My Work Space

Any work space whether in office or home in most cases is the reflection of your image. Your work style can easily be  evaluated by simply visiting your cubicle or desk. 

Here is my list of desk accessories at work:  

• A calendar
• A pen holder that says- share a smile
• A quotation by Patt Summit pinned on my board, says “You can choose to settle down for mediocrity, never venturing forth much effort or feeling very much or you can commit. If you commit, I guarantee you that, for every pain, you will experience an equal or surpassing pleasure.”
• A white board with projects names and the to-do list for the day/week.
• Artificial plant in a glass tumbler filled with multicolored beads
• A coaster (with an orange and steel color theme)
• My blackberry
• PM process chart
  
• Couple of coffee and subway menu/s in a see through folder 

(Picture: google images)

Relationship Management for Managers

Out of the 10 articles I have read in the last 2days, perhaps 8 of them talk about networking. 

I know it's necessary, so do you. What about it? If you read my review for Beyond Code; see the Take Home section at the end of the review.

Relationship Journal is what the book and the author Rajesh Setty emphasizes. It's a must and you cant go wrong if you can maintain it. Sure I read the book, I even tried reviewing it. So, did I start keeping a  Relationship Journal? Yes, I just did.

I read Alec Satin's post this morning about Highrise and guess what, I signed up for Highrise! This is really cool and I must tell - you are free to sign up for a  FREE account. You get to keep 250 contacts and can upgrade to the paid version if you think it's necessary. So, I created mine and added Alec as my first contact. Well, he told me about it.

So, begins my relationship journal. 

I have used similar version for the project communication at work, never for my personal contact management. It's a great tool and am glad I signed up.

Here's the link, just incase you would like to see how it works.

(Picture: Google Images)

Ten traits of a PM

Alec Satin talks about the Traits of a successful PM, in his blog.

Very interesting read and must share with everyone who wants to be one. Here are the 10 pointers from the Guru:

1. Develop a consistently positive attitude.
2. Make wise choices.
3. Believe in your abilities.
4. Be a master at setting goals and achieving them.
5. Have a clear vision of what success means to you and to your project.
6. Develop steady, positive habits.
7. Show persistence.
8. Over-communicate.
9. Be transparent.
10. Do what you say you will do without exception.

To learn more keep reading.

PM Terminology

Oh yeah, we all have read about PM terminologies- some from the PMBOK; others from blogs or Wikipedia. But here's something you might want to know. 

Bill Duncan talks about price estimate terminologies  and their differences which we  should know. 

Project Managers who Blog

If you are someone who blogs regularly, here's a hint about how to get your blog popular.

I stumbled upon the term Search Engine Optimization few months back while working in a project which had SEO part of it. It's fascinating to know how internet, well rather Google works. Why we see the site we see.

When I started blogging, I just did what I thought was right and I would like to read. I didn't have any intentions to optimize my site and I never did. My interest was triggered when I suddenly saw my blog  rank (page rank) 2. Not bad I thought, 5 months into blogging and it ranked! Than one day, the rank was simpy gone. 

I didn't change anything, I still wrote the way I write and enjoy every bit of it.  So, I just decided to ignore the entire thing. While doing some research about SEO for a project, I read the article on how to optimize a blog and thought that was rather interesting.

If you are one of those who optimize along with writing, well you already know about SEO. If you don't, the information is worthwhile. 

I don't think I will be changing very soon the way I write or think just because I need the page rank back. I would rather prefer more visitors to my site and see how they react. Of course, if it comes with an added bonus of a Page Rank -good enough I say. Actually more than good. I like being appreciated once in a while for my hard work and if it comes from Google, why not?

(Picture: Google Images)

P.S. Can I please have a minute of your time and  if you could please vote for the poll (on the right hand side) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.