all your favorite tunes ring true

We are busy people, task oriented people. A thing to do and another thing and then another thing.  I have so many thoughts about this disposition, its strengths and weaknesses. Today, however, I want to talk a little about how a person (i.e. me) in a salaried (i.e. never-off) position with both task-based and strategic or project-based work might approach the challenges of all of the individual things and all of the larger ideas all at once.

For me the first and foremost issue is working effectively -- how do I allow myself to be effective and how do I set myself up for success in structuring my work week?

There are times when I can do certain types of work very well and times when I am just banging my head against the very same task. While we don't always have the leisure to structure our workloads to coincide with our highest levels of productivity, knowing what works and what doesn't is always helpful. What I can do in the morning, what I can do between meetings, and what I can do when I'm in a bad mood or hungry or tired is very important.

I think about tasks that get me back on track when I'm not focused: debriefing from meetings, organizing and updating my project to-do lists, triaging my email.

I think about what work I have to do during the day, and what work I can do at home: do I need my dual-monitor workstation to do this project best? Can I do this project while a cat is standing on top of my arms? Do I want to create a separation where I only do research in one place? I try to have my work arrayed so I have the best access to the work best done wherever I am.

I let myself be influenced by my moods. If I am working at home and I'm being very productive, I know that groove may not last, I may not be able to replicate it the next day or even during the week, so I go with it. Have the work ready to go when you're ready to go.  I learned this from my father who worked on the road and had a very flexible schedule, and anyone with ADD will tell you the same: the groove is the payoff for all of the other trouble, so use it.

The balance between tasks and projects is a difficult one -- I find tasks to weigh on me more than projects, but also easier to lay aside. Small tasks pile up, and I need a groove to get focused and get them done. At the same time, projects require periods of focus without interruption, including the interruption of remembering all of the small tasks that need accomplished. However, both cases benefit from a mindset of "do the thing right in front of you." I make lists. So many lists.

What about you, how do you deal with all the little things and all the big things?

Keep Rockin'!
-Rachel

to be by myself

"No, I can't, I need to be by myself."

I'm an introvert who loves people. I really do, I think it comes through in things I've written here. I love the people I work with and the people I work for, and I love my friends and I love meeting people I don't know for the most part. All of that takes it toll, though. I need a lot of down time to function at my highest levels.

Because my work involves a lot of interacting with other people, I have less people-energy for my personal life than I would like. At times, it needs to be rationed: I can spend time with friends I have, or I can do things with acquaintances, or I can spend just a little time with new people. At times, not having enough energy for personal relationships can be trying and even dangerous -- we all need people in our lives who fill our emotional needs and some of them need to live in the same town as you. So building up relationships is essential to personal and professional well-being and success. 

At the same time, I endeavor to set myself up for success, so if I've had a meeting-filled week, I know that even when I want to be with a group of friends who've invited me out, I sometimes can't if I also want to be properly restored by my weekend.  It takes some time to develop the self-awareness of when and what I can do, and it takes discipline to listen to the voice that knows if I can or if I can't.

It is a thing that I practice, though, because I want to be my best. So sometimes I can't go to dinner or your party and it's okay for you and me both.

What about you? What do you do to be your best? Let's talk about it.

Keep Rockin'
Rachel

Making Space for...

When I was in high school and college I worked at the same company as my mom. Technically, I worked for my mother. I did various things, which we may discuss at some other time if we ever get into our origin stories. What I learned from that job, other than a passing knowledge of microbiology (which isn't really helpful in any way, surprisingly), I learned from watching my mom go about her business.

One of the things she did was have a very tidy workspace. Surely this came from her many years running a research lab -- you can't just leave mouse spleens laying around at the end of the day.  One of the labs that my mother ran was a dirty lab, dirty in that they worked with live human pathogens that could kill you. Put everything away, clean everything, check again, check again. When working in an office, she cleaned and organized her workspace.  Daily neatening, the last hour of her week cleaning her area thoroughly.  Monday morning met with a neat clean ready-to-go workspace.

I managed to pick up some of these habits and carry them to both my kitchen and my shop, but I struggle with them at work. When the end of the work day comes I tend to pack everything into my bag and take it home. Things get more and more disorganized throughout the week, until I need to take a half-day to sort it all out. Random things get spread across my desk and I know that my calculator doesn't go there but I'm "too busy" to take three seconds to put it where it does go.

In this time between class sessions, though, I have enough time to get to inbox zero, so it is a good time to try to reinstate a habit of orderliness. It is important for me because this orderliness has a huge impact on my efficiency and clarity of mind. So I will take tomorrow to organize my office. I will book off the last hour of Friday on my calendar every week to make time for neatening the office. I will resolve once again to take the first and last 20 minutes of the day setting priorities and organizing my tasks.

We let some things slide because they are fundamental. Because we don't appreciate fully how other things are built on them. What core practices help you be your best self? How do you value these in your work day? Let me know in the comments!

Keep Rockin'
Rachel