent of consequences stem from 20 per cent of the causes. To put it simply, only 20 per cent of the things people do during their working days really matter. Inside this insightful and informative book you'll discover: * The intelligence of laziness - why smart, lazy people have the edge over others; * Why the Jungle Book's 'Bare Necessities' should be the productive lazy theme tune; * How to get the maximum output for a minimised input; * Quick tips to productive lazy heaven. Everyone wants to achieve more without chaining themselves to their desk. By concentrating your project management and learning to exercise effort where it really matters, you can learn to work smarter. Welcome to the home of 'productive laziness'.
The Lazy Project Manager
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
The lazy project manager illustrates how anyone can apply the simple techniques of lazy project management in their own activities in order to work more effectively and consequently improve work-life balance. This 'productive laziness' approach builds on the Pareto principle that states that for many phenomena, 80 per cent of consequences stem from 20 per cent of the causes. To put it simply, only 20 per cent of the things people do during their working days really matter.
Inside this book readers can discover:
- The intelligence of laziness - why smart, lazy people have the edge over others;
- Why the Jungle Book's 'Bare Necessities' should be the productive lazy theme tune;
- How to get the maximum output for a minimised input;
- Quick tips to productive lazy heaven.
In addition, the author provides some interesting (and entertaining) things about eating dinosaurs, wearing ermine cloaks, and how to spot a psychopathic woman at a funeral. Also find out why you should never go ballooning, how to deliver a good Oscar acceptance speech, and why it is important for your team that you read the newspaper each morning. And yes, you may also learn some, quick, simple but important things about project management. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
About the Author
In contrast to the title of his book, Peter Taylor is in fact a dynamic and commercially astute professional who has achieved notable success in project management and the professional development of project managers. His most recent achievements have been as head of projects at a global supplier of performance system solutions, and currently as head of a project management office at Siemens PLM Software, a global supplier of product lifecycle management solutions. He is an accomplished communicator and leader who always adopts a proactive and business-focused approach. Visit www.TheLazyProjectManager.com for more information, free articles and blogs, and subscribe to Peter’s podcasts on iTunes.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lazy is a GOOD thing!,
By
This review is from: The Lazy Project Manager: How to be twice as productive and still leave the office early (Hardcover)
As a practicing Project Manager (PM), I am always looking for ways to do my job better and for best practices that I can adopt. So, when the opportunity came my way to read this book, I jumped on it and am not sorry I did so. The Lazy in the title refers to doing things better so you do not have to do as much and the subtitle of this book is "How to be twice as productive and still leave the office early" which is a very worthy goal for anyone in any position and a skill that I would dearly love to learn!
The book itself is a very quick read. There are essentially only 100 pages of real text and the book's format is relatively small and there is lots of white space. I was able to read through it in a few hours time. The questions then becomes, is the time investment worth it? And, are you learning enough from reading this book to bother with it? My answers are unqualified "yes"es! While the book is short and snappy it does cover the main things that PMs should focus on and spend their time on. The author divides any project into three phases: Startup, execution, and conclusion. Most of the book is spent on the Startup phase as that is the time when you need to really work hard at the project to make it succeed. The author wisely focuses on the two most critical ingredients that will make or break any project: The planning work for how the project should be executed; and the communications process to make sure everyone involved with the project knows what the plans are and what to do about them. Everyone involved with the project includes the project sponsor and any outside influencers that may not be a formal part of the team, but are critical to the project's success. This phase also has the critical planning for how to combat the inevitable attempts at project scope creep. For the execution part, the author's recommendation is to simply relax and let the team do its work according to the plans prepared. If you spent the time to plan properly, then in this stage all you need to do is monitor that the project is progressing as it should and delegate the real hard work to your team members. In the final stage, a strong recommendation is made to perform a "post-mortem" to learn valuable lessons that can be applied to other projects. Of course, battling project scope creep continues in these phases as well. The writing style is breezy and light. This is not a negative thing! I liked the introduction of stories, quotes, and anecdotes that illustrated various points by either making fun of the author himself or complete tangents! (what does it say about me, that I got the point of the woman who buries her mother at first glance???) Many professional books tend to give anecdotes from the author's past in which the author is highlighted as always making the right choice and being the consistent hero. One of the strongest points of this book is that most of the anecdotes represent situations where the author was making missteps! Even an anecdote that has the project ultimately succeed is described as one where the author - the PM! - went off to a bar to drown his sorrows and consequently caused his team to do the right things and save the day! All by happenstance. I loved it! The author talks initially of the Pareto principal where 20% of the work is responsible for 80% of the effects and he applies this at the end of the book by summarizing his teachings in two rounds. In the first round he summarizes his previous 100 pages into 13 bullets spanning six pages; and then he reiterates this to go down to 10 points spread across a page and a half! This works quite well as a reminder of what the book was about and represents well the kind of humorous approach that is evident throughout the book. As someone who has been managing projects for over 20 years, the quality of his advice was also important to me. On the one hand, I did not learn anything that I did not know. On the other hand, it was nice for me to learn that I am indeed a `lazy' project manager!!! (his definition of lazy is someone who has intelligently planned the work and is diligent in smartly executing the work so you do not need to become a hero that spends many hundreds of extra hours in resolving unnecessary or avoidable crises). In short he advocates planning projects well in the beginning; allowing the team to resolve most of the problems that come up during the project reserving your efforts for those things that cannot be resolved by anyone else; conducting a post-mortem at the end of the project; and communicate, communicate, communicate non-stop. From my own personal experience I know that this is absolutely the right advice. Should everyone who is in Project Management get a copy of this book? Almost. If you are new to it or are contemplating entering the field, then I would NOT recommend this book as you will probably get more value from reading one of the more extensive discussions of the nuts and bolts of how to run a project. This book will come into its own for you, and provide much value, only after you have a few projects under your belt and are ready to try and figure out how to be better at it. Nonetheless, given the quality of the advice, the great writing style, and the nice way in which these important concepts are stated, I give this book 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Relevant, Fun and Easy to read,
By
This review is from: The Lazy Project Manager: How to be twice as productive and still leave the office early (Hardcover)
Peter Taylor was able to put together many practical and valuable project management lessons learned in a very funny and easy manner. He walked the talk by providing readers with a 2 page summary of the core content of the book, what makes the "lazy community" happy.
If you do not consider yourself lazy, you are going to understand the benefits of "productive laziness"; if you are already a "lazy project manager" the book will make you feel better (you are not alone! :o) and on top of that will give you many interesting lessons learned, without too much effort. I do recommend the reading!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Book that Ate My Problems,
This review is from: The Lazy Project Manager: How to be twice as productive and still leave the office early (Hardcover)
Peter Taylor is a clever clever man, and lucky us, he likes to pass it on. Luckier still, the man knows how to write: "The Lazy Project Manager" is entertaining, informative, and most of all, succinct. If you manage IT Projects, Peter Taylor knows that you're already in trouble. For the average Project Manager, "IT" means "Information Trouble"--be it communcating, guesstimating, or prevaricating, Taylor knows your pain. In order to provide you with some quick relief, he does two things to prove that he is clever:
1) He tells you that if you really need to you can skip to the end and get a quick recap of the core points 2) He writes everything else so that it is not only simple, it is well worth the effort of reading through. So if, like me, you clutch this book while treading water, you will quickly find that the words inside can be used as a flotation device. They may also be quickly consumed and deployed for the full "raft" effect. I was surrounded by work, over my head in deadlines, and despite being in the thick of holiday overtime I still managed to read this book in about two days. I've since read it again, just to keep myself focused as I gradually transition my job to his way of thinking. So what is his way of thinking? What exactly does it mean to be "lazy"? It means this: you can't do it all. You shouldn't do it all. And the best way to figure that out is to focus your efforts at the right parts of the lifecycle. Whereas most Project Managers find themselves ramping up at the beginning, furiously frenetic during development, and then tapering off the long hours during implementation and rollout, Taylor suggests that it's far easier if you focus your effort at the front. Get all your ducks in a row, let others take charge of their responsibilities, and--surprise--you'll soon find yourself in the role of "Clockwork Manager", only occasionally having to give things a nudge. Don't think the above oversimplification gets you out of buying this book! You need the rest, the full package: the interesting anecdotes that'll have you nodding your head, the very useful advice on how to deal with people--starting with yourself, and the very good reasons why your calm capability will lead your team to less stress, more success. Highly recommended. Top on my list and I'm purchasing an extra copy or two in the event of emergency. [Disclaimer: I discovered this book because I was provided a complimentary copy]
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