Since I last posted. I will get better at posting. I’ve been working at my job a lot lately, and it’s draining all my energy to work on the things I want to do, like write this blog. I’ve made myself a promise to honor myself and not let outside responsibilities encroach on my passions.
Time management and honoring yourself have been coming up a lot lately; when there’s too much to do with little time to do it. How do you manage work & life and do it well? For some, it’s setting goals, to-do lists, or putting a timer on. I belong to a writing group, and although I haven’t been able to be as active, I still incorporate some of the tips and tricks that are done when a group gets together for writing. One activity, and one I’ve carried over into my work life, is to do a complete mind dump before starting any formal discussion. Before each discussion, we would have three minutes to just write about anything that came up. It could be what we need to make for dinner, do the next day, or vent about the asshole who took the last good snack from the breakroom. Once the three minutes were up, it was pencils down, and we were tasked to just focus on the discussion. The purpose of this was to get out of our own heads and remove any thoughts that are distracting us from the discussion.
Some swear by time studies. I, however, find them only helpful for certain roles. Not every role. For example, if it’s a Customer Service role where you are taking multiple calls and you have to answer the phone and solve a customer’s issue within X amount of time. It’s a good way to get a realistic snapshot not only of how you are doing as a customer service representative but having a running list of calls and the issues is a great way to optimize productivity. However, with some roles, doing a time study is more work than it’s worth and is a subtle way to micro-manage someone’s time. For example, if you are in a role where you are working with multiple departments at any given time, how can you stop what you are doing just to write down exactly what it is you are stopping doing so you can write it down?
I think for those roles, it’s not necessarily about time management because if you are getting all deliverables met when they were agreed to be met, why would there be a time management issue? For those roles, it is more about boundaries. Boundaries you set for yourself, for others, and keeping them. You are just as guilty if you find yourself treading water to make deliverables met because you let someone cross boundaries “just this one time” because, let’s be honest, there is never “just this one time.” It will happen again and again until someone gets resentful. So what do you do? Here are some tips and tricks I’ve implemented that help:
- When a boundary is crossed the first time, make it clear to the other person that this is an exception, not the rule, and follow up with, “Let’s not make a habit of this”
- When that “just this one-time” person comes back again, with no judgment, ask that person, “So I don’t duplicate your efforts, what have you done to find a solution” This forces them to realize you weren’t kidding when you made the one-time allowance, and more often than not, the person hadn’t done anything to resolve the issue themselves.
- If you use an org-wide depository, respond with a short yet direct message, “The documents can be found here (insert a link to where the documents are housed)”
Balancing Cat 