[Weekly Retro] Intentional use of time

#21 - Oct.2023

Happy Friday!

Here is a quick idea before you head off for the weekend:

Making sure you are using your time intentionally is one of the most important skills you can develop as a professional.

You will be always underwhelmed by the latest priority, the urgent topic, the top priority, or the unexpected event. While you should be flexible for the things that you don't know, you can plan ahead of time for the things you do know. Practical ways to do this:

• Make time to review how you want to invest your time. Set your priorities.
• Block time in your agenda. 80-20 rule works - plan 80% of your agenda based on your priorities.
• "Shield" your agenda...as much as possible. Changes and unexpected requests will happen but try to create the discipline of following the priorities you set.

Interesting links I found during this week:

• Human-like systematic generalization through a meta-learning neural network
• How China is designing flood-resistant cities
• Are You Developing Skills That Won’t Be Automated?

Podcast I'm listening to:

• Chris Voss: How to Succeed at Hard Conversations

Quote of the week:

"Attention is All You Need." - Title of the paper considered as a game-changer in neural networks architecture.