Workplaces: Vladimir Degtyarev 2.0

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Vladimir is a regular on our blog. He has shared running secrets with you and has even been to Workplaces once. But as time goes on, preferences and work systems change. Now Vladimir has three times more people under his command, a different OS, different priorities.

What do you do in your work?

Just like two years ago, I run the Newsfront PR agency. During this time, a lot has changed - we have changed the name and office, the number of people in the agency has grown from 7 to 25, the responsibilities have changed. In addition to the PR agency itself, I supervise the marketing services direction of our holding, which includes several other marketing service agencies (QUBE, Kids Market Consulting). In them, I do not deal with operational management, but help with promotion, coordination of common projects, and internal training programs for personnel. My hobby - running and triathlon - grew into several additional projects: the service of running excursions in Kiev for foreigners Kyiv Running Tours and the organization of weekend sports camps for amateur athletes TRIATMAN sports camps.

What does your workplace look like?

I gradually bring my workplace to complete minimalism. I am a supporter of asceticism at work and believe that there should be a lot of space on the table for working with notebooks / texts / prints, and that at the same time there should be nothing that can distract from work. A few notebooks, pencils and a laptop are absolutely enough for me to work. Once in a few days I do a big cleaning of the table: I throw away everything unnecessary, distribute the unnecessary and store / digitize what may come in handy someday.

Often I start my working day in some cafe with the Internet: I plan the day, rake my mail, write “morning pages” (a freewriting technique described by Julia Cameron in her book “The Artist's Way”).

It happens that to work on large tasks that require concentration, I leave the office for a cafe / park. We work in a large open space, and although there are general rules of behavior in the office (in short, we behave like in a library), but still sometimes we need to limit ourselves from interruptions.

What kind of hardware do you use?

A year ago I switched to a MacBook Air 13 ″ and am absolutely happy. The only drawback is that sometimes the disc gets clogged and you have to clean it, but otherwise - I am completely satisfied with the battery life, weight and convenience.

Phone - iPhone 4, mouse - Apple MagicMouse. I use my phone a lot and often: both as a camera (I shoot a lot), and as a reader (mainly through the Kindle and Flipboard applications), and as a browser / email client.

Home iMac 20 ″ has finally turned into a cinema for a child and serves as a wifi router for me. The first generation iPad was also mastered by a 5-year-old son, but I occasionally take it to read books through the same Kindle / Flipboard or surf the web. On trips, if there are plans to work, I only take Air.

What software are you using?

As well as on the desktop, in a laptop I try not to produce programs and I love minimalism. Most of the texts (including this one) I type in the text editor OmmWriter, where there is only a field for entering text and there are no toolbars. Browser - standard Safari, mail client - standard Mail. To work with documents I use MS Office - the rest of the team works on Windows. For presentations that I prepare for my own speeches, I increasingly use Keynote. A good assistant in work on large and complex tasks is the SelfControl program that blocks access to certain sites. Usually, once or twice a day, I block my access to Facebook (LH: read our material on the harmfulness of social networks and how to live with it) in order to definitely exclude the possibility of procrastination.

Finally, I often open MindManager - all work on a new task / project I start by sketching ideas and thoughts in the mind map format, from where I export to Word / Powerpoint, or I leave it as a picture.

Task Manager - Wunderlist. I struggle with him - sometimes I give up, but then he comes back. What Mail lacks in comparison with MS Outlook is the integration of mail and tasks, in particular - automatic conversion of mail messages into tasks. Having to go from mail to Wunderlist to create a task is annoying, but I haven't found a better option yet. On the other hand, Wunderlist is also available on iPhone with task synchronization - it's convenient to set yourself reminders during meetings, long runs or in a traffic jam.

The way you work with mail has changed a lot since the move to Mac. If earlier in Outlook I had everything very clearly structured: rules for storing, splitting folders by clients / projects, “clean” inbox, etc., now I don’t lay out anything anywhere - the search on the contents of the mailbox works so quickly. At some point, I decided that it was faster for me to search than wasting time aiming for zero inbox.

Although the agency has a long tradition of internal communication via Skype, about a year ago I decided to part with the messenger (of course, having told my colleagues about this). The quality of communication did not suffer, but it turned out to "chop off" another source of interruptions. Over the course of a year, I logged into Skype two or three times - and it turned out that there is life without it.

To check my mail, I try to set aside 3-4 intervals a day for 30-40 minutes, and then switch to "offline" mode. I have long removed the program panel (dock) from the desktop so that notifications of new letters do not distract from the current task. It is not always possible to maintain such a rhythm, but I try very hard to spend time “not in the mail”, but in performing those tasks that are priority for me at the moment.

Is there a place for paper in your work?

If a year ago I had several workbooks, now it all boiled down to one moleskin in a hardcover. The planning principles remain the same, but now I keep all my notes in one notebook. Perhaps this is just laziness - after the block in Manekibook has ended, hands do not get to buy a new one. I write a lot: I make notes at all meetings with clients, record my own thoughts, make notes as I prepare for meetings with employees.

Is there a dream configuration?

I think, from the above, it has already become clear that I need a little to be happy. A little more memory, probably, and full coverage of Kiev with wireless access:)