The Lazy Project Manager: How to be twice as productive and still leave the office early - Softcover

Taylor, Peter

3.49

1,108 ratings by Goodreads

9781906821678: The Lazy Project Manager: How to be twice as productive and still leave the office early

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1906821674 ISBN 13: 9781906821678

Publisher: Infinite Ideas, 2011

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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'.

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Review:

[Book of the month!]... Anyone can learn how to work smarter and become twice as productive. --Better Business Focus Magazine, Sep 2009

There is nothing like having someone's writing slap you round the face like a wet herring and you sit there (well, actually laying on the sofa) and you enjoy the experience. Thank you very much Peter Taylor --Ian Swanson - USA - July 2009

For me this book scores 9 out of 10 for entertainment and 8 out of 10 for practical help to fraught project managers. The book is a joy to read, well written, light-hearted, but also informative and helpful. The big question is whether the target audience - the fraught project manager - will be attracted to or turned off by the tongue-in-cheek title. I hope it will be the former, as not only is the book very readable, it contains - as many books of this type - useful check-lists for its various assertions, accompanied by relevant anecdotes. Peter clearly states that his book is not a how-to book on project management, even though he is a chartered PM. It is all about doing less and achieving more. But in the process he does offer many practical guidelines. The fundamental basis of Peter s theory of lazy project management is Pareto s Law, paraphrased to mean doing 20 per cent to achieve 80 per cent of the results rather than the other way round that he feels many project managers do (and I daresay most professionals and managers too). However, Peter does get specific about, for example, putting much more emphasis on the start and end of a project - the thick ends, as he calls them. He also focuses on the power grid , which naturally includes the project sponsor and the project steering group, both of which, he implies, are neglected by many project managers. Teaming gets requisite attention as do crisis handling and communication. As Peter says, reporting is not communicating. Regarding the closing thick end, he cautions that there will be unknown, unknowns made famous by Donald Rumsfeld. Nothing you can do about them, except to try and limit the amount of unknowns by finding out, and by asking. All in all an enjoyable read, with 143 pages including intro, index and several post-script-like closing sections. The main body is around 100 pages. So, not daunting at all. Well done, Peter! --Charles Chang FBCS CITP

From the Publisher:

In "The lazy Project Manager" Peter Taylor illustrates how to achieve more without expending more time and energy. Welcome to the home of 'productive laziness'. Here there is a more focused approach to project management and our efforts are exercised where it really matters - there's no rushing round involving ourselves in unimportant, non-critical activities that others can better address, or indeed that do not need addressing at all in some cases.

It's all about working smarter and Peter Taylor, head of a PMO at Siemens, gives away his trade secrets. This is not a training manual. You won't turn into a project manager by reading this book. But Peter, acting as virtual coach, will help you to identify and focus on the key activities in your projects, do them well and enjoy the world of productive laziness.

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