I. Activity Log
My typical workday begins and end the same. I wake up get dressed do about 45 minutes of exercise. This last week the weather was good so I was able to complete my exercise with a morning jog at a nearby park. After exercise, I usually make a cup of coffee or tea and relax for about an hour, reading the news or engaging in social media. Next, I begin my work day. My work day always begins with e-mail. Here I am either answering e-mails, writing my own e-mails, or organizing my e-mail box. As a small business owner, I do not just have one e-mail account and getting through all the e-mails in the several accounts usually takes at least an hour. In addition, as e-mail has become a slower and more deliberate form of communication, often while answering e-mail I will also be communicating with clients or others via a variety of short messaging and instant communication computer applications. Once the main communications section of the day is complete; I normally then settle down to do actual work. Work consists of mainly performing document review of client data. Accordingly, I read and review a client’s document. T check it for accuracy by researching on the Internet if the facts are accurate. I make changes the document if required or write a note to the client about whether they want to change or not. At noon, there is lunch which is often leftovers from last night’s dinner. I usually eat at my desk. After lunch, it is a continuation of the work that I did in the morning, if there is work to do. If there is that will go to about 4pm. At that point, I sign out and am off work. After work, I generally buy food to cook for dinner at a nearby store. The store is not busy at that time so it is easy to buy food quickly. When back at home, I generally begin cooking immediately when I arrive. When it is done, I eat and relax by watching a movie or TV series. I then do some studying. Lastly, I prepare for bed and sleep.
My emotional states tend to jump at different points in the day. After exercise I normally feel quite exhilarated and ready to work. I feel then that I will be able to accomplish much. When answering e-mails, I tend to lose focus and energy. I think this is because answering e-mails thoughtfully and completely, I’ve found is quite stressful. I always want to get through them quickly but it never happens. I seem to regain my energy and drive in my work, at least for the first few hours. That drive slowly goes away as the day goes on. Oftentimes by 4pm, I am quite short-tempered and grumpy. Want to leave but there more to do before I can go. Initially leaving work I am happy but them when I think about buying food, cooking it, and cleaning up after, I feel I am about to begin my second job. Thank makes be grumpy again. I feel most at peace after cooking and just doing nothing but watching a movie or TV. Complete diversion away from the realities of life.
The four insights that I gained from tracking the time I spent is that they best part of the day for me to work is the morning. At that time, I have high energy and focus. Second the worse time of the day for me to start a new project is the afternoon. I might have the physical energy but nit the mental focus. Third, I tend to procrastinate after completing a task. That is to say, I always need a few minutes between tasks, but often I stretch those few minutes into many more. Lastly, I need a daily mental escape, usually achieved through mindless entertainment. It gives me a good time to mentally relax and prepare for the next day.
II. Service Waste
Seven sources of service waste include defects, waiting or delays, inappropriate inventory, transportation, overproduction, underutilizing people’s abilities, excessive or unnecessary processing (Kavanagh & Kings, 2011), Defects refers to problems with the service or product that is for sale. Waiting or delays refers to time wasted in inspection or certification that affects the clients’ enjoyment of the product or service. Inappropriate inventory refers to the disharmony of supply and demand that cause the business to have to store goods rather than sell them. Transportation refers to the increased expense or lack of value added that occurs when transporting a good or services before the end-user can enjoy it. Overproduction is another disharmony of supply and demand that requires the company to either waster money storing the product in inventory or waste money throwing the product away. Underutilizing people’s abilities refers to the inability to get the most out of a resource, namely one’s staff (McBride, 2003). Lastly, excessive or unnecessary processing refers to wasting money and resources on areas of the business that do not add to the bottom-line.
The two most relevant service wastes to a small business would be underutilization of people’s abilities and waiting. Underutilizing people’s abilities can be decreased by first learning and understanding what abilities people have and then matching those abilities with corresponding work duties and tasks. On the other hand, waiting is oftentimes an element that is outside of a small business’ control. However, one way that it could be decreased is to have multiple schedules of duties. In short to increase workers’ ability to multi-task. Accordingly, if a delay on one part of the project is inevitable, the worker can still perform work on another part of the project.
References
Kavanagh, S. & Krings, D. (2011, Dec.). The 8 sources of waste and how to eliminate them. Retrieved from http://www.gfoa.org/sites/default/files/GFR_DEC_11_18.pdf
McBride, D. (2003, Aug. 29). The 7 wastes in manufacturing. Retrieved from http://www.emsstrategies.com/dm090203article2.html
