Monday, February 9, 2009

the 6 P's

Well, there's actually 7, but to remain as PC as possible, I'll only use 6. What are they? Proper Pre-Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Truer words could not be spoken. Words that I live by.

This phrase can be applied to any project, goal, event, to-do list, or daily tasks you're faced with. Really what this boils down to is preparedness and adequate time management. Now, there's a word that makes everyone cringe! But is it the time management that makes you cringe or is it the ensuing chaos that tends to surround you when you least expect it? My guess? It's the chaos that you're afraid of.

So what do you do when you're about to give a presentation (that's saved on your desktop) and you find out that your laptop has died because you forgot to bring the power-cord? You switch to plan B. And if that won't work, what can you do with plan C or possibly plan D? That's the beauty of the 6 P's. If you've taken the adequate time to properly plan your presentation in advance, you're ready for any what-ifs that could potentially come your way. Plan B may be that you've saved the presentation to a public drive; plan C is that you have the presentation saved to a flash drive; and why not go ahead with a plan D - you have printouts of your presentation.

See what I mean? If you've used the 6 P's to think ahead and consider what could potentially go wrong... When it does - You're prepared! And what makes it even better is that NO ONE HAS TO KNOW IT WAS PLAN B!!!! To steal a phrase from my former boss, you're like a duck floating on water. To the average eye, you're gracefully floating across the lake; but underneath the water, you're paddling away as furiously as possible.