Terima kasih tuk luka yang kau beri
ku tak percaya kau tlah begini
dulu kau menjadi malaikat di hati
sampai hati kau telah begini
berkali-kali kau katakan sendiri
kini ku tlah benci, cintaku tlah pergi
pergi saja kau pergi, tak usah kembali
percuma saja kini hanya mengundang perih
cukup tahu ku dirimu, cukup sakit ku rasakan kini
janji yang selalu ku ingat hingga mati
kau setia hingga ku kembali
repeat *
pergi saja kau pergi, tak usah kembali
percuma saja kini hanya mengundang perih
buang saja kau buang cinta yang kemarin
perasaan tak mungkin percayamu lagi
cukup tahu ku dirimu, cukup sakit ku rasakan kini
pergi saja kau pergi, tak usah kembali
percuma saja kini hanya mengundang perih
buang saja kau buang cinta yang kemarin
ooo percayamu lagi
tinggalkan saja diriku, semua kan percuma
cukup tahu ku dirimu, cukup sakit ku rasakan kini
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Giant Vegetables
Five Easy Steps for Growing Giant Sized Vegetables and Flowers
Many gardeners enjoy the competition of growing the largest vegetables and flowers - giant vegetables and flowers. It is truly amazing how large some of these giants will grow. I’m not talking about that baseball bat zucchini that hid out under the leaves. I’m talking about 100 pound cabbages and pumpkins that gain 25 pounds in a day. These giants take planning and care.
To seriously compete with the seasoned giant vegetable growers, you’ll need to put considerable effort into your soil, your choice of site and your gardening technique. But to get you started having some fun growing giant sized vegetables, here are 5 easy steps toward success.
1. Choose the Right Seed
This is the most important step, because some varieties simply grow larger than others. Serious giant growers will often seek out rare seeds to grow. You can start your own giant lineage by selecting a promising variety, like Atlantic Giant Pumpkin or Old Colossus Heirloom Tomato and then saving the seeds from your largest fruits for planting next year. (This only works with open-pollinated varieties, so steer clear of hybrids if you plan to save seeds.)
You may have to do some research on varieties that dependably grow into giants, but the name usually gives it away, like Russian Mammoth Sunflower, that grows upwards of 17 feet tall. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.
Cabbage: Northern Giant Cabbage (100 lbs.)
Carrot: Japanese Imperial Long Carrot (12+ inches long)
Cucumber: Mammoth Zeppelin Cucumber (16 pounds)
Gourd: Giant Long Gourd (120 Inches)
Onion: Kelsae Sweet Giant Onion (One held the world record at over 15 lbs.)
Pepper: Super Heavyweight Hybrid Pepper (½ pound each)
Pumpkin: Atlantic Giant Pumpkin (400 to over 1000 pounds) or
Squash: Show King Giant Green Squash (400+ pounds)
Sunflower: Grey Stripe Giant Sunflower (2 foot heads)
Tomato: Old Colossus Heirloom Tomato (2+ pounds)
Watermelon: Carolina Cross (Giant) Watermelon (200 pounds)
If you’ve had success growing a giant vegetable or flower, let us know what it was.
2. Give Them a Healthy Start
Beef up the soil your plants will be growing in before you even plant. Spread some manure or compost the fall prior planting. If you’re serious about competing, you should have a complete soil test done and replenish any nutrients and micro-nutrients that might be lacking.
Giant vegetables tend to grow in quick spurts, so they need lots of food. Slow acting organic fertilizers added at planting time will ensure that the food is there when the plant needs it. It will also make for a healthier soil and less pest problems.
And know what type of fertilizer your plant needs. If you’re growing the plant for the fruit, like pumpkins and tomatoes, you’ll want a fertilizer that’s high in potassium and phosphorous, the last two numbers on the package. If you’re growing a leafy vegetable, like cabbage, you’ll want a higher nitrogen number.
3. Water
Giant vegetables won’t be as tolerant of sporadic watering as the common garden vegetable would be - and even the common vegetable is touchy about not getting its one-inch per week. You have to provide regular deep waterings or your fruits will either languish or split. I recommend using drip irrigation on a timer that compensates for rain, so there are no slip-ups. Because as much as your plants need regular water, they don’t want to sit in wet soil.
4. Thin to Just the Best Fruits
The more fruits on your plants, the smaller they will be. If they have to compete for nutrients, they’re never going to be giants. So prune or pinch out all but about three of the largest, healthiest looking fruits. Later in the season, you might want to thin down to just one, but keep a couple of extras at the beginning for insurance.
Don’t worry about too much foliage. The foliage is what will be feeding the fruits and helping them grow larger.
5. Keep Close Watch for Problems
Pests, diseases and cultural problems can move in quickly and ruin an entire crop, especially when there are only a handful of fruits to begin with. Check your plants daily and correct any problems immediately. Try and remove problems by hand, since using chemicals can disrupt the plant too. Hopefully since you’ve given your plants every advantage, problems will be few.
Now comes the hard part. You have to be patient. Look but don’t touch. Too much fussing with your plants is as bad as too little. Let them do what they do and just enjoy watching them grow.
If you find yourself addicted to growing giant vegetables, talk with the competitors at your local county fair. Some will be coy, but many are very open and generous with their knowledge. They’ll know who has the best seed and will be happy to discuss technique with you. There may even be a regional Giant Vegetable Growers organization in your area.
For a humorous, but very informative peek into growing giant pumpkins, I recommend the book Backyard Giants - The Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever, by Susan Warren. Ms. Warren follows competitors through an entire growing season and gives us plenty of tips along the way.
By Marie Iannotti
Many gardeners enjoy the competition of growing the largest vegetables and flowers - giant vegetables and flowers. It is truly amazing how large some of these giants will grow. I’m not talking about that baseball bat zucchini that hid out under the leaves. I’m talking about 100 pound cabbages and pumpkins that gain 25 pounds in a day. These giants take planning and care.
To seriously compete with the seasoned giant vegetable growers, you’ll need to put considerable effort into your soil, your choice of site and your gardening technique. But to get you started having some fun growing giant sized vegetables, here are 5 easy steps toward success.
1. Choose the Right Seed
This is the most important step, because some varieties simply grow larger than others. Serious giant growers will often seek out rare seeds to grow. You can start your own giant lineage by selecting a promising variety, like Atlantic Giant Pumpkin or Old Colossus Heirloom Tomato and then saving the seeds from your largest fruits for planting next year. (This only works with open-pollinated varieties, so steer clear of hybrids if you plan to save seeds.)
You may have to do some research on varieties that dependably grow into giants, but the name usually gives it away, like Russian Mammoth Sunflower, that grows upwards of 17 feet tall. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.
Cabbage: Northern Giant Cabbage (100 lbs.)
Carrot: Japanese Imperial Long Carrot (12+ inches long)
Cucumber: Mammoth Zeppelin Cucumber (16 pounds)
Gourd: Giant Long Gourd (120 Inches)
Onion: Kelsae Sweet Giant Onion (One held the world record at over 15 lbs.)
Pepper: Super Heavyweight Hybrid Pepper (½ pound each)
Pumpkin: Atlantic Giant Pumpkin (400 to over 1000 pounds) or
Squash: Show King Giant Green Squash (400+ pounds)
Sunflower: Grey Stripe Giant Sunflower (2 foot heads)
Tomato: Old Colossus Heirloom Tomato (2+ pounds)
Watermelon: Carolina Cross (Giant) Watermelon (200 pounds)
If you’ve had success growing a giant vegetable or flower, let us know what it was.
2. Give Them a Healthy Start
Beef up the soil your plants will be growing in before you even plant. Spread some manure or compost the fall prior planting. If you’re serious about competing, you should have a complete soil test done and replenish any nutrients and micro-nutrients that might be lacking.
Giant vegetables tend to grow in quick spurts, so they need lots of food. Slow acting organic fertilizers added at planting time will ensure that the food is there when the plant needs it. It will also make for a healthier soil and less pest problems.
And know what type of fertilizer your plant needs. If you’re growing the plant for the fruit, like pumpkins and tomatoes, you’ll want a fertilizer that’s high in potassium and phosphorous, the last two numbers on the package. If you’re growing a leafy vegetable, like cabbage, you’ll want a higher nitrogen number.
3. Water
Giant vegetables won’t be as tolerant of sporadic watering as the common garden vegetable would be - and even the common vegetable is touchy about not getting its one-inch per week. You have to provide regular deep waterings or your fruits will either languish or split. I recommend using drip irrigation on a timer that compensates for rain, so there are no slip-ups. Because as much as your plants need regular water, they don’t want to sit in wet soil.
4. Thin to Just the Best Fruits
The more fruits on your plants, the smaller they will be. If they have to compete for nutrients, they’re never going to be giants. So prune or pinch out all but about three of the largest, healthiest looking fruits. Later in the season, you might want to thin down to just one, but keep a couple of extras at the beginning for insurance.
Don’t worry about too much foliage. The foliage is what will be feeding the fruits and helping them grow larger.
5. Keep Close Watch for Problems
Pests, diseases and cultural problems can move in quickly and ruin an entire crop, especially when there are only a handful of fruits to begin with. Check your plants daily and correct any problems immediately. Try and remove problems by hand, since using chemicals can disrupt the plant too. Hopefully since you’ve given your plants every advantage, problems will be few.
Now comes the hard part. You have to be patient. Look but don’t touch. Too much fussing with your plants is as bad as too little. Let them do what they do and just enjoy watching them grow.
If you find yourself addicted to growing giant vegetables, talk with the competitors at your local county fair. Some will be coy, but many are very open and generous with their knowledge. They’ll know who has the best seed and will be happy to discuss technique with you. There may even be a regional Giant Vegetable Growers organization in your area.
For a humorous, but very informative peek into growing giant pumpkins, I recommend the book Backyard Giants - The Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever, by Susan Warren. Ms. Warren follows competitors through an entire growing season and gives us plenty of tips along the way.
By Marie Iannotti
Friday, December 16, 2011
MOL Humus
Setelah membaca berbagai teknik membuat MOL (Micro Organisme Lokal, saya penasaran untuk ber UJI COBA membuat MOL pelarut Phospat. Saya tidak yakin apakah ini akan berhasil atau tidak, tapi yang penting dicoba dulu kan.
Pertama tama saya kumpulkan humus beserta perakaran halus yang ada ke dalam ember, terus tambahkan air, biarkan semalam. Masukan Air rendaman humus ke dalam botol, tambahkan cairan Gula Merah secukupnya, air cucian beras (yang pertama saja)kocok agar merata dan biarkan.
Saya belum tahu apakah berhasil atau tidak memperoleh micro organisme pelarut fosfat dari teknik ini. Kalau ada yang paham mengenai pembuatan MOL untuk micro organisme pelarut phospate tolong share ke saya
Pertama tama saya kumpulkan humus beserta perakaran halus yang ada ke dalam ember, terus tambahkan air, biarkan semalam. Masukan Air rendaman humus ke dalam botol, tambahkan cairan Gula Merah secukupnya, air cucian beras (yang pertama saja)kocok agar merata dan biarkan.
Saya belum tahu apakah berhasil atau tidak memperoleh micro organisme pelarut fosfat dari teknik ini. Kalau ada yang paham mengenai pembuatan MOL untuk micro organisme pelarut phospate tolong share ke saya
Monday, December 5, 2011
Percobaan POC Urin Manusia
Seorang temen terkejut ketika saya mintai bantuan untuk mengumpulkan urin temen temenya, respon pertamanya klasik banget Waahhh buat apa Pak ?
"Mau buat pupuk"
"Waduuuuh . . . kayaknya jijik dech he he" (sambil nyengir lagi)
Setengah hari kemudian temen tadi membawa 3 botol aqua berisi air urin temen temennya. (ternyata gak susah lho masukin air kencing ke botol aqua !)
Jadilah sekarang sudah terkumpul 5 liter urin saya plus temen temen, tinggal menunggu datangnya kiriman bahan bahan micro organisme serta beberapa jenis hormon dari Bogor dan Tangerang maka percobaan pembuatan Pupuk Organik Cair dari Urin Manusia pun siap dikerjakan.
Rasanya sudah tidak sabar menunggu hari rabu, semoga percobaan berjalan lancar.
Rencana Percobaan Resep POC urin Manusia :
1. Urin
2. Biang POC
3. Air Kelapa
4. Larutan Gula
5. Microba Pelarut Phospat dll
6. Beberapa Hormon Tumbuhan
Wah khasiatnya seperti apa ya kalau jadi ?
Kalau ada yang sudah punya pengalaman tolong beri advis ke saya, ndak ada ruginya kan berbagi.
"Mau buat pupuk"
"Waduuuuh . . . kayaknya jijik dech he he" (sambil nyengir lagi)
Setengah hari kemudian temen tadi membawa 3 botol aqua berisi air urin temen temennya. (ternyata gak susah lho masukin air kencing ke botol aqua !)
Jadilah sekarang sudah terkumpul 5 liter urin saya plus temen temen, tinggal menunggu datangnya kiriman bahan bahan micro organisme serta beberapa jenis hormon dari Bogor dan Tangerang maka percobaan pembuatan Pupuk Organik Cair dari Urin Manusia pun siap dikerjakan.
Rasanya sudah tidak sabar menunggu hari rabu, semoga percobaan berjalan lancar.
Rencana Percobaan Resep POC urin Manusia :
1. Urin
2. Biang POC
3. Air Kelapa
4. Larutan Gula
5. Microba Pelarut Phospat dll
6. Beberapa Hormon Tumbuhan
Wah khasiatnya seperti apa ya kalau jadi ?
Kalau ada yang sudah punya pengalaman tolong beri advis ke saya, ndak ada ruginya kan berbagi.
Using Human Urine As A Liquid Fertilizer
Ok, so are you over the shock now??? In the not so distant past, we didn't have the luxury of having a small room in the house where we could flush away our number ones and twos. But did you ever wonder how we managed before the water closet? Not that I want to get into the history of it, but let's just say that before the times of our current throw-away society, people thought of multiple uses for just about everything.
Well maybe you didn't know that human urine is the fastest acting, most excellent source of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium and some trace elements. Not only that, but we all have a constant, year round supply of it - and it's free! There's not a lot of effort involved in creating this wonderful organic liquid fertilizer.
Some men I know are more than happy to oblige a tree, bush or lawn (out of view, of course).
Did you know that many toilets use between 50 and 100 litres of water a day to flush around 1.5 litres of pee? And the high levels of nutrients in our effluent systems leads to the growth of algae, which ultimately causes the death of plants and animals throughout our waterways.
What are the advantages of using urine as an organic liquid fertilizer?
If you're not flushing this valuable liquid down the loo, you are reducing your water consumption - good for the environment and your pocket
You'll be reducing the amount of sewerage runoff
There'll be less nutrients in our waterways
Urine as a liquid fertilizer is available in an ideal chemical form for plants to use
Gardening costs are less as your liquid fertilizer is free
It is readily available all year round and there are no transportation costs
Just so that you know, fresh human urine is sterile (unless there is a urinary tract infection - this urine should not be used) and so free from bacteria.
I recommend that you dilute urine to 10-15 parts water to 1 part urine for application on plants in the growth stage. Dilute to 30-50 parts water to 1 part urine for use on pot plants as they are much more sensitive to fertilizers of any kind.
Trees, shrubs and lawn should cope well without dilution. Withhold the use of urine liquid fertilizer on all food plants at least two weeks before harvesting. Apply under fruiting plants, not directly on foliage.
Don't use urine older than 24hours on your plants as the urea turns into ammonia and will burn your plants. If it's not fresh, add it to your compost heap. Adding undiluted human urine to your compost heap will help heat it up quickly as it is an excellent activator and will add to the final nutrient value.
As far as antibiotics, vitamin supplements and other medications go, yes they will end up in your urine, but in such minute quantities that I believe to be negligible - especially when it is diluted.
So put this excellent source of free liquid fertilizer to good use in your garden, rather than add to the burden that we as humans cause to our environment.
Hi, I am an avid organic gardener and am known by my friends as the recycling queen. I live on a small country property in South Australia. It is my mission to encourage as many people as possible to start organic gardening. This will improve both our individual lives and the wellbeing of our personal and global environments. Please visit my website and get your free 3 part Composting Guide For Companion Planting info click here
Happy gardening, healthy living…
Julie Williams
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/392596
Well maybe you didn't know that human urine is the fastest acting, most excellent source of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium and some trace elements. Not only that, but we all have a constant, year round supply of it - and it's free! There's not a lot of effort involved in creating this wonderful organic liquid fertilizer.
Some men I know are more than happy to oblige a tree, bush or lawn (out of view, of course).
Did you know that many toilets use between 50 and 100 litres of water a day to flush around 1.5 litres of pee? And the high levels of nutrients in our effluent systems leads to the growth of algae, which ultimately causes the death of plants and animals throughout our waterways.
What are the advantages of using urine as an organic liquid fertilizer?
If you're not flushing this valuable liquid down the loo, you are reducing your water consumption - good for the environment and your pocket
You'll be reducing the amount of sewerage runoff
There'll be less nutrients in our waterways
Urine as a liquid fertilizer is available in an ideal chemical form for plants to use
Gardening costs are less as your liquid fertilizer is free
It is readily available all year round and there are no transportation costs
Just so that you know, fresh human urine is sterile (unless there is a urinary tract infection - this urine should not be used) and so free from bacteria.
I recommend that you dilute urine to 10-15 parts water to 1 part urine for application on plants in the growth stage. Dilute to 30-50 parts water to 1 part urine for use on pot plants as they are much more sensitive to fertilizers of any kind.
Trees, shrubs and lawn should cope well without dilution. Withhold the use of urine liquid fertilizer on all food plants at least two weeks before harvesting. Apply under fruiting plants, not directly on foliage.
Don't use urine older than 24hours on your plants as the urea turns into ammonia and will burn your plants. If it's not fresh, add it to your compost heap. Adding undiluted human urine to your compost heap will help heat it up quickly as it is an excellent activator and will add to the final nutrient value.
As far as antibiotics, vitamin supplements and other medications go, yes they will end up in your urine, but in such minute quantities that I believe to be negligible - especially when it is diluted.
So put this excellent source of free liquid fertilizer to good use in your garden, rather than add to the burden that we as humans cause to our environment.
Hi, I am an avid organic gardener and am known by my friends as the recycling queen. I live on a small country property in South Australia. It is my mission to encourage as many people as possible to start organic gardening. This will improve both our individual lives and the wellbeing of our personal and global environments. Please visit my website and get your free 3 part Composting Guide For Companion Planting info click here
Happy gardening, healthy living…
Julie Williams
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/392596
Pupuk Urin Manusia
Urine ternak digunakan sebagai pupuk organik sejak zaman yunani kuno. Kini Pradhan, Helvi Heinonen-Tanski dan beberapa mahasiswa peneliti dari University of Kuopio, Finlandia menggunakan urine manusia yang dianggap murah, tersedia melimpah dan efektif.
Para ilmuwan memastikan urine dari individu yang sehat, steril, bebas bakteri atau virus, serta secara alami kaya nitrogen dan nutrisi lainnya. Mereka mengumpulkan urine manusia dari perumahan dan menggunakannya sebagai pupuk tanaman kubis. Hasilnya, pertumbuhan dan bobot kubis lebih tinggi dibanding yang menggunakan pupuk sintetis. Tidak ada perbedaan kandungan gizi pada kubis."Urine manusia tidak mengubah rasa maupun mengancam kehigienisannya". Kata Surendra Pradhan.
Para ilmuwan memastikan urine dari individu yang sehat, steril, bebas bakteri atau virus, serta secara alami kaya nitrogen dan nutrisi lainnya. Mereka mengumpulkan urine manusia dari perumahan dan menggunakannya sebagai pupuk tanaman kubis. Hasilnya, pertumbuhan dan bobot kubis lebih tinggi dibanding yang menggunakan pupuk sintetis. Tidak ada perbedaan kandungan gizi pada kubis."Urine manusia tidak mengubah rasa maupun mengancam kehigienisannya". Kata Surendra Pradhan.
Pupuk Ion dari Urine Manusia
Pupuk yang dinamakan Pupuk Ion Organik 200 watt, ditemukan oleh Soelaiman Budi Sunarto yang berhasil menjadi salah satu dari 101 inovasi terpilih tahun 2009 oleh Lembaga Intermediasi Business Innovation Center (BIC).
Budi, sang penemu biasa dipanggil, memulai pengembangan pupuk ion ini pada tahun 2006 di Desa Doplang, Karangpandan, Karanganyar, Jawa Tengah. Termasuk pupuk organik karena dibuat dari bahan - bahan organik yang mudah ditemui di pedesaan dan sudah di uji coba di laboratorium Fakultas Pertanian Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta. Berdasarkan penelitian tersebut pupuk temuan Budi ini terbukti mengandung kadar nitrogen tinggi yang bermanfaat agar tanaman dapat tumbuh dengan akar yang kuat sehingga menunjang pertumbuhan yang baik. Daya hantar listrik dari pupuk ini berguna dalam membantu penyerapan pupuk oleh tumbuhan. Semakin tinggi daya hantar listriknya maka semakin baik pula daya serapnya.
Cara pembuatan pupuk yang memiliki daya hantar listrik sampai 200 watt ini adalah dengan bahan dasar urin manusia (walaupun urin hewan bisa digunakan tetapi urin manusia menghasilkan kualitas pupuk yang lebih baik), cairan glukosa dan fermentor. Komposisi urin dan cairan glukosa masing - masing 1 bagian lalu ditambahkan fermentor untuk kemudian diaduk selama 30 menit. Setelah proses pengadukan, pupuk dikemas di dalam wadah yang tertutup rapat dan didiamkan selama satu minggu. Setelah satu minggu, kemasan dibuka sebentar untuk diaduk satu kali saja. Tutup rapat kembali dan diamkan selama tiga minggu. Setelah tiga minggu, pupuk yang tidak lagi berbau pesing sudah dapat digunakan. Pengemasan pupuk yang sudah jadi harus dalam wadah yang tertutup rapat agar pupuk dapat bertahan hingga 3 tahun.
Bahan dasar berupa cairan glukosa bisa didapat dari air kelapa, air limbah tahu atau air yang dicampur dengan gula merah. Fermentor dapat diperoleh di toko - toko pertanian atau dibuat sendiri dengan bahan dasar kotoran sapi yang masih berada di dalam usus sapi bagian tengah.
Cara penggunaan pupuk dengan menyemprotkannya pada tanaman agar mudah diserap oleh daun. Komposisi volume pupuk adalah dengan mencampurkan 1 mililiter pupuk dengan 1 liter air bersih.
Sumber: Koran KOMPAS hal. 14, terbit 22 Januari 2010 dan sumber lain
Budi, sang penemu biasa dipanggil, memulai pengembangan pupuk ion ini pada tahun 2006 di Desa Doplang, Karangpandan, Karanganyar, Jawa Tengah. Termasuk pupuk organik karena dibuat dari bahan - bahan organik yang mudah ditemui di pedesaan dan sudah di uji coba di laboratorium Fakultas Pertanian Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta. Berdasarkan penelitian tersebut pupuk temuan Budi ini terbukti mengandung kadar nitrogen tinggi yang bermanfaat agar tanaman dapat tumbuh dengan akar yang kuat sehingga menunjang pertumbuhan yang baik. Daya hantar listrik dari pupuk ini berguna dalam membantu penyerapan pupuk oleh tumbuhan. Semakin tinggi daya hantar listriknya maka semakin baik pula daya serapnya.
Cara pembuatan pupuk yang memiliki daya hantar listrik sampai 200 watt ini adalah dengan bahan dasar urin manusia (walaupun urin hewan bisa digunakan tetapi urin manusia menghasilkan kualitas pupuk yang lebih baik), cairan glukosa dan fermentor. Komposisi urin dan cairan glukosa masing - masing 1 bagian lalu ditambahkan fermentor untuk kemudian diaduk selama 30 menit. Setelah proses pengadukan, pupuk dikemas di dalam wadah yang tertutup rapat dan didiamkan selama satu minggu. Setelah satu minggu, kemasan dibuka sebentar untuk diaduk satu kali saja. Tutup rapat kembali dan diamkan selama tiga minggu. Setelah tiga minggu, pupuk yang tidak lagi berbau pesing sudah dapat digunakan. Pengemasan pupuk yang sudah jadi harus dalam wadah yang tertutup rapat agar pupuk dapat bertahan hingga 3 tahun.
Bahan dasar berupa cairan glukosa bisa didapat dari air kelapa, air limbah tahu atau air yang dicampur dengan gula merah. Fermentor dapat diperoleh di toko - toko pertanian atau dibuat sendiri dengan bahan dasar kotoran sapi yang masih berada di dalam usus sapi bagian tengah.
Cara penggunaan pupuk dengan menyemprotkannya pada tanaman agar mudah diserap oleh daun. Komposisi volume pupuk adalah dengan mencampurkan 1 mililiter pupuk dengan 1 liter air bersih.
Sumber: Koran KOMPAS hal. 14, terbit 22 Januari 2010 dan sumber lain
Pupuk Air Seni Manusia
Air seni, air kencing atau urin adalah nama yang semakna. Ia merupakan cairan sisa reaksi biokimiawi rumit yang terjadi di dalam tubuh. Meski zat buangan, urin manusia masih mengandung bahan kimia seperti nitrogen, fosfor, dan potasium. Bila menumpuk dan tidak dikeluarkan, maka akan menjadi racun yang malah membahayakan tubuh.
Sebanyak 70% bahan makanan (nutrisi) yang dikonsumsi manusia dikeluarkan dalam bentuk air seni. Dalam setahun, seseorang dapat mengeluarkan air kencing kira-kira sebesar 500 liter. Jumlah ini setara dengan 4 kg nitrogen, 0.5 kg fosfor, dan 1 kg potasium. Ketiganya termasuk unsur penting dalam pertumbuhan tanaman.
Pupuk Urin
Walaupun terkadang berbau menyengat, air kencing ternyata membawa manfaat. Contoh penggunaan urin yang kini tengah berkembang adalah sebagai pupuk tanaman. Di beberapa negara, pupuk urin merupakan bagian dari program pemanfaatan limbah yang disebut Ecosan.
Ecological Sanitation (Ecosan) diilhami oleh banyaknya permasalahan lingkungan, terutama yang berkaitan dengan limbah rumah tangga seperti kotoran manusia. Dahulu, sebagian menganggap limbah tersebut tak berguna sehingga sering dibuang begitu saja. Namun, sebenarnya kotoran tersebut dapat diolah sedemikian rupa sehingga lebih berdaya guna. Di samping mampu menjaga kesuburan tanah, teknologi ini juga dapat membantu mewujudkan ketahanan pangan.
Sejumlah negara sudah mulai menggalakkan program daur ulang limbah manusia ini. Sebut saja Cina, Zimbabwe, Meksiko, India, dan Uganda. Bahkan, beberapa negara Eropa juga turut serta dalam program ini, misalnya Jerman dan Swedia.
Menurut Ian Caldwell dan Arno Rosemarin dari Stockholm Environment Institute, Swedia, penggunaan urin dan kotoran manusia sebagai pupuk adalah cara utama dalam menerapkan pertanian berkelanjutan. Lebih jauh lagi, hal tersebut dapat membantu tercapainya ketahanan pangan dan mendukung tersedianya nutrisi yang lebih baik.
Sementara itu, penelitian air seni manusia sebagai pupuk juga telah dilakukan oleh MnKeni bersama teman-temannya dari Universitas Fort Hare, Afrika Selatan. Secara umum, penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan urin sebagai sumber nitrogen sebanding dengan pupuk urea. Kendati demikian, hasil ini bergantung pada kepekaan tanaman yang dipanen terhadap kadar garam (salinitas) lahan tempat bercocok tanam. Oleh karenanya, perlu pengawasan dalam penggunaan pupuk air seni ini.
Banyak Kelebihan
Pupuk urin memiliki banyak keunggulan, baik dari sisi lingkungan, ekonomi, maupun sosial. Dalam lingkungan, penggunaan pupuk ini memperbaiki penanganan kesehatan masyarakat. Penggunaan pupuk air seni juga mampu meningkatkan hasil panen sehingga taraf hidup masyarakat membaik. Dengan kata lain, air kencing dapat menurunkan angka kemiskinan.
Salah satu masalah yang dikhawatirkan dari pemanfaatan pupuk jenis ini adalah rasa produk tanamannya. Logikanya, penggunaan air seni sebagai pupuk berkemungkinan mempengaruhi mutu hasil tanaman. Namun, permasalahan ini ditepis oleh penelitian Surendra K. Pradhan dan rekannya dari Universitas Kuopio, Finlandia.
Mereka membandingkan penggunaan air kencing manusia sebagai pupuk kubis dengan pupuk buatan industri. Hasilnya, kemampuan pupuk urin sama dengan pupuk buatan industri pada dosis 180 kg N/ha.
Bahkan pertumbuhan, biomassa, dan kandungan klorida tanaman sedikit lebih tinggi jika menggunakan pupuk air seni. Serangga yang biasanya ikut mati akibat penggunaan pupuk industri juga berkurang dengan menggunakan pupuk alami ini.
Penelitian ilmuwan ini membuktikan bahwa air seni manusia dapat digunakan sebagai pupuk tanpa mengancam nilai kehigienisan tanaman yang berarti. Selain itu, rasa produk makanannya juga tak berkurang meski tanaman yang menjadi bahan bakunya diberi pupuk urin.
Lidah Pengecap Air Seni
Keberadaan air kencing manusia yang banyak mengandung zat sisa reaksi biokimiawi tubuh tak hanya dimanfaatkan sebagai pupuk. Cairan berbau ini juga mendorong peneliti untuk menciptakan lidah elektronik. Lidah yang terdiri atas bermacam sensor kimia potensiometrik tersebut digunakan sebagai pendeteksi kegagalan fungsi sistem urin dan kadar kreatinin.
Kreatinin adalah hasil pemecahan kreatinin fosfat di dalam otot. Senyawa ini normal ada dalam urin, yakni sebesar 0.5-1 mg untuk perempuan, dan 0.7-1.2 mg untuk laki-laki. Namun, jumlah yang berlebih menandakan ada kerusakan dalam ginjal.
Di samping dapat mengelompokkan contoh urin yang diteliti, lidah buatan juga mampu membedakan contoh urin orang sehat dengan yang mempunyai penyakit tumor kandung kemih. Dengan data analisis urin yang dihasilkan mungkin bisa mengetahui jenis tumornya, baik yang ganas maupun tidak ganas.
Tanda Kebesaran Allah
Air kencing manusia, ternyata bukan sekedar cairan tak berguna. Sederet manfaat dimiliki oleh cairan tersebut. Inilah satu lagi bukti kebesaran Allah. Sungguh, tiada yang sia-sia segala apa yang telah diciptakan-Nya tak terkecuali air seni.
Oleh karena itu, sudah sepatutnya manusia bersyukur atas apa yang Allah berikan. Sejatinya, hanya Dialah yang mampu menjadikan barang hina seperti urin manusia, dapat berfungsi laksana pupuk dan pendeteksi penyakit. Ini karena Allah adalah satu-satunya Tuhan yang memiliki sifat Maha Pencipta dan Maha Mengetahui, sebagaimana firmanNya: “Sesungguhnya Rabbmu, Dia-lah Yang Maha Pencipta lagi Maha Mengetahui”. (QS Al Hijr 15:86) (Syaefudin/www. hidayatullah. com)
***
Penulis adalah Asisten Dosen Metabolisme, Departemen Biokimia, FMIPA-Institut Pertanian Bogor.
Sebanyak 70% bahan makanan (nutrisi) yang dikonsumsi manusia dikeluarkan dalam bentuk air seni. Dalam setahun, seseorang dapat mengeluarkan air kencing kira-kira sebesar 500 liter. Jumlah ini setara dengan 4 kg nitrogen, 0.5 kg fosfor, dan 1 kg potasium. Ketiganya termasuk unsur penting dalam pertumbuhan tanaman.
Pupuk Urin
Walaupun terkadang berbau menyengat, air kencing ternyata membawa manfaat. Contoh penggunaan urin yang kini tengah berkembang adalah sebagai pupuk tanaman. Di beberapa negara, pupuk urin merupakan bagian dari program pemanfaatan limbah yang disebut Ecosan.
Ecological Sanitation (Ecosan) diilhami oleh banyaknya permasalahan lingkungan, terutama yang berkaitan dengan limbah rumah tangga seperti kotoran manusia. Dahulu, sebagian menganggap limbah tersebut tak berguna sehingga sering dibuang begitu saja. Namun, sebenarnya kotoran tersebut dapat diolah sedemikian rupa sehingga lebih berdaya guna. Di samping mampu menjaga kesuburan tanah, teknologi ini juga dapat membantu mewujudkan ketahanan pangan.
Sejumlah negara sudah mulai menggalakkan program daur ulang limbah manusia ini. Sebut saja Cina, Zimbabwe, Meksiko, India, dan Uganda. Bahkan, beberapa negara Eropa juga turut serta dalam program ini, misalnya Jerman dan Swedia.
Menurut Ian Caldwell dan Arno Rosemarin dari Stockholm Environment Institute, Swedia, penggunaan urin dan kotoran manusia sebagai pupuk adalah cara utama dalam menerapkan pertanian berkelanjutan. Lebih jauh lagi, hal tersebut dapat membantu tercapainya ketahanan pangan dan mendukung tersedianya nutrisi yang lebih baik.
Sementara itu, penelitian air seni manusia sebagai pupuk juga telah dilakukan oleh MnKeni bersama teman-temannya dari Universitas Fort Hare, Afrika Selatan. Secara umum, penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan urin sebagai sumber nitrogen sebanding dengan pupuk urea. Kendati demikian, hasil ini bergantung pada kepekaan tanaman yang dipanen terhadap kadar garam (salinitas) lahan tempat bercocok tanam. Oleh karenanya, perlu pengawasan dalam penggunaan pupuk air seni ini.
Banyak Kelebihan
Pupuk urin memiliki banyak keunggulan, baik dari sisi lingkungan, ekonomi, maupun sosial. Dalam lingkungan, penggunaan pupuk ini memperbaiki penanganan kesehatan masyarakat. Penggunaan pupuk air seni juga mampu meningkatkan hasil panen sehingga taraf hidup masyarakat membaik. Dengan kata lain, air kencing dapat menurunkan angka kemiskinan.
Salah satu masalah yang dikhawatirkan dari pemanfaatan pupuk jenis ini adalah rasa produk tanamannya. Logikanya, penggunaan air seni sebagai pupuk berkemungkinan mempengaruhi mutu hasil tanaman. Namun, permasalahan ini ditepis oleh penelitian Surendra K. Pradhan dan rekannya dari Universitas Kuopio, Finlandia.
Mereka membandingkan penggunaan air kencing manusia sebagai pupuk kubis dengan pupuk buatan industri. Hasilnya, kemampuan pupuk urin sama dengan pupuk buatan industri pada dosis 180 kg N/ha.
Bahkan pertumbuhan, biomassa, dan kandungan klorida tanaman sedikit lebih tinggi jika menggunakan pupuk air seni. Serangga yang biasanya ikut mati akibat penggunaan pupuk industri juga berkurang dengan menggunakan pupuk alami ini.
Penelitian ilmuwan ini membuktikan bahwa air seni manusia dapat digunakan sebagai pupuk tanpa mengancam nilai kehigienisan tanaman yang berarti. Selain itu, rasa produk makanannya juga tak berkurang meski tanaman yang menjadi bahan bakunya diberi pupuk urin.
Lidah Pengecap Air Seni
Keberadaan air kencing manusia yang banyak mengandung zat sisa reaksi biokimiawi tubuh tak hanya dimanfaatkan sebagai pupuk. Cairan berbau ini juga mendorong peneliti untuk menciptakan lidah elektronik. Lidah yang terdiri atas bermacam sensor kimia potensiometrik tersebut digunakan sebagai pendeteksi kegagalan fungsi sistem urin dan kadar kreatinin.
Kreatinin adalah hasil pemecahan kreatinin fosfat di dalam otot. Senyawa ini normal ada dalam urin, yakni sebesar 0.5-1 mg untuk perempuan, dan 0.7-1.2 mg untuk laki-laki. Namun, jumlah yang berlebih menandakan ada kerusakan dalam ginjal.
Di samping dapat mengelompokkan contoh urin yang diteliti, lidah buatan juga mampu membedakan contoh urin orang sehat dengan yang mempunyai penyakit tumor kandung kemih. Dengan data analisis urin yang dihasilkan mungkin bisa mengetahui jenis tumornya, baik yang ganas maupun tidak ganas.
Tanda Kebesaran Allah
Air kencing manusia, ternyata bukan sekedar cairan tak berguna. Sederet manfaat dimiliki oleh cairan tersebut. Inilah satu lagi bukti kebesaran Allah. Sungguh, tiada yang sia-sia segala apa yang telah diciptakan-Nya tak terkecuali air seni.
Oleh karena itu, sudah sepatutnya manusia bersyukur atas apa yang Allah berikan. Sejatinya, hanya Dialah yang mampu menjadikan barang hina seperti urin manusia, dapat berfungsi laksana pupuk dan pendeteksi penyakit. Ini karena Allah adalah satu-satunya Tuhan yang memiliki sifat Maha Pencipta dan Maha Mengetahui, sebagaimana firmanNya: “Sesungguhnya Rabbmu, Dia-lah Yang Maha Pencipta lagi Maha Mengetahui”. (QS Al Hijr 15:86) (Syaefudin/www. hidayatullah. com)
***
Penulis adalah Asisten Dosen Metabolisme, Departemen Biokimia, FMIPA-Institut Pertanian Bogor.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Biopori dan Pemupukan Kelapa Sawit
Minggu lalu akhirnya berhasil juga saya mewujudkan gagasan sederhana untuk mengkombinasikan pembuatan Biopori dan pemberian pupuk organik di Kebun Sawit.
Gagasan awalnya bermula dari upaya bagaimana menyimpan air sebanyak mungkin disekeliling pohon pohon sawit saat hujan sehingga kebutuhan air untuk kelapa sawit di musim kemarau dapat terpenuhi.
Karena sebagaimana kita ketahui bersama Pohon Sawit mengkonsumsi air dalam jumlah yang sangat besar, dari beberapa browsing yang saya lakukan tidak kurang dari 15 liter air akan dikonsumsi sawit setiap harinya.
Tidak heran saat kemarau tiba produksi sawitpun akan turun drastis karena kurangnya ketersediaan air untuk hidupnya. Saya mencoba membuat lubang Biopori disekeliling Pohon Sawit dengan ukuran diameter 15 cm dan dalam 60 cm, setiap lubang biopori kemudian dimasukan sampah gulma yang ada di sekitar pohon.
Dengan adanya material organik di lubang biopori maka micro organisme akan ada di lubang biopori dan diharapkan akan membantu proses penyerapan unsur hara oleh Tanaman sawit lebih bagus. Harapannya tenntu saja membuat sawit lebih produktif.
Suatu saat saya ingin membuat plot percobaan sawit yang 100% dipupuk dengan Pupuk organik.
Gagasan awalnya bermula dari upaya bagaimana menyimpan air sebanyak mungkin disekeliling pohon pohon sawit saat hujan sehingga kebutuhan air untuk kelapa sawit di musim kemarau dapat terpenuhi.
Karena sebagaimana kita ketahui bersama Pohon Sawit mengkonsumsi air dalam jumlah yang sangat besar, dari beberapa browsing yang saya lakukan tidak kurang dari 15 liter air akan dikonsumsi sawit setiap harinya.
Tidak heran saat kemarau tiba produksi sawitpun akan turun drastis karena kurangnya ketersediaan air untuk hidupnya. Saya mencoba membuat lubang Biopori disekeliling Pohon Sawit dengan ukuran diameter 15 cm dan dalam 60 cm, setiap lubang biopori kemudian dimasukan sampah gulma yang ada di sekitar pohon.
Dengan adanya material organik di lubang biopori maka micro organisme akan ada di lubang biopori dan diharapkan akan membantu proses penyerapan unsur hara oleh Tanaman sawit lebih bagus. Harapannya tenntu saja membuat sawit lebih produktif.
Suatu saat saya ingin membuat plot percobaan sawit yang 100% dipupuk dengan Pupuk organik.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Leadership Skills
At the age of seven, a young boy and his family were forced out of their home. The boy had to work to support his family. At the age of nine, his mother passed away. When he grew up, the young man was keen to go to law school, but had no education.
At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk. At 23, he ran for state legislature and lost. The same year, he went into business. It failed, leaving him with a debt that took him 17 years to repay. At 27, he had a nervous breakdown.
Two years later, he tried for the post of speaker in his state legislature. He lost. At 31, he was defeated in his attempt to become an elector. By 35, he had been defeated twice while running for Congress. Finally, he did manage to secure a brief term in Congress, but at 39 he lost his re-election bid.
At 41, his four-year-old son died. At 42, he was rejected as a prospective land officer. At 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. Two years later, he lost the vice presidential nomination. At 49, he ran for Senate and lost again.
At 51, he was elected the President of the United States of America.
The man in question: Abraham Lincoln."
Many of us are acquainted with this eloquent example of persistence and determination in achieving victory. We read it, stop for a moment and then sigh and say: "Wow! That's the stuff real leaders are made off."
And in saying this, it's all too easy for us to think about leaders like Lincoln almost as "mythological creatures", separate from the rest of humanity and empowered by some mysterious quality that smoothes their path towards inevitable success. This is the view of leadership that many people have traditionally taken: That leaders are marked out for leadership from early on in their lives, and that if you're not a leader, there's little that you can do to become one.
However, that's not the way we see it now. The modern view is that through patience, persistence and hard work, you can be a highly effective leader.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Management by Objectives (MBO)
Motivating people by aligning their objectives with the goals of the organization
For many people working in modern business environments, it's hard to remember a time when non-managerial employees weren't involved with, and interested in, corporate strategy and goals. We are regularly reminded about the corporate mission statement, we have strategy meetings where the "big picture" is revealed to us, and we are invited to participate in some decisions. And we're aware of how our day-to-day activities contribute to these corporate goals.
This type of managing hasn't been around forever: It's an approach called Management by Objectives; a system that seeks to align employees' goals with the goals of the organization. This ensures that everyone is clear about what they should be doing, and how that is beneficial to the whole organization. It's quite easy to see why this type of managing makes sense – when the parts work in unison the whole works smoothly too. And by focusing on what you're trying to achieve, you can quickly discriminate between tasks that must be completed, and those that are just a waste of valuable time.
Background:
Management by Objectives was introduced by Peter Drucker in the 1950s and written about in his 1954 book, The Practice of Management. It gained a great deal of attention and was widely adopted until the 1990s when it seemed to fade into obscurity.
Partly, the idea may have become a victim of its own success: It became so much a part of the way business is conducted that it no longer may have seemed remarkable, or even worthy of comment. And partly it evolved into the idea of the Balanced Scorecard, which provided a more sophisticated framework for doing essentially the same thing.
Using Management by Objectives
Peter Drucker outlined the five-step process for MBO shown in figure 1, below. Each stage has particular challenges that need to be addressed for the whole system to work effectively.
These steps are explained below:
1. Set or Review Organizational Objectives
MBO starts with clearly defined strategic organizational objectives (see our article on Mission and Vision Statements for more on this.) If the organization isn't clear where it's going, no one working there will be either.
2. Cascading Objectives Down to Employees
To support the mission, the organization needs to set clear goals and objectives, which then need to cascade down from one organizational level to the next until they reach the everyone.
To make MBO goal and objective setting more effective, Drucker used the SMART acronym to set goals that were attainable and to which people felt accountable. He said that goals and objectives must be:
* Specific
* Measurable
* Agreed (relating to the participative management principle)
* Realistic
* Time related
Notice the "A" in SMART is "agreed." This is sometimes referred to as "achievable" but, with MBO, agreement about the goals is a critical element: It's not enough for the goals and objectives to be set at the top and then handed down. They must flow, or trickle, down through various stages of agreement. The only goal that is going to be met is one that is agreed on. How much easier is to get buy in when the person responsible for achieving the goal had a hand in developing it?
For each objective, you need to establish clear targets and performance standards. It's by using these that you can monitor progress throughout the organization. These are also important for communicating results, and for evaluating the suitability of the goals that have been set.
3. Encourage Participation in Goal Setting
Everyone needs to understand how their personal goals fit with the objectives of the organization. This is best done when goals and objectives at each level are shared and discussed, so that everyone understands "why" things are being done, and then sets their own goals to align with these.
This increases people's ownership of their objectives. Rather than blindly following orders, managers, supervisors, and employees in an MBO system know what needs to be done and thus don't need to be ordered around. By pushing decision-making and responsibility down through the organization, you motivate people to solve the problems they face intelligently and give them the information they need to adapt flexibly to changing circumstances.
Through a participative process, every person in the organization will set his or her own goals, which support the overall objectives of the team, which support the objectives of the department, which support the objectives of the business unit, and which support the objectives of the organization.
In an MBO system, employees are more self-directed than boss-directed. If you expect this type of independent performance from employees, you have to give them the tools they need.
Once you have established what it is that someone is accountable for, you must provide the information and resources needed to achieve results. You must also create a mechanism for monitoring progress towards the goals agreed.
4. Monitor Progress
Because the goals and objectives are SMART, they are measurable. They don't measure themselves though, so you have to create a monitoring system that signals when things are off track. This monitoring system has to be timely enough so that issues can be dealt with before they threaten goal achievement. With the cascade effect, no goal is set in isolation, so not meeting targets in one area will affect targets everywhere.
On the other hand, it is essential that you ensure that the goals are not driving adverse behavior because they have not been designed correctly. For instance, a call centre goal of finishing all calls within seven minutes might be useful in encouraging the staff to handle each call briskly, and not spend unnecessary time chatting. However, it might be that customers' calls were becoming more complex, perhaps because of a faulty new product, and call centre operators were terminating the call after 6 minutes 59 seconds in order to meet their target, leaving customers to call back, frustrated. In this situation, the monitoring process should pick up the shift in the goal environment and change the goal appropriately.
Set up a specific plan for monitoring goal performance (once a year, combined with a performance review is not sufficient!) Badly-implemented MBO tends to stress the goal setting without the goal monitoring. Here is where you take control of performance and demand accountability.
Think about all the goals you have set and didn't achieve. Having good intentions isn't enough, you need a clear path marked by accountability checkpoints. Each goal should have mini-goals and a method for keeping on top of each one.
5. Evaluate and Reward Performance
MBO is designed to improve performance at all levels of the organization. To ensure this happens, you need to put a comprehensive evaluation system in place.
As goals have been defined in a specific, measurable and time-based way, the evaluation aspect of MBO is relatively straightforward. Employees are evaluated on their performance with respect to goal achievement (allowing appropriately for changes in the environment.) All that is left to do is to tie goal achievement to reward, and perhaps compensation, and provide the appropriate feedback.
Employees should be given feedback on their own goals as well as the organization's goals. Make sure you remember the participative principle: When you present organization-wide results you have another opportunity to link individual groups' performances to corporate performance. Ultimately this is what MBO is all about and why, when done right, it can spur organization-wide performance and productivity.
When you reward goal achievers you send a clear message to everyone that goal attainment is valued and that the MBO process is not just an exercise but an essential aspect of performance appraisal. The importance of fair and accurate assessment of performance highlights why setting measurable goals and clear performance indicators are essential to the MBO system.
Repeat the Cycle
Having gone through this five-stage process, the cycle begins again, with a review of the strategic, corporate goals in the light of performance and environmental monitoring.
When you reward goal achievers you send a clear message to everyone that goal attainment is valued and that the MBO process is not just an exercise but an essential aspect of performance appraisal. The importance of fair and accurate assessment of performance highlights why setting measurable goals and clear performance indicators are essential to the MBO system.
Tip 1:
Implemented on a team level, MBO shows itself in clear team briefing, in effective goal setting, in successful use of reviews, in effective delegation and in the giving and receiving of feedback. These are many of the key techniques needed for effective team management.
Tip 2:
Implemented on an organizational level, MBO needs the full commitment of the organization, and an underlying system for tracking goals and performance. Because goals must be transmitted from level to level with agreement, goal transmission can inevitably be slow. Full implementations of MBO can therefore be slow and difficult, particularly if non-accounting-based goals are included. This is perhaps why MBO has evolved into the idea of the Balanced Scorecard: MBO on its own may too-easily slip into being nothing more than a financial management mechanism.
Tip 3:
MBO is essentially a managerial process. Don't use it as a substitute for good leadership: The two should work together!
Tip 4:
There's so much more to motivating people than using MBO! Take our How Good Are Your Motivation Skills? self-test to find out which aspects of team motivation you can improve on.
Key Points
Management by Objectives is a powerful tool for aligning employees actions with an organization's goals.
Its overarching premise is that of employee empowerment. By empowering employees to take responsibility for their performance and allowing them to see how their achievements impact the organization as a whole, you increase people's motivation, dedication, and loyalty. When you bring that full circle and link performance to evaluation and appraisal, you have a strong system that supports and values employees and facilitates great performance.
For many people working in modern business environments, it's hard to remember a time when non-managerial employees weren't involved with, and interested in, corporate strategy and goals. We are regularly reminded about the corporate mission statement, we have strategy meetings where the "big picture" is revealed to us, and we are invited to participate in some decisions. And we're aware of how our day-to-day activities contribute to these corporate goals.
This type of managing hasn't been around forever: It's an approach called Management by Objectives; a system that seeks to align employees' goals with the goals of the organization. This ensures that everyone is clear about what they should be doing, and how that is beneficial to the whole organization. It's quite easy to see why this type of managing makes sense – when the parts work in unison the whole works smoothly too. And by focusing on what you're trying to achieve, you can quickly discriminate between tasks that must be completed, and those that are just a waste of valuable time.
Background:
Management by Objectives was introduced by Peter Drucker in the 1950s and written about in his 1954 book, The Practice of Management. It gained a great deal of attention and was widely adopted until the 1990s when it seemed to fade into obscurity.
Partly, the idea may have become a victim of its own success: It became so much a part of the way business is conducted that it no longer may have seemed remarkable, or even worthy of comment. And partly it evolved into the idea of the Balanced Scorecard, which provided a more sophisticated framework for doing essentially the same thing.
Using Management by Objectives
Peter Drucker outlined the five-step process for MBO shown in figure 1, below. Each stage has particular challenges that need to be addressed for the whole system to work effectively.
These steps are explained below:
1. Set or Review Organizational Objectives
MBO starts with clearly defined strategic organizational objectives (see our article on Mission and Vision Statements for more on this.) If the organization isn't clear where it's going, no one working there will be either.
2. Cascading Objectives Down to Employees
To support the mission, the organization needs to set clear goals and objectives, which then need to cascade down from one organizational level to the next until they reach the everyone.
To make MBO goal and objective setting more effective, Drucker used the SMART acronym to set goals that were attainable and to which people felt accountable. He said that goals and objectives must be:
* Specific
* Measurable
* Agreed (relating to the participative management principle)
* Realistic
* Time related
Notice the "A" in SMART is "agreed." This is sometimes referred to as "achievable" but, with MBO, agreement about the goals is a critical element: It's not enough for the goals and objectives to be set at the top and then handed down. They must flow, or trickle, down through various stages of agreement. The only goal that is going to be met is one that is agreed on. How much easier is to get buy in when the person responsible for achieving the goal had a hand in developing it?
For each objective, you need to establish clear targets and performance standards. It's by using these that you can monitor progress throughout the organization. These are also important for communicating results, and for evaluating the suitability of the goals that have been set.
3. Encourage Participation in Goal Setting
Everyone needs to understand how their personal goals fit with the objectives of the organization. This is best done when goals and objectives at each level are shared and discussed, so that everyone understands "why" things are being done, and then sets their own goals to align with these.
This increases people's ownership of their objectives. Rather than blindly following orders, managers, supervisors, and employees in an MBO system know what needs to be done and thus don't need to be ordered around. By pushing decision-making and responsibility down through the organization, you motivate people to solve the problems they face intelligently and give them the information they need to adapt flexibly to changing circumstances.
Through a participative process, every person in the organization will set his or her own goals, which support the overall objectives of the team, which support the objectives of the department, which support the objectives of the business unit, and which support the objectives of the organization.
In an MBO system, employees are more self-directed than boss-directed. If you expect this type of independent performance from employees, you have to give them the tools they need.
Once you have established what it is that someone is accountable for, you must provide the information and resources needed to achieve results. You must also create a mechanism for monitoring progress towards the goals agreed.
4. Monitor Progress
Because the goals and objectives are SMART, they are measurable. They don't measure themselves though, so you have to create a monitoring system that signals when things are off track. This monitoring system has to be timely enough so that issues can be dealt with before they threaten goal achievement. With the cascade effect, no goal is set in isolation, so not meeting targets in one area will affect targets everywhere.
On the other hand, it is essential that you ensure that the goals are not driving adverse behavior because they have not been designed correctly. For instance, a call centre goal of finishing all calls within seven minutes might be useful in encouraging the staff to handle each call briskly, and not spend unnecessary time chatting. However, it might be that customers' calls were becoming more complex, perhaps because of a faulty new product, and call centre operators were terminating the call after 6 minutes 59 seconds in order to meet their target, leaving customers to call back, frustrated. In this situation, the monitoring process should pick up the shift in the goal environment and change the goal appropriately.
Set up a specific plan for monitoring goal performance (once a year, combined with a performance review is not sufficient!) Badly-implemented MBO tends to stress the goal setting without the goal monitoring. Here is where you take control of performance and demand accountability.
Think about all the goals you have set and didn't achieve. Having good intentions isn't enough, you need a clear path marked by accountability checkpoints. Each goal should have mini-goals and a method for keeping on top of each one.
5. Evaluate and Reward Performance
MBO is designed to improve performance at all levels of the organization. To ensure this happens, you need to put a comprehensive evaluation system in place.
As goals have been defined in a specific, measurable and time-based way, the evaluation aspect of MBO is relatively straightforward. Employees are evaluated on their performance with respect to goal achievement (allowing appropriately for changes in the environment.) All that is left to do is to tie goal achievement to reward, and perhaps compensation, and provide the appropriate feedback.
Employees should be given feedback on their own goals as well as the organization's goals. Make sure you remember the participative principle: When you present organization-wide results you have another opportunity to link individual groups' performances to corporate performance. Ultimately this is what MBO is all about and why, when done right, it can spur organization-wide performance and productivity.
When you reward goal achievers you send a clear message to everyone that goal attainment is valued and that the MBO process is not just an exercise but an essential aspect of performance appraisal. The importance of fair and accurate assessment of performance highlights why setting measurable goals and clear performance indicators are essential to the MBO system.
Repeat the Cycle
Having gone through this five-stage process, the cycle begins again, with a review of the strategic, corporate goals in the light of performance and environmental monitoring.
When you reward goal achievers you send a clear message to everyone that goal attainment is valued and that the MBO process is not just an exercise but an essential aspect of performance appraisal. The importance of fair and accurate assessment of performance highlights why setting measurable goals and clear performance indicators are essential to the MBO system.
Tip 1:
Implemented on a team level, MBO shows itself in clear team briefing, in effective goal setting, in successful use of reviews, in effective delegation and in the giving and receiving of feedback. These are many of the key techniques needed for effective team management.
Tip 2:
Implemented on an organizational level, MBO needs the full commitment of the organization, and an underlying system for tracking goals and performance. Because goals must be transmitted from level to level with agreement, goal transmission can inevitably be slow. Full implementations of MBO can therefore be slow and difficult, particularly if non-accounting-based goals are included. This is perhaps why MBO has evolved into the idea of the Balanced Scorecard: MBO on its own may too-easily slip into being nothing more than a financial management mechanism.
Tip 3:
MBO is essentially a managerial process. Don't use it as a substitute for good leadership: The two should work together!
Tip 4:
There's so much more to motivating people than using MBO! Take our How Good Are Your Motivation Skills? self-test to find out which aspects of team motivation you can improve on.
Key Points
Management by Objectives is a powerful tool for aligning employees actions with an organization's goals.
Its overarching premise is that of employee empowerment. By empowering employees to take responsibility for their performance and allowing them to see how their achievements impact the organization as a whole, you increase people's motivation, dedication, and loyalty. When you bring that full circle and link performance to evaluation and appraisal, you have a strong system that supports and values employees and facilitates great performance.
Performance Management and KPIs
Linking Activities to Vision and Strategy
Managers talk a lot about employee performance. There's constant pressure to achieve performance targets, to reach higher performance levels, and to ensure that people's work supports and furthers the organization's goals.
Performance management is the process used to manage this performance. The key question asked is, "How well is an employee applying his or her current skills, and to what extent is he or she achieving the outcomes desired?"
The answer has traditionally been found in the performance evaluation process, where managers look for hard data to tell how well an employee has performed his or her duties.
What is often missing from this evaluation, however, is the part about making sure that the employee is doing the right thing. After all, you may have a very hard-working and dedicated team member, but if he or she is not working on things that advance the organization's purpose, what is the point?
This is where key performance indicators come into play, and they apply both at the organizational and individual levels. At an organizational level, a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a quantifiable metric that reflects how well an organization is achieving its stated goals and objectives.
For example, if your vision includes providing superior customer service, then a KPI may target the number of customer support requests that remain unsatisfied by the end of a week. By monitoring this, you can directly measure how well your organization is meeting its long-term goal of providing outstanding customer service.
If your KPI is inappropriate or naïve, however, the resulting behaviors may be counterproductive. For example, using the same goal of providing superior customer service, the first KPI that often comes to mind is the number of customer complaints received. Intuitively, you may feel that the fewer complaints you receive, the higher the customer service you're offering. This is not necessarily true: You may be getting fewer complaints because you have fewer customers, or because customers are not able to access your support services.
Taking this a step further, while it is important for organizations to choose the correct KPIs for business performance, it is equally useful if managers and employees define KPIs for members of their teams. In fact, an ideal situation is where KPIs cascade from level to level in the organization (in reality, this may be impractical if there are many levels to the organization.) This helps people work in such a way that their activities are aligned with corporate strategy.
Employee Goals and KPIs
So part of performance management is setting goals with members of your team. This may be done within the formal appraisal process, but it doesn't have to be. The important factor is that the goals that are set are aligned with the department's strategy, which in turn is aligned with the overall strategy of the organization.
This follows the common adage in management that says, "What is measured gets done." If you set a goal around a certain outcome, the chances of that outcome occurring are much higher, simply because you have committed to managing and measuring the results.
When an employee's goal is defined in terms of an organizational KPI, it ensures that what the employee is doing is well aligned with the goals of the organization. This is the critical link between employee performance and organizational success.
Let's take an example of how an individual employee's goal is linked to organizational strategy:
* Organizational Vision – To be known for our superior customer service and satisfaction.
* Organizational Objective – To reduce the number of disatisfied customers by 25%.
* Organizational KPI – The number of customer complaints that remain unresolved at the end of a week.
* Team Member's Goal – To increase the number of satisfactory complaint resolutions by 15% this period.
Taken to the next level, each employee goal should have at least one associated KPI. How will you specifically measure, on a regular basis, whether or not this person is meeting his or her goal?
* Team Member KPI – The weekly percentage difference in complaints handled that result in satisfied customers versus unsatisfied customers.
Tip:
For a detailed discussion on setting strategic direction, see the Strategy Tools section of Mind Tools. Of particular relevance is the article on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) as KPIs are essentially a way of making CSFs measurable.
Use the following questions to help you work towards defining effective KPIs:
Understanding the context
* What is the vision for the future?
* What is the strategy? How will the strategic vision be accomplished?
* What are the organization's objectives? What needs to be done to keep moving in the strategic direction?
* What are the Critical Success Factors? Where should the focus be to achieve the vision?
Defining KPIs
* Which metrics will indicate that you are successfully pursuing your vision and strategy?
* How many metrics should you have? (Enough, but not too many!)
* How often should you measure?
* Who is accountable for the metric?
* How complex should the metric be?
* What should you use as a benchmark?
* How do you ensure the metrics reflect strategic drivers for organizational success?
* How could the metrics be cheated, and how will you guard against this?
* What negative, perverse incentives would be set up if this metric was used, and how will you ensure these perverse incentives are not created?
KPIs and Rewards, Recognition, and Development
When you are satisfied that you have meaningful metrics for measuring organizational or employee performance, you now have to make sure that the supporting elements of employee performance are aligned as well.
Just as what gets measured, gets done; so does what gets rewarded!
When you are establishing your rewards and recognition practices, make sure that what you are rewarding ties directly to the KPIs you set. For example, if you are measuring people on how well they deal with customer complaints, then rewarding them for lowering numbers of complaints confuses the message you're trying to send.
Conversely, if your organization wants to attract new customers, then you might have a KPI that measures how many new customers are attracted each week. Depending on the situation, a well-aligned performance system may reward employees based on the number of new customers they personally help to attract.
Tip 1:
Use of formal performance measures is one approach to managing performance. However, don't forget the importance of inspiration and good leadership! For more on this, click here for the Mind Tools Leadership Section.
Tip 2:
For more on performance management, see our articles on the Balanced Scorecard, Feedback, and 360° Feedback.
Key Points:
KPIs are metrics that link organizational vision with individual action. If you think of strategic practice as a pyramid, as shown in Figure 1 below, with vision at the top and actions at the bottom, in the middle you find the KPIs that have been derived from the strategy, objectives, and critical success factors of the organization.
Below the KPIs are the activities and projects that are pursued by the organization in an attempt to achieve the KPIs.
To ensure that these activities are in fact aligned with the organization's strategy, you need to concentrate on what the employees are actually doing. You do this through performance management. By applying the principle of KPIs to employee goals and performance, you create a direct link between all of the key success factors that have been derived from the overall strategy. The result is that members of your team actually do what they should be doing, and that your measurements for determining how well they are doing are clearly tied to organizational success.
Managers talk a lot about employee performance. There's constant pressure to achieve performance targets, to reach higher performance levels, and to ensure that people's work supports and furthers the organization's goals.
Performance management is the process used to manage this performance. The key question asked is, "How well is an employee applying his or her current skills, and to what extent is he or she achieving the outcomes desired?"
The answer has traditionally been found in the performance evaluation process, where managers look for hard data to tell how well an employee has performed his or her duties.
What is often missing from this evaluation, however, is the part about making sure that the employee is doing the right thing. After all, you may have a very hard-working and dedicated team member, but if he or she is not working on things that advance the organization's purpose, what is the point?
This is where key performance indicators come into play, and they apply both at the organizational and individual levels. At an organizational level, a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a quantifiable metric that reflects how well an organization is achieving its stated goals and objectives.
For example, if your vision includes providing superior customer service, then a KPI may target the number of customer support requests that remain unsatisfied by the end of a week. By monitoring this, you can directly measure how well your organization is meeting its long-term goal of providing outstanding customer service.
If your KPI is inappropriate or naïve, however, the resulting behaviors may be counterproductive. For example, using the same goal of providing superior customer service, the first KPI that often comes to mind is the number of customer complaints received. Intuitively, you may feel that the fewer complaints you receive, the higher the customer service you're offering. This is not necessarily true: You may be getting fewer complaints because you have fewer customers, or because customers are not able to access your support services.
Taking this a step further, while it is important for organizations to choose the correct KPIs for business performance, it is equally useful if managers and employees define KPIs for members of their teams. In fact, an ideal situation is where KPIs cascade from level to level in the organization (in reality, this may be impractical if there are many levels to the organization.) This helps people work in such a way that their activities are aligned with corporate strategy.
Employee Goals and KPIs
So part of performance management is setting goals with members of your team. This may be done within the formal appraisal process, but it doesn't have to be. The important factor is that the goals that are set are aligned with the department's strategy, which in turn is aligned with the overall strategy of the organization.
This follows the common adage in management that says, "What is measured gets done." If you set a goal around a certain outcome, the chances of that outcome occurring are much higher, simply because you have committed to managing and measuring the results.
When an employee's goal is defined in terms of an organizational KPI, it ensures that what the employee is doing is well aligned with the goals of the organization. This is the critical link between employee performance and organizational success.
Let's take an example of how an individual employee's goal is linked to organizational strategy:
* Organizational Vision – To be known for our superior customer service and satisfaction.
* Organizational Objective – To reduce the number of disatisfied customers by 25%.
* Organizational KPI – The number of customer complaints that remain unresolved at the end of a week.
* Team Member's Goal – To increase the number of satisfactory complaint resolutions by 15% this period.
Taken to the next level, each employee goal should have at least one associated KPI. How will you specifically measure, on a regular basis, whether or not this person is meeting his or her goal?
* Team Member KPI – The weekly percentage difference in complaints handled that result in satisfied customers versus unsatisfied customers.
Tip:
For a detailed discussion on setting strategic direction, see the Strategy Tools section of Mind Tools. Of particular relevance is the article on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) as KPIs are essentially a way of making CSFs measurable.
Use the following questions to help you work towards defining effective KPIs:
Understanding the context
* What is the vision for the future?
* What is the strategy? How will the strategic vision be accomplished?
* What are the organization's objectives? What needs to be done to keep moving in the strategic direction?
* What are the Critical Success Factors? Where should the focus be to achieve the vision?
Defining KPIs
* Which metrics will indicate that you are successfully pursuing your vision and strategy?
* How many metrics should you have? (Enough, but not too many!)
* How often should you measure?
* Who is accountable for the metric?
* How complex should the metric be?
* What should you use as a benchmark?
* How do you ensure the metrics reflect strategic drivers for organizational success?
* How could the metrics be cheated, and how will you guard against this?
* What negative, perverse incentives would be set up if this metric was used, and how will you ensure these perverse incentives are not created?
KPIs and Rewards, Recognition, and Development
When you are satisfied that you have meaningful metrics for measuring organizational or employee performance, you now have to make sure that the supporting elements of employee performance are aligned as well.
Just as what gets measured, gets done; so does what gets rewarded!
When you are establishing your rewards and recognition practices, make sure that what you are rewarding ties directly to the KPIs you set. For example, if you are measuring people on how well they deal with customer complaints, then rewarding them for lowering numbers of complaints confuses the message you're trying to send.
Conversely, if your organization wants to attract new customers, then you might have a KPI that measures how many new customers are attracted each week. Depending on the situation, a well-aligned performance system may reward employees based on the number of new customers they personally help to attract.
Tip 1:
Use of formal performance measures is one approach to managing performance. However, don't forget the importance of inspiration and good leadership! For more on this, click here for the Mind Tools Leadership Section.
Tip 2:
For more on performance management, see our articles on the Balanced Scorecard, Feedback, and 360° Feedback.
Key Points:
KPIs are metrics that link organizational vision with individual action. If you think of strategic practice as a pyramid, as shown in Figure 1 below, with vision at the top and actions at the bottom, in the middle you find the KPIs that have been derived from the strategy, objectives, and critical success factors of the organization.
Below the KPIs are the activities and projects that are pursued by the organization in an attempt to achieve the KPIs.
To ensure that these activities are in fact aligned with the organization's strategy, you need to concentrate on what the employees are actually doing. You do this through performance management. By applying the principle of KPIs to employee goals and performance, you create a direct link between all of the key success factors that have been derived from the overall strategy. The result is that members of your team actually do what they should be doing, and that your measurements for determining how well they are doing are clearly tied to organizational success.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Bawalah Cintaku
Sempat tak ada lagi kesempatanku
untuk bisa bersamamu
kini ku tahu bagaimana caraku
untuk dapat trus denganmu
bawalah pergi cintaku
ajak kemana engkau mau
jadikan temanmu
temanmu paling kau cinta
di sini ku pun begitu
trus cintaimu di hidupku
di dalam hatiku
sampai waktu yang pertemukan kita nanti
sempat tak ada lagi kesempatanku
untuk bisa bersamamu
kini ku tahu bagaimana caraku
untuk dapat trus denganmu
bawalah pergi cintaku
ajak kemana engkau mau
jadikan temanmu
(teman yang paling kau cinta)
di sini ku pun begitu
trus cintaimu di hidupku
di dalam hatiku
sampai waktu pertemukan) kita nanti
untuk bisa bersamamu
kini ku tahu bagaimana caraku
untuk dapat trus denganmu
bawalah pergi cintaku
ajak kemana engkau mau
jadikan temanmu
temanmu paling kau cinta
di sini ku pun begitu
trus cintaimu di hidupku
di dalam hatiku
sampai waktu yang pertemukan kita nanti
sempat tak ada lagi kesempatanku
untuk bisa bersamamu
kini ku tahu bagaimana caraku
untuk dapat trus denganmu
bawalah pergi cintaku
ajak kemana engkau mau
jadikan temanmu
(teman yang paling kau cinta)
di sini ku pun begitu
trus cintaimu di hidupku
di dalam hatiku
sampai waktu pertemukan) kita nanti
Satu Satunya Cinta
Katamu kamu cinta kepadaku selamanya
katamu kamu rindu kepadaku selalu
tapi mengapa aku masih ragu
katamu aku ini cinta terakhir kamu
katamu aku ini cinta dalam hidupmu
tapi mengapa aku masih ragu
mungkinkah aku ini menjadi satu-satunya cinta
yang terakhir kamu dan tak akan ada cinta yang kedua
dan ketiga dan cinta lainnya
katamu kamu hilang jika aku pun pergi
katamu kamu musnah jika cintaku punah
tapi mengapa aku masih ragu
katamu kamu cinta kepadaku selamanya
katamu kamu rindu kepadaku selalu
katamu aku ini cinta terakhir kamu
katamu aku ini cinta dalam hidupmu
tapi mengapa aku masih ragu
mungkinkah aku ini menjadi satu-satunya cinta
yang terakhir kamu dan tak akan ada cinta yang kedua
dan ketiga dan cinta lainnya
mungkinkah (mungkinkah) aku ini (aku ini)
menjadi satu-satunya cinta (satu-satunya cinta)
yang terakhir (yang terakhir) kamu dan tak akan ada (tak akan ada)
cinta yang kedua (cinta kedua) dan ketiga (cinta ketiga) dan cinta lainnya
katamu kamu rindu kepadaku selalu
tapi mengapa aku masih ragu
katamu aku ini cinta terakhir kamu
katamu aku ini cinta dalam hidupmu
tapi mengapa aku masih ragu
mungkinkah aku ini menjadi satu-satunya cinta
yang terakhir kamu dan tak akan ada cinta yang kedua
dan ketiga dan cinta lainnya
katamu kamu hilang jika aku pun pergi
katamu kamu musnah jika cintaku punah
tapi mengapa aku masih ragu
katamu kamu cinta kepadaku selamanya
katamu kamu rindu kepadaku selalu
katamu aku ini cinta terakhir kamu
katamu aku ini cinta dalam hidupmu
tapi mengapa aku masih ragu
mungkinkah aku ini menjadi satu-satunya cinta
yang terakhir kamu dan tak akan ada cinta yang kedua
dan ketiga dan cinta lainnya
mungkinkah (mungkinkah) aku ini (aku ini)
menjadi satu-satunya cinta (satu-satunya cinta)
yang terakhir (yang terakhir) kamu dan tak akan ada (tak akan ada)
cinta yang kedua (cinta kedua) dan ketiga (cinta ketiga) dan cinta lainnya
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
To Do Lists - Remembering To Do All Essential Jobs, In The Right Order
Do you frequently feel overwhelmed by the amount of work you have to do? Do you face a constant barrage of looming deadlines? Or do you sometimes just forget to do something important, so that people have to chase you to get work done?
All of these are symptoms of not keeping a proper "To-Do List". To-Do Lists are prioritized lists of all the tasks that you need to carry out. They list everything that you have to do, with the most important tasks at the top of the list, and the least important tasks at the bottom.
While this sounds a simple thing to do, it's when people start to use To-Do Lists properly that they often make their first personal productivity/time management breakthrough, and start to make a real success of their careers.
By keeping a To-Do List, you make sure that you capture all of the tasks you have to complete in one place. This is essential if you're not going to forget things. And by prioritizing work, you plan the order in which you'll do things, so you can tell what needs your immediate attention, and what you can quietly forget about until much, much later. This is essential if you're going to beat work overload. Without To-Do Lists, you'll seem dizzy, unfocused and unreliable to the people around you. With To-Do Lists, you'll be much better organized, and will seem much more reliable. This is very important!
Preparing a To-Do List
Start by writing down all of the tasks that you need to complete, and if they are large, break them down into their component elements. If these still seem large, break them down again. Do this until you have listed everything that you have to do, and until tasks will take no more than 1-2 hours to complete. This may be a huge and intimidating list, but our next step makes it manageable!
Next, run through these jobs allocating priorities from A (very important, or very urgent) to F (unimportant, or not at all urgent). If too many tasks have a high priority, run through the list again and demote the less important ones. Once you have done this, rewrite the list in priority order.
You will then have a precise plan that you can use to eliminate the problems you face. You will be able to tackle these in order of importance or urgency. This allows you to separate important jobs from the many time-consuming trivial ones.
Key Points:
Prioritized To-Do Lists are fundamentally important to efficient work. If you use To-Do Lists, you will ensure that:
* You remember to carry out all necessary tasks.
* You tackle the most important jobs first, and do not waste time on trivial tasks.
* You do not get stressed by a large number of unimportant jobs.
All of these are symptoms of not keeping a proper "To-Do List". To-Do Lists are prioritized lists of all the tasks that you need to carry out. They list everything that you have to do, with the most important tasks at the top of the list, and the least important tasks at the bottom.
While this sounds a simple thing to do, it's when people start to use To-Do Lists properly that they often make their first personal productivity/time management breakthrough, and start to make a real success of their careers.
By keeping a To-Do List, you make sure that you capture all of the tasks you have to complete in one place. This is essential if you're not going to forget things. And by prioritizing work, you plan the order in which you'll do things, so you can tell what needs your immediate attention, and what you can quietly forget about until much, much later. This is essential if you're going to beat work overload. Without To-Do Lists, you'll seem dizzy, unfocused and unreliable to the people around you. With To-Do Lists, you'll be much better organized, and will seem much more reliable. This is very important!
Preparing a To-Do List
Start by writing down all of the tasks that you need to complete, and if they are large, break them down into their component elements. If these still seem large, break them down again. Do this until you have listed everything that you have to do, and until tasks will take no more than 1-2 hours to complete. This may be a huge and intimidating list, but our next step makes it manageable!
Next, run through these jobs allocating priorities from A (very important, or very urgent) to F (unimportant, or not at all urgent). If too many tasks have a high priority, run through the list again and demote the less important ones. Once you have done this, rewrite the list in priority order.
You will then have a precise plan that you can use to eliminate the problems you face. You will be able to tackle these in order of importance or urgency. This allows you to separate important jobs from the many time-consuming trivial ones.
Key Points:
Prioritized To-Do Lists are fundamentally important to efficient work. If you use To-Do Lists, you will ensure that:
* You remember to carry out all necessary tasks.
* You tackle the most important jobs first, and do not waste time on trivial tasks.
* You do not get stressed by a large number of unimportant jobs.
How Good is Your Time Management ?
How often do you find yourself running out of time? Weekly, daily, hourly? For many, it seems that there's just never enough time in the day to get everything done.
When you know how to manage your time you gain control. Rather than busily working here, there, and everywhere (and not getting much done anywhere), effective time management helps you to choose what to work on and when. This is essential if you're to achieve anything of any real worth.
Key Points
Time management is an essential skill that helps you keep your work under control, at the same time that it helps you keep stress to a minimum.
We would all love to have an extra couple of hours in every day. Seeing as that is impossible, we need to work smarter on things that have the highest priority, and then creating a schedule that reflects our work and personal priorities.
With this in place, we can work in a focused and effective way, and really start achieving those goals, dreams and ambitions we care so much about.
When you know how to manage your time you gain control. Rather than busily working here, there, and everywhere (and not getting much done anywhere), effective time management helps you to choose what to work on and when. This is essential if you're to achieve anything of any real worth.
Key Points
Time management is an essential skill that helps you keep your work under control, at the same time that it helps you keep stress to a minimum.
We would all love to have an extra couple of hours in every day. Seeing as that is impossible, we need to work smarter on things that have the highest priority, and then creating a schedule that reflects our work and personal priorities.
With this in place, we can work in a focused and effective way, and really start achieving those goals, dreams and ambitions we care so much about.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
How Productive Are You?
When we want to get more done, many of us simply work longer hours, move deadlines around, and multi-task.
Although these strategies can provide some short-term relief, they aren't sustainable in the long term. Pretty soon, this approach becomes a way of life, leading to high levels of stress and eventually, poor productivity.
Productivity is a measure of how much you accomplish – not how busy you are. So it's far better to learn how to work intelligently, and to use leverage to achieve more with your time and resources. This will increase your productivity – and help you find extra time to do other things.
Key Points:
No matter how well you're performing right now, you can almost always improve productivity. When you're more productive, you contribute strongly to the overall success and profitability of your organization. And it feels good to be in control of your time, and know that you can produce the results that are expected of you.
To be more productive, get organized, have the right attitude, manage information you receive effectively, and actively seek ways to improve your working systems. Taking this approach will help you to increase your personal productivity and effectiveness.
Although these strategies can provide some short-term relief, they aren't sustainable in the long term. Pretty soon, this approach becomes a way of life, leading to high levels of stress and eventually, poor productivity.
Productivity is a measure of how much you accomplish – not how busy you are. So it's far better to learn how to work intelligently, and to use leverage to achieve more with your time and resources. This will increase your productivity – and help you find extra time to do other things.
Key Points:
No matter how well you're performing right now, you can almost always improve productivity. When you're more productive, you contribute strongly to the overall success and profitability of your organization. And it feels good to be in control of your time, and know that you can produce the results that are expected of you.
To be more productive, get organized, have the right attitude, manage information you receive effectively, and actively seek ways to improve your working systems. Taking this approach will help you to increase your personal productivity and effectiveness.
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