Kristen Cox about closing apps before starting new ones
As soon as you finish reading this post, stop what you are doing and check your phone. How many apps do you have open, right now?
Using a smart phone as a blind person is very different than using the same phone without the #adaptivetechnology turned on. Many features stay hidden or are simply not available. As a result, I didn’t learn about the built-in app switching functionality on #iPhones (and I’m sure #Android phones offer the same functionality), until recently.
I didn’t know that apps stayed open, in the background, slowly sucking away your battery life. I didn’t know that when you get a low battery warning, you’re supposed to open up the window that allows you to scroll through all open apps, and start closing the one’s you’re not using to conserve power.
But as soon as this was explained to me, I immediately thought of when I teach the principle of work in process (WIP) control in my in-person workshops and to my university students.
Think of each open app as an initiative you launched, some pet #project you started, some special assignment you gave to one of your direct reports. How many of those are still out there, slowly sucking away the power of your organization (including some of your best-and-brightest team members)? If pressed, could you even remember them all?
Creating #culturesofcompletion starts at the top–with the one who stares back at you in the mirror. It starts with me in my little organization.
Great #investors don’t go into a new opportunity without first knowing how they will get out, and what that trigger point will be. We should think along those same lines. We shouldn’t launch and then assume that will be handled, so we can now go launch something else. We need to be VERY careful about what we launch, when, and ensure that when we do, that project/initiative gets done, complete, finalized.
It’s exactly the same principle the great #programmers follow when they truly close the program at the end of their code, “turn off the lights,” so to speak, and return the RAM the program was using back to the system.
We only have so much power in our organization. It’s hard enough to perform our #primarymission for our #primarycustomer. Let’s not make it harder by being in the habit of “opening new apps” all the time and then forgetting about them.
Let this be a reminder to us each time we check this screen on our respective phones. Now…post a quick reply with the number of open apps you found. I’m very curious…