How to Manage Tasks Effectively

Managing your tasks effectively requires following a step-by-step process to get your tasks completed on time. Here's how:

Create and Organize Tasks

Start listing and documenting all the tasks that need to be done. Use a to-do list, spreadsheet or TASKPAD. The goal is to get everything out of your head and into a system. This step is crucial for visualizing your workload and planning your next moves.

What is a TO-DO List?
A TO-DO list typically includes task description, due date, priority, status and monetary values, if any. All those critical fields are in facts, provided for in TASKPAD.

Task Status in TASKPAD

Plan. Task that needs to be perform later.

Work in Progress. Your current task that is actively being work on.

Completed. Task that is done but waiting a closure. E.g. waiting for a review, confirmation or acceptance by a third-party.

Closed. Task that is satisfactorily done and accepted.

Reopen. Opps, task that was closed but need to be revisited due to additional request, error, oversight or in worst case scenarios, unacceptable quality.

Set Priority and Deadlines

Once you have your tasks listed, it's time to prioritize. Not all tasks are created equal. Some need immediate attention, while others can wait. Assign deadlines to each task based on their priority (the urgency or importance of this task). This helps you focus on what matters most and ensures you meet critical deadlines.

Priority in TASKPAD

Low. A task that you can afford to sit on for a while.

Medium. A routine task that you have planned or assigned in a timely manner.

High. Focus on it. An urgent task that needs to be completed soonest possible otherwise there will be a potential negative consequences if not completed on time.

Critical. Obviously this is super urgent, die die must do.

>> Read Pareto Principle

Why so urgent?
Most tasks become urgent due to procrastination (read: What type of Procrastinator are you?) or wrongly prioritized or poorly planned (e.g. last minutes assignment from superior).

Manage Task Dependencies and Resources

Sometimes, certain tasks depend on each other. One task might need to be completed before another can start. Identifying these dependencies early on prevents delays and keeps the project moving smoothly. Similarly, allocating the right resources, be it time, tools, or people, ensure that tasks are completed efficiently.

Collaborate and Communicate with Team Members

Effective communication is the secret to task management. Regular check-ins and updates ensure everyone knows what's happening and what's expected of them. You can use collaboration tools to share updates, ask questions, and provide feedback. Those collaboration features are in fact available in TASKPAD. The aim is to create a cohesive team working toward the same goal.

The above is a snapshot of TASKPAD showing commentary among collaborators on a Task.

Are you a supervisor?
If you're a user of TASKPAD, login regularly to view your subordinates' tasks and follow-up with their task status. Give feedback should there be no progress. Maintain a milestone that everyone should accomplished a task at certain period. Have a brainstorming session to resolve hiccup and blockers.

Track and Analyze Task Performance

Finally, you need to monitor task progress. Tracking performance helps you identify what's working and what's not. You can use analytics to understand bottlenecks and make data-driven decisions.

If you're a user of TASKPAD, view your own calendar, and see what you have accomplished.

Those steps mentioned earlier can help you transform your approach to task management and boost your team's productivity.

As your company or team grows, the tasks also become more numerous and complex. Hence, finding and using the right tool for task management becomes crucial at this point. Try TASKPAD, today.


Boosting Team Productivity and Efficiency

Imagine your team operating at peak efficiency, with each member knowing exactly what to do and when. TASKPAD can makes this a reality by providing clear instructions, priorities, and deadlines. By eliminating guesswork and streamlining processes, your team can focus on what they do best: driving results and growth.

If only the above happen, we could have more happy hours and GO PLACES !



Recommend reading:
Task Management Software Improves Prioritization
Timesheet, And What it Means for Company and Employees Success

Pareto Principle or the 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, suggests that in many situations, roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. This principle can be applied to various aspects of life and work, from business and productivity to personal relationships and even health.

Here's a breakdown of the concept and its applications:

What it means:

The 80/20 rule isn't a strict mathematical formula, but rather a general guideline that highlights an uneven distribution of resources, effort, or impact.

It suggests that focusing your energy on the most impactful 20% of activities will yield the greatest results.

For example, 80% of your sales might come from 20% of your customers, or 80% of your work output might be generated by 20% of your work hours.

Examples of application:

Business:

Identifying the most profitable products or services, focusing on the top 20% of customers, or streamlining the most frequently used features of a product.

Productivity:

Prioritizing tasks that will have the biggest impact on your goals, or identifying time-wasting activities to eliminate.

Personal Life:

Focusing on building stronger relationships with the people who bring you the most joy and support, or decluttering your space by focusing on the items you actually use.

Healthcare:

In the US, the 80/20 rule (also known as Medical Loss Ratio or MLR) generally requires insurance companies to spend at least 80% of premiums on healthcare costs and quality improvements.

How to use the 80/20 rule:

Identify your goals: Determine what you want to achieve in a specific area.

Analyze your inputs: Examine the activities, resources, or factors that contribute to your goals.

Identify the vital few: Pinpoint the 20% of inputs that are producing the majority (80%) of your results.

Focus your efforts: Prioritize and allocate your time, energy, and resources to the vital few inputs.

Adjust as needed: Continuously evaluate and refine your approach based on your results

Datapuri Financial System - 2020 Performance

The result is out. In 2020, our Datapuri Financial System helped customers to process RM217.43 million invoice amount (revenue). Our customers consist of different segments, namely: Logistics, Construction, Agriculture, Information Technology and Oil & Gas.

Similarly, in 2019, our Datapuri Financial System helped to process RM223.72 million invoice amount. Obviously, our customers suffered approximately RM6.29 million in reduction of revenue, no thanks to the prevailing Corona Virus pandemic.

2021 will be another challenging year for most of us. As for Pasti Nyala, we are expecting lower sales too, as most companies try to conserve their cash reserve or in the process of cost-cutting.

For Small and Medium Enterprises who required an affordable system to manage their account and finances, contact us for more information on our Datapuri Financial System. 

 

Construction Accounting vs Regular Accounting

Regular Accounting focuses on the company-wide measurements of the profitability and loss, which the Profit and Loss will show the total revenue and the expenses. Meanwhile, Construction Accounting focuses on the crucial piece of information that is allocated to a specific job, which is called Job Cost, mainly consists of materials at the warehouse, labor, subcontracts, and other expenses incurred for jobs - Direct Expense.

In Construction Accounting, the Job Cost is necessary to analyze performance on other levels, instead of just from the Regular Accounting perspective. Job Cost can be further broken down into different Cost Code when necessary.

As part of the Job Cost, there will be an Estimate Costs provided for each Cost Code of a job, which to helps in measuring the progress, measuring performance and production, and give the historical data for future estimation.

In general, Regular Accounting is measuring a company/department performance; however, the Construction Accounting is measuring a job, group of jobs, or a particular Cost Code.

Regular Accounting is dealing with all aspects of revenue and costs, including overhead and admin costs; however, Construction Accounting is dealing more with Direct Costs.

Regular Accounting usually reports in an accounting period (monthly, quarterly, or yearly); however, Construction Accounting will reports on job-to-date in addition to specific periods per job, which can cross over multiple financial/fiscal periods. An example being a construction project that needs a few years to complete such as high-rise buildings, bridges, etc. 

Construction Accounting is generally built upon  Regular Accounting, which shares the same basic financial reporting for the operating and growing a business and preparing the annual company tax returns and allows the management to make business decisions. 

On top of it, Construction Accounting adds many complex layers of reporting mechanisms to show the contractor where their best customers are within the market segmentation boundaries.

Additional reporting needed for Construction Accounting are Job Costing Report, Job Profitability Report, Earned Value Report, Work-in-Progress Report, Estimate vs Actual Report, Payment Application, etc.

In order to provide a reliable Construction Accounting Reporting, various Accounting Method that will be used are Cash, Accrual, Completed Contract, and Percentage of Completion, which needs to records on-time invoicing, and on-time expenses records for a specific job in the bookkeeping, so that it only able to provide the management with the actual progress of the job, job costing, and job profitability.

Are you looking for an Accounting System for your construction company? We have a solution for you. Contact Us.

By SYH. 

ICT End of Life (EOL) Equipment

Nothing lasts forever, especially technology. As much as you love your gadget, all good things must come to an end. As much as a company needs to minimize hardware replacement costs, it is inevitable to spend sooner or later. That brings us to a crunching question: How long do they last?

As a company, struggling with machines well past their prime negatively impacts your bottom line. And although there is nothing wrong with keeping older computers, it's important to beware of the fact that all ICT hardware has an expiry date (End of Life).

An average lifespan of a desktop computer (PC) is around 5-7 years. While many computers can remain operational several years after their projected lifespan; the accumulation of files, software, and updates takes a toll on the hardware. This is when degradation comes in, too many background processes/applications running puts pressure on the CPU, which leads to overheating. Under most circumstances, the computer's cooling unit mitigates this, but over time it can suck in dust, clog up vents, and limit air circulation. The excess heat produced will then wear out internal components and affect overall performance.

Laptops are not as sturdier as desktops, not to mentioned rough handling, hence, the average usage is 3-4 years.

Smaller (and more easily damaged or misplaced) mobile devices are short-lived compared to desktop. Average usage for smaller mobile devices: 2-3 years.

While the hardware may still work beyond the recommended lifespan, this common "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" preception could lead to reliability and security issues down the road, especially if firmware or operating systems are no longer updated to patch security vulnerabilities.

What is the typical lifespan of ICT assets?

Typical lifespans can vary and will depend on how well your assets were deployed (environment and usage factors) and maintained throughout their lifetime. Below are some general guidelines for an ICT End of Life (Equipment) refresh/replacement.

 

• Workstation/PC/Desktop: 5-7 years
• Laptop: 3-4 years
• Mobile Devices (Smartphone/Tablet): 2-3 years
• Servers: 7 years
• Network Equipment: 7 years
• Printer: 7 years
• UPS: 5-7 years
• Fiberoptic cables: 15-20 years
• Standard software: 3 years
• Customized Software: 10years

When is the time for a hardware refresh?

Performance Issues. New applications with more complex features put stress on aging hardware, resulting in performance problems and system lag. Performance issues typically lead to decreased productivity from frustrated users

Sunset Products. As hardware manufacturers and software providers sunset/discontinue products, they will no longer support or upgrades for them. Operation without this support can cause vulnerability and security risks.

Cost factors

The easiest way to determine whether you should replace your computer is by weighing the costs. One good rule of thumb is if the cost to maintain existing hardware reaches 66% of the price of a new computer, you should opt for a new one.

And while it may seem wise to use an old computer until its dies, that's often not the case. Eventually, processors will give out and the replacement part will not be available, this could cause downtime for your workers.

High-end vs budget-friendly: What type of devices are organizations buying?

For mission-critical servers that power important services employees and customers rely on, company should invest in new, higher-end hardware. But for everything else, company can have a slight preference for new, budget-friendly devices over new, higher-end devices.

ICT EOL Refresh Policy

Company should also have an ICT EOL Refresh Policy to establish and define a Refresh policy for all equipment used in the company. This is intended to provide a balance between optimum use and on-going maintenance costs to enable staff to use the latest software with ease, without impeding the productivity and efficiency of their department. The purpose of the policy is to minimize risk(s) from (but not limited to):

• The vulnerability of out-dated or obsolete hardware and software systems to external and internal attacks.
• Inadequate security and authentication functions for obsolete systems.
• Unavailability of security fixes and vulnerability patches for obsolete systems (e.g Windows 96, Windows XP).
• The lack of technical support and defensive measures available to obsolete systems (e.g 4GL, DOS).

Future-proof your ICT Infrastructure

Wide Area Network with older CAT cables may need to be replaced with fiberoptics. WIFI may need to be replaced with 5G cellular coverage. Off-site backup may need to be complemented with cloud backup. Supporting environmental devices such UPS may need to be replaced with Smart-UPS, air-cond and lighting may need to be replaced with energy-saving units.

Disposal of EOL equipment

Instead of sending the EOL equipment to the landfill, you may want to dispose of it properly as e-waste where certain parts can be scraped or recycled safely. If EOL equipment is still functioning, it can also be donated to the needy. 

However, regardless of the EOL Server/Desktop/Laptops are to be disposed or donated, the company data/files in the hard-drive must be removed to protect the company data breaches. EOL equipment should be donated with new hard-drive, while the old hard-drive must be destroyed properly.

#jangkahayatasetICT

Task Management Software Improves Prioritization

When running a company, department, or an individual team, it is of the utmost importance to motivate your employees in order to obtain the best results and ensure everyone is completing their tasks. As such, properly managing tasks becomes imperative since workers will have to conduct assignments that show real results. One way for supervisors to simplify this process is by implementing task management software in their department.

Pasti Nyala has a few tools but not fully utilized. Members need constant reminding and this can be quite tiring. I'm aware that reminding someone else is part of managing people. But some subordinates are just not cooperating. No doubt they are listening, but the end result or the improvement is just now showing.


In order for anyone to succeed in their job, they will need to have the focus and the drive to get their tasks done. Google for some articles on how to focus on work productivity and how to help subordinates improve concentration and productivity so that they have enough focus to bring results for the team and the company. 

Moving Away from Email Management toward Task Management Software

Often, managers have attempted to track the tasks their team members are working on through email. Using email to manage how workers are doing on their assignments may not be as beneficial. First, you need to wait until someone responds to the emails you send. Second, your workers are unlikely to provide all the information you need through an email.

Essentially, you’ll never be able to track the time spent on work among your employees or the workflow and revisions that take place by merely using emails or even face-to-face meetings. You will gain much more data by implementing task management software.

Incorporating a task management tool in your company can help you as the supervisor track the time spent on work and better manage workflow. This will give you more peace of mind since you’ll be able to see data more clearly and ensure your team is meeting deadlines. Essentially, task management software can bring better results for your company. Below are some of the main benefits of using task management software.

The Major Benefits of Task Management Software

1. Allows You to Stick to a Schedule

By utilizing task management software, you’ll be able to set up a schedule for your team members so that everyone knows when their tasks are due and when major deadlines are coming up. This is especially helpful when you’re working on different projects across many team members.

2. Improves Task Delegation

As a manager, you’ll be able to more easily delegate assignments through the use of task management software. This type of tool can help you utilize comments to discuss which individuals will complete certain tasks and what deadlines your team members can reach.

Some of the biggest difficulties with task management include failing to make appropriate business decisions and team members not completing what was asked of them, especially when a project is complex. Luckily, task management software is able to simplify the delegation of assignments, communication between team members, and general business decision-making.

3. Simplifies Remote Work

With the use of task management tools, you’ll be able to much more easily manage projects when you have employees working in different locations or even separate cities. If your workers need to spend the day at home and complete their projects that way, you’ll be able to track the time they spend working with the right tools.

4. Helps Schedule Meetings and Calls

Mobile phone applications and task management tools can also help you more easily message workers to schedule meetings and set up Skype or video calls when others are located remotely.

5. Simplifies Tracking the Quality of Work and Performance

With the use of project management tools, you’ll be able to more clearly track the quality of assignments received and the performance of your team members. You’ll be able to check the number of revisions an assignment goes through and help your employees improve the quality of their projects.

Prioritizing Tasks to Simplify Work among Your Team

According to an article from Inc.com, President Dwight D. Eisenhower utilized a very effective organizational chart for prioritizing tasks according to which tasks are important and which ones are urgent.

Essentially, there are four specific levels that tasks can fall into. These four levels are:

Urgent and Important
Urgent and Not Important
Important and Not Urgent
Not Urgent and Not Important

At Pasti Nyala, we called this Work Priority Quadrants or WPQ.

All assignments should be completed in a top-down manner after positioning them in the organizational chart. Urgent, important things need to be completed as soon as possible while urgent and not important tasks are more minor but are still time sensitive. Important but not urgent tasks don’t need to be completed right away but are important to work on long-term. The last items that workers should complete are the ones that are not important and not urgent.

By incorporating this process in your own life and using the organizational chart to prioritize tasks among your team members, you’ll find that more goals will be met and fewer projects will fall behind.

Instead of focusing on distractions, your team will be able to concentrate on more long-term projects. Stack methodology can be used to better organize and prioritize when team members have a number of different projects to complete and various day-to-day tasks.

The manager will need to prioritize all of the assignments according to importance and urgency, which will allow workers to complete multiple parts of different projects within the same week. Stack methodology will help managers better understand deadlines, revisions, and cost of delivery. Task management software can also help you delegate and prioritize projects across your team.

The above basically gives you better insights on Task Management and I would like to relate Pasti Nyala's TASKPAD to it.

TASKPAD can help you improve productivity among your team members by helping them prioritize certain tasks and more easily meet deadlines. You’ll be able to more quickly delegate tasks using TASKPAD function and comment sections to assign projects and discuss errors or revisions/updates.

Recommend reading:
Timesheet, And What it Means for Company and Employees Success

Timesheet, And What it Means for Company and Employees Success

It’s a common enough occurrence at any company — a task is assigned, a reasonable deadline is set, but in the end, so much work still needs to be done. The problem is simple: Time management, or to be more accurate, a lack of it.

Granted, there are also a lot of factors that need to be considered with every task, and it would be unreasonable to expect everything to go according to plan. Anyone who’s been working for a while knows that many times, management and the people who actually do the work aren’t always on the same page. 

Sometimes clients can’t seem to make up their minds, and thus keep changing demands, even on the deadline itself, but still expect work to be done on time. Sometimes one or both of the parties involved don’t fully realize the scope of what’s needed in order for the task to see completion. Every job is different, every job is subjected to its own circumstances that either see it done early or on time, or see it delayed significantly.

That being said, one cannot ignore the importance of having proper time management in the workplace. And not just for rank-and-file, EVERYONE in the organization needs to learn to manage their time properly. And not just for big tasks — even something as mundane and boring as going through emails — the time you allot to do anything at work should be subject to a disciplined and efficient system. “Time is gold,” as the saying goes — trite and overused that adage might be, the truth behind it is no less accurate. Especially for a business, time is a resource that needs to be utilized in the best way possible.


Why time management matters

Many employees will likely agree that in most organizations, things can happen in a frenzy. The pace is often fast, and it can be hard to keep up. That means not a lot of thought is likely given to time management; which is ironic, since proper time management can go a long way into making things easier, more efficient, and more effective. And for organizations, better time management all around means better productivity all around — without damaging or compromising quality. In fact, better time management will likely result not only in better productivity, but superior output as well.

At PastiNyala however, we tend to be carried away with the relaxing work culture. Ample time was given, yet a task can drag on. This needs to be improved. Perhaps secondment of staff to other offices for them to experience the work frenzy and be inside the pressure cooker. 

An article from Recruiter says that companies should invest in time management training for employees. “Employees who lack time management skills often fall behind on their work. Deadlines whoosh past. They become demotivated, unproductive, and even unhealthy,” the article reads. The employee timesheet is not treated with respect and is underutilized — people tend to lean towards absenteeism, and management is a poor grasp of not only it’s employees, but how a project or task is progressing (and how it SHOULD BE progressing). HINT: this is where the TPU, leads and seniors are supposed to help and play their role to monitor and guide.

Recommend reading: Secrets for mastering Time Management | What type of Procrastinator are you?

In addition, a lack of time management among employees can lead to that kind of mindset and attitude becoming a part of the company’s culture. Employees are more likely to be burnt out, unmotivated, and lacking in creativity. In turn, supervisors, managers and executives are more stressed out. Again, this spells disaster for any company aiming to become successful.

Improving time management also means things are done more efficiently — for an organization in particular, this could likely mean less expense on resources and whatnot, since more is done with less effort. This also leads to better decision-making by the powers-that-be since everyone has a better grasp of things. Delayed tasks can also result in delayed decisions, which have the potential of significantly affecting the organization in a negative way. Lost time can never be recovered, but creating more time means being able to tap into other opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to you due to time constraints.

Did I not mentioned this before? Creating more time means, do things faster so you'll finish earlier with surplus time. Don't waste time so that you can move on. If you are not busy means you can be more involved, learn and grow.  

Better time management leads not only to a better workplace and a better and more successful company, it also by extension improves the quality of life of all involved. Remember those horror stories from people who bring their work home with them? Better time management means people are more likely to enjoy their lives outside of work because everything is planned better. They know how and when tasks will likely be completed, they are more aware of the boundaries between work and their personal lives. This kind of positive effect returns back to the organization tenfold, as a culture of better time management creates an upbeat and uplifting environment at work, since everyone is happy and much more motivated to work, contribute, and stay in a particular company.

3 key pointers on to manage time better

Fortunately, improving time management isn’t rocket science. It’s more about discipline and changing mindsets. It’s about creating a culture that values time, one where an employee timesheet is something more than just in and out timestamps. Better time management can be learned, taught, and institutionalized. As long as you really want it to happen, and you’re committed to seeing things through, better time management is more than just possible, it’s inevitable.

1. Keeping focus
A lot of times, the problems of time management are problems of focus. A lot of times, people get distracted from what they need to do. Employees, staff, and even executives can be put off track by other things in the workplace. Excessive internet surfing to Facebook or social media, Manga, YouTube, personal Whatsapps, online chatting, Mobile Games or even Shopee, just makes it worst.  

So it’s important for senior executives to take it upon themselves to create and promote a culture of focus. Just imagine a graphic design team, for example. They have certain deliverables that have to be submitted at a certain time, assigned by Department A and Department B, and Senior Manager A. The head of Department C, however, along with Senior Manager B, have their own tasks they want to assign, and they expect it to be completed in the same time frame as that of the other departments’. The problem here is that no one is on the same page. Everyone wants their tasks done and completed immediately. The team suffers because they don’t know what to do first, and they suddenly have an unreasonable turnover time for their tasks. Focus is letting people work at a reasonable pace and with tasks that don’t conflict with each other.

2. Avoid overwhelming people with initiatives
Related to the previous point, it’s important that organizations know how to pick their battles. Initiatives are all good and well, but if it means overloading employees, it’s just not worth it. Nothing really significant will ever come out of it, anyway. Good time management is also about setting priorities, and creating a pace of work where people can not only have sufficient time to think, create and fulfil their tasks, but also time to take a breather and catch their breath before their next obligations. Remember that overwhelmed employees work more poorly, and will be unable to properly focus because they have too much things on their minds.

This kind of overload of initiatives also means that people will be more likely to cut corners just to see deadlines met. Poor and low-quality output essentially defeats the purpose of the initiative, since even if it is successfully implemented, the benefits it is supposed to bring will not be maximized. And poor planning and poor time management being the foundations of these initiatives mean that you’ll find yourself putting out more fires and more troubleshooting down the road. It’s just not worth it.

3. Create a backup plan
Part of time management entails giving people room to breathe. And room to live their lives. This means creating backup systems and policies in case of emergencies. This also means people will be less distracted when the unexpected happens. In addition, having a backup plan means that in case of emergencies, there’s less stress on the organization as a whole (as opposed to having people running around like headless chickens) because there are already protocols in place to help deal with the situation. Issues are solved faster and more efficiently, so everyone returns to regular programming sooner rather than later.

The employee timesheet is more important than you think

Many managers and supervisors underestimate the power and potential of the employee timesheet. More than just a ledger of attendance, timesheets can be an essential tool in creating and monitoring how time is used in the organization. 

Moving forward, if I could have more support (or indication that timesheet can improve your work productivity or an agreement that timesheet is a useful tool), I could invest more time to improve TASKPAD TimeSheet to allows users to have a better and more solid grasp of how time is being spent in the workplace. You can view how much time is being spent on Project A, B, C, and so on. The new function can be effective since it makes the simultaneous oversight of multiple teams and projects much easier (thus time is also saved), and team/project leads are always on top of things.