Assignment
Instructions
• See general instructions on the course syllabus and on the course website.
• The assignment should be typed and submitted online on time. Late assignments won’t be considered.
• The assignment must be completed individually. Provide your answers neatly and professionally.
• The assignment must have a title page identifying student name, student id, and the course code.
• Plagiarism will be sanctioned with a grade of zero and disciplinary measures.
Develop your own “personal quality checklist” that you would like to achieve each day and analyze the results over an extended period of time (3 weeks, 21 days). The idea is inspired from the 21-90 rule that states that it takes 21 days to create a habit (Maxwell Maltz 1960) and 90 days to make it part of your lifestyle. After you complete the 90 days, the habit will be as much a part of your daily lifestyle as brushing your teeth.
The listing of possible checklist standards might include but they are not limited to:
• Reduce screen time by 50%, for instance, or to 90 minutes per day
• Avoid gossiping
• Avoid complaining
• Pray five prayers on time
• Do not delay Alfajr Prayer
• Review class notes after each class
• No text messaging during classes
• Limit phone calls to ten minutes
• No more than 1 hour per day spent on social networking websites
• No more than X hours of TV per week
• Update schedule daily on PDA or computer calendar
• Get up promptly-no snooze alarm
• Ensure that team members are informed on project progress, each day or each week
• Complete all reading assignments as due
• Inform professor of essential absences via e–mail, text, or phone message at least 24 hours in advance
• Work in library (or other quiet place) to avoid interruptions
• No more than one “junk food” snack per day
• Exercise in gym for at least one hour, twice per week
• Turn off cell phone during classes
• Prepare or buy, and eat, breakfast every day
• Eat 5 vegetables and fruits every day
• Be the reason someone smiles every day
• Ensure 20 minutes of me–time every day (walking, meditation, reading, yoga, shopping, cooking, etc)
Select/develop around ten items for personal tracking. Students are not required to use only items from this list. Whatever is meaningful to you may be tracked. Failure to adhere to these standards is considered a “defect”. After you have gathered data for three weeks, review the data for the purposes of analysis and improvement. Use charts to plot and analyze weekly results. Use the following guidelines.
• Each participant should initiate a personal quality improvement project and maintain and improve it during the rest of the study period.
• Consistent effort, rather than elegant precision in pursuing the project will be rewarded; that is, individual benefit, rather than “a grade,” or perfection, is to be the major objective.
• After a week’s data are gathered, plot a simple graph to determine the level of “defects” encountered.
• A suggested practice is that you share your personal checklist items and goals with your instructor, a colleague, spouse, or friend. Have that person ask you about your progress every week or so. If you are making regular progress, you should be happy to discuss it, and to show your charts and graphs. Even if your progress is uneven, you should be able to show that you’ve improved on one or two items, which is progress. Don’t be too self– critical!
• An intermediate progress report should be built into the process around the middle of the pilot study period (for your evaluation). The final report on the pilot project should be made at the end of the study period and submitted online. Consideration should be given to making personal quality a permanent part of your personal planning and improvement process.
TASK: After completing the project, answer these questions:
a. What did your analysis reveal?
b. Did you find that you improved simply because you began to measure these “defects”?
c. How did you feel about discussing your “defects” with others?
d. How might such a process help in a work environment?
