Workload Master

So much wine…

Originally uploaded by __JD__

The blog was a little quiet last week because I was traveling in NoCal (Northern California) enjoying the Mendocino Coast and later wine country. Although I try to practice what I preach and live a balanced life (you know take some time for yourself) my wife really keeps me honest on vacation.

While in Sonoma County, I couldn’t help noticing the winery signs at every intersection. They pointed in all directions indicating the myriad of choices…it was all good. We could wander happily from place to place with no plan enjoying the serendipity of no plan. At times it became stressful because there were too many choices and we were afraid of missing out on something good.

The signs pointing in multiple directions made me think about what the workday is like for most people. At any moment they can choose among an almost unlimited number of actions. Some good, many not so good. This is great on vacation but wandering willy nilly through the workday usually results in doing whatever comes first or squeaks the loudest. You may be “busy” but not accomplishing much. The result is usually more fires, a longer workday, high stress and failure to reach your goals.

Have you ever found yourself feeling anxious because you don’t know what to do next (although you have hundreds of things that could be done)? Constantly thinking “about” your work when you’re in the middle of it, usually means you haven’t taken the time to plan. I know everybody hates to plan, but it’s really a matter of switching “modes” for a few minutes each day.

Michael Gerber in his classic book The E-Myth, talks about how we work in different modes. Most of the time we are in what he refers to as “technician” mode (you may have heard me use the term“worker bee”). This is when you are going about the day to day duties of your job…whether you’re on the telephone selling, writing software or performing brain surgery…it doesn’t matter. But sometimes you need to step out of that worker bee mode (we’ll use my term) and become a manager…of yourself. This is the time when you step back to think “about” your work…or the work the worker bee should be doing.

But what does a manager do? They set goals, allocate resources (in this case the worker bees time), make decisions and evaluate results. So when you’re in “manager mode” you look at your available resources like how much time the worker bee has available (look at your calendar), decide which activities are most important (we’ll get into making this decision another time but usually it’s based upon which actions will help you reach your goals) and schedule the work (put it on your task list). Do this for 15 minutes at the end of each day for the following day, it will make a huge difference. Do these steps every day:

1. Look at your calendar to determine available time.
2. Add any time specific commitments (appointments, travel time etc.) to your calendar
3. Briefly review your Monthly Objectives (Don’t have them…I suggest you do it ASAP)
4. Look at any incomplete tasks on your task list and decide when (or if) you will do them. Schedule them on the appropriate day.
5. Schedule tasks for tomorrow but consider the amount of time you have available (be brutally realistic)
6. Prioritize your tasks based upon their importance (another long discussion but if a task drives your Monthly Objectives it should be higher priority)
7. The next day start at task 1 and don’t look at the others until it’s complete, then move on to the next.

Remember if you find yourself in an anxious moment not sure what to do next, it usually means you haven’t stepped into your manager mode. Make your game plan before kickoff, not in the second quarter. Using the simple process above to plan each day will relieve that feeling.