Jason M. Hanley :: Custom Software Developer

There’s a great little article over at What’s the next action about how to make an effective To-Do list. If you don’t find making lists effective, it might be because you’re doing it wrong!

Some of the key points are:

1. Use verbs: Everything on the list needs to be actionable, which generally means it should start with a verb.
2. Be specific: If an action isn’t specific enough, it’s easy to defer it since you don’t really know what the “next action” is.
3. Group by context: Group your tasks by context. (at the computer, on the phone, running errands, etc.)
4. Focus on “next”: Filter out everything except the very next task for each context.

Tim Ferriss (author of the 4 Hour Workweek) recently posted a great list of “stressful and common habits that entrepreneurs and office workers should strive to eliminate.”

My two favorites:
1. Do not answer calls from unrecognized phone numbers (I never do)
4. Do not let people ramble (I almost always answer personal calls with “Hey, what’s up?” and business calls with “Hi, what can I do for you?”

This makes me mad. The recently released CRTC Telecommunications Monitoring Report highlighted how lack of competition in the cellular phone market is leading to increased profits year after year. From the report:

“The telecommunications industry’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased from $12.4 billion to $13.1 billion, a $0.7 billion or 5% increase. The increase was due to the mobile phone service providers, whose EBITDA increased from $4.4 billion in 2005 to $5.6 billion in 2006, a $1.2 billion or 27% increase.“

Most of the Canadian market (95%) is served by a group of three providers — Bell, Rogers, and Telus. None of them really compete, as their plans and pricing are nearly identical, and far more expensive than other G8 countries.

There’s no easy solution to this problem. Foreign competition has been introduced on several occasions, but subsequently crushed by the “big trio”. Sprint introduced very competitive mobile service back in 2003. They were acquired by Fido, which was then acquired by Rogers. Prices (and their profits) have been increasing ever since, while prices in other countries have been steadily falling.

I called Fido today to ask about data plans. The standard rate is 5 cents / KB = $51.20 / MB. To give you an idea, at mobile speeds (about twice the speed of a modem) you can download about 50 MB / hour. So downloading at full speed costs $2,560 / hour - plus tax. The best plan you can buy lets you pre-pay $100 / month for 200MB, and then $5 / MB thereafter — still about $250 / hour.

Fido used to have an unlimited data plan available. This was canceled shortly after Rogers purchased them. How much money did Rogers have to pay to bribe the competition bureau to approve that sale?

It seems like more and more people have been blogging and writing about this. Even the mainstream media is starting to wake up:

• Bell to charge you $3,600 per hour for Wireless Internet access
• Fido data comes down in price, $4000 now buys 1GB of data not 200MB
• Canadian cell phone rates are higher than Mexico

Call your MP today and ask them why the big three (Bell, Telus, Rogers) are continued to be allowed this monopoly.

A couple of the worst possible ways you can manage people:

• Ostrich mentality (a.k.a. Head in the sand): Refers to the “ignore it and it will go away” attitude. Some managers think that if they just “leave it until next week” somehow the problem will just go away. No. It’ll get worse. Act on it now.
• Ditch digging theory of management: This is the belief that every task in business is the same as simple manual labour (like digging a ditch). In other words, they think that to make a project go faster, they just need to add more people (”horsepower”). No. Often adding more people to a complex project will just slow things down. Some things just take time.
• Warm body theory of management: This is a person pet peeve of mine because I see it everywhere. This is the belief that people (”warm bodies”) in the office, sitting at their desk somehow equals productivity. Some managers frown on personal time, and reward people who are there every day from 7am until 9pm. No. This will just cause burnout. Those people sitting at their desks are not being productive. They’re playing solitaire… or reading this blog.