Managing by exception

How many emails, notifications, tweets, whatsapp messages, etc. do you receive per day? Isn’t it exhausting?

But… how many are really important and give you information to act on?

“Managing by exception” is not really a new concept, but it is getting prominence in our ever increasingly tech oriented world as we let machines automate our daily tasks… and even our daily decisions

The underlying concept is simple… “Don’t bother me with things on which I needn’t to act on”

Surely you have seen all sorts of these offline notifications in the line of “Task X completed successfully” (“Backup completed successfully”, “Your money transfer has been completed”, etc. )

In fact they are the outcomes you expect to get in the sense of the “normal” flow of the process.

They are ok if they happen immediately somehow acting as a confirmation message… and reducing our anxiety in a way, but when they come by email 15 minutes later…. they are useless, you are not expected to do a thing about it.

Therefore, next time you see this sort of offline confirmation message or notification, saying that all “was” ok… do remember this concept, and if it is at your reach, put down that offline confirmation…

Your daily life will be simpler and with less noise…

Favio Varela

IT manager