Other people's work processes

It's always interesting to observe how differently other people work in similar tasks to yours. For instance:

We do a lot of drawing / visual work in Revit, AutoCAD, Photoshop, SketchUp, and the like, that thrives on having lots of workspace. Nearly all of these programs have a lot of detachable tool palettes, properties windows, etc.

One of my bosses has 2 large monitors (like, 32" each) connected to his work computer, edge to edge, side by side. I have a similar setup.

• He works almost entirely on 1 monitor even when running multiple programs, while the other sits mostly vacant
• He neither maximizes nor tiles any window, ever
• As part of the points above, all of his tool palettes for the various programs he has open are layered haphazardly over each other, and his workspace windows

This is stuff we do day-in, day-out, every day. He not only spends a ton of time hunting around for the tool palettes he needs and pushing stuff out of the way, but he's making the worst possible use of these nice, large monitors he paid for. Out of 850 square inches of monitor space I would say he's using much less than 40% to actually work in. And he is continually bombarded by visual clutter that I know from observation he has a very difficult time filtering out.

In about 5 minutes I could set up a simple window arrangement that would maximize his workspace, minimize the visual clutter, and boost his efficiency in finding things. And since these are computers, it would stay that way.

Now, we all have our shortcomings. My toolbox would make a professional mechanic itch... but that's stuff I use once a month, and at least all the wrenches are in 1 drawer and all the screwdrivers are in another. If used that stuff daily, you can bet it would look differently.

How he lives and works this way 5-6 days a week, when it would be so easy to fix permanently, is entirely beyond me. So what stuff like this do you folks notice?

At work guys tend to CLOSE their laptops instead of leaving them open. I run three monitors with mine open. Two large ones with the laptop doing communication apps. Outlook Lync etc.

I don't understand why everyone is so quick to give up a monitor.

My wife “balances” her checking account by periodically visiting an ATM, looking at the receipt, guessing what transactions haven’t posted yet, and makes a determination if everything seems about right.

If I’m off by a penny (happens about once per decade), I will not rest until I have hunted it down, validated the root cause, and determined if corrective actions can be taken to prevent its reoccurrence.

I prefer to have my autocad workspace maximized on one monitor, properties and xref windows taking up about 1/3 of the other, remaining space can be used to view PDF's while working in autocad. Laptop remains closed, my desk is typically a mess and I dont have room to spread out much more......I think I am running two 27" LCD's currently.

Unfortunately, if I fire up the laptop at home it berkeleys with my layout, pushing everything back to one monitor. It has done this so much I just leave it alone....xref and properties windows sort of tiled overtop the side of my workspace window.

I used to almost exclusively use toolbar buttons to run commands, but now use keyboard commands about half the time. Im certainly a creature of habit and I know a lot of others in my office work completely differently to do the same work.

working on stage, I do not have a desk, but my locker is all gizmoed out and nice and neat with a place for every tool, piece of clothing, and manual I need. My co-workers, not so much.

• I have had several co workers that will mouse wheel scroll through an entire PDF document. Anything more than a couple lines and I'll hit page up/down. Listening to someone whizz whizz whizz through 60 pages of a document will drive me nuts.

• All of us have a 3D mouse/spaceball for CAD. Some people can't be bothered to learn to use it. They fumble by using keyboard+mouse (2 handed) operations for 3D view control. Its especially weird in the design group where we have 4 or 5 different softwares that support the 3D mouse input. 3D mouse input is standard, but KB/Mouse is different for each software.

• One of my co workers uses a Mac with a ~30" 4K screen. His mouse speed is set really low. You have to pick up the mouse several times to move it all the way across his screen. By comparison my mouse will cross ~4K in resolution in less than 2" on my desk. I had to use his computer for a few minutes and all I could think of was "pawing" the desktop when playing Wolf3D using the mouse.

FlightService wrote: At work guys tend to CLOSE their laptops instead of leaving them open. I run three monitors with mine open. Two large ones with the laptop doing communication apps. Outlook Lync etc. I don't understand why everyone is so quick to give up a monitor.

OCD. I can't stand the mismatch between my 24" monitors and my laptop.

Somehow at home I tolerate a single 25" 21:9 next to two 23" 16:10s. Weird.

RX Reven' wrote: My wife “balances” her checking account by periodically visiting an ATM, looking at the receipt, guessing what transactions haven’t posted yet, and makes a determination if everything seems about right. If I’m off by a penny (happens about once per decade), I will not rest until I have hunted it down, validated the root cause, and determined if corrective actions can be taken to prevent its reoccurrence.

Had to chuckle at this one. I have never had the foggiest idea of why anyone would balance a checkbook? Either there is money in the account or there is not. If you spend less than you earn, it all takes care of itself.

I tend to put "Organized" people in the same bucket as "Religious" people; always trying to drag me over to the moral high-ground. By comparison, have you ever seen a disorganized person trying to convert you to his way of life. We kind of feel sorry for y'all

In reply to NOHOME:

I tend to live in both worlds. I am boarderline OCD about balancing my checkbook, but my house is cluttered mess. However, that doesn't mean I particularly like it.

I also run Revit and ACAD with my primary work area on one monitor with the tool bars (Properties and Project Browser) on the other. Email and internet are on the laptop screen when I'm in the PA office and use a laptop. Behind the toolbars on monitor #2 when in the NJ office and using a desktop (still trying to decide which computer works better).

I have 2 - 24" monitors at work. One is too work and the other is on the GRM forum.

Actually once I started using two monitors, I cannot go back. I have only one monitor at home, so there it's usually the PC supplemented with the iPad.

I can't believe how much better productivity can be had with two monitors.

My BIL has the Ultra-widescreen monitors for spreadsheet work. Those are the bomb!

Years ago I worked for a tire one supplier to Toyota. Toyota came in and taught us all about the Toyota Production System (the elimination of waste). It was an unbelievable change for the better! Now when I see any manufacturing operation, I just shudder at how inefficient they are. Including my current employer.

NOHOME wrote:

RX Reven' wrote: My wife “balances” her checking account by periodically visiting an ATM, looking at the receipt, guessing what transactions haven’t posted yet, and makes a determination if everything seems about right. If I’m off by a penny (happens about once per decade), I will not rest until I have hunted it down, validated the root cause, and determined if corrective actions can be taken to prevent its reoccurrence.

Had to chuckle at this one. I have never had the foggiest idea of why anyone would balance a checkbook? Either there is money in the account or there is not. If you spend less than you earn, it all takes care of itself. I tend to put "Organized" people in the same bucket as "Religious" people; always trying to drag me over to the moral high-ground. By comparison, have you ever seen a disorganized person trying to convert you to his way of life. We kind of feel sorry for y'all

I like to at least start my day organized, it rarely stays that way though. Normally I'm in a car so most of my work is on an iPad. Two windows will be open for our tracking program, one for email, and couple more for DOT traffic cameras, 311.gov to report road defects, and one for news. I also have paper for writing down calls as they come out over the radio and a backpack of paperwork and tools I may need. My work phone usually has Google, a bus map and subway map open. They tend to be the things I will most likely need quickly outside of my car as people ask for directions.

If I am working inside I get three monitors. The vertical one on the left has all three versions of our tracking system open. The center one has our department programs open, accident reports, road call info, customer complaints and time and attendance related info. The right monitor has my email, news, DOT cameras and detour announcements, and city govt websites. Depending on what's going on I may shuffle the screens around but that's usually how I start out anyway.

New job forced me into the 2 monitor lifestyle, now I can't live without it.

The wife (correctly) noted that I'm almost completely incapable of finishing a large project in one sitting. My attention spans lasts about an hour before the new water pump turns into knocking down wasp nests turns into mowing the lawn turns into replacing light bulbs...etc. Stuff gets done, just not on Mrs. Calteg's time table.

My job has a lot to do with watching people's work patterns.

Architects hand me drawings which show what a "good" workspace should look like, but making my customers happy is more about watching exactly what their individual workflow is like, and accommodating it.

How much staging space people need, which processes happen when, who they interact with, which side they like their phone on- everything.

I do it in offices, homes, hospitals, industrial spaces, car dealerships, processing plants, everywhere. It's why my customers like me and my company.

But yeah, EVERYBODY is different.

...oh, and bosses NEVER know what's actually going on with their employees (but they like to think they do).

I usually know the habits of my customer's staff better than they know themselves.

I sell ERP software. Every day is a new and interesting conversation of workflow processes and explaining the benefits of various seemingly odd items we have in our package with potential clients or our dealer channel.