“Biz Class? Ha!” I scoff.
Middle seat linebacker gets
me off my high horse.
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Category: Work
Epiphany
Nothing magical happens when my Inbox is empty.
There’s no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.
Which means I can decide whether or not to care about this.
And so can you.
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Who works for you?
Revolutionary question of the day – which I was asked, and am passing on: do I work for my boss, or does she work for me?
And, as a corollary, does my team work for me or do I work for my team?
What’s the difference? Here’s one example:
If the person who owns all the data and metrics on my team works for me, then I tell her: “you need to take ownership of operations, of making sure everyone is doing what they need to do.”
But if I work for her, then I say to her, “OK, you’re the boss. That means you’re THE person responsible for us reaching our goals. I work for you, and all of us work for you. Tell us what to do. Go.”
Different conversation. Different outcome.
(p.s. nothing special about “data and metrics.” I could have said “website” or “PR” or “brand manager” or just about anything short of the person we all pretend is in charge.)
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Out of time
I just went to the hospital to visit some close friends whose baby will likely be born by the time this blog is posted. It is five days before the due date, and when I asked how things were going my friend said, “It’s going great, but it’s been kind of sudden.”
Because I was going to meet him after work, rather than heading home, I didn’t rush out of work in the way I normally do. Normally, my time is ruled by the strict deadline of the train I catch every day. Without the deadline, I “just finished up a few things,” and I left work 45 minutes later than I’d planned.
We fill the time we give ourselves. And nearly always it feels like the deadline sneaks up on us – even if we’ve been preparing for nine months.
It’s easy to scoff at the idea of holding 5 minute meetings without any chairs in the room, using an egg timer; or doing speed interviews of 20 job applicants in an hour rather than screening a zillion resumes and interviewing 3 people for an hour each. But until you’ve tried it, do you know which works better?
I’m not saying rush through everything. I’m saying time is precious and we have the opportunity to be deliberate about how we spend it. So you get to choose. Do you:
- Decide in advance how much time something really needs to accomplish your goal, and stick to it?
- Do things the way everyone else does them, because it’s so uncomfortable to explain why you do things differently?
(and by the way, just because Outlook defaults to a certain length of meeting doesn’t mean that’s how you should schedule your day).
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Judging
You can decide that this is work and that is play.
That every time you do a little extra, someone else is getting the best of you.
That you’re making tradeoffs each and every step of the way.
Just remember that it’s you who’s doing the judging. Which means that some day (maybe today) you can choose to decide that you’re judging right – and do something about it – or decide that it’s time to start telling yourself a different story.
Don’t be afraid to thrive.
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Reorienting Haiku
Unread email piles
It can only mean one thing
I’m getting more done
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Go
I’ve noticed that every time the next big, important thing comes up, I always, always have time for it. A big project, an exciting opportunity…I’m there – and I’m sure you are too.
But wait a minute. Where did that time come from? Weren’t you flat out before someone handed you the plum project just waiting for someone to swoop in and save the day? Sure, you can work a little harder for a little while, but if this keeps happening time and again, you must be making bigger shifts.
Which must mean that there’s always space for something new if it’s important enough.
And this begs the question: what do I do with my time when I’m not stretching on the next big opportunity?
Put another way: “If I had all the time in the world and I really wanted to reach my goals, what I’d really give more time to is _________.”
How do you fill in that blank? And if the thing is so important, don’t you think you can find the time?
Here’s something I’ve been playing with: scheduling two 2-hour blocks on my calendar every week for the really-important-stuff-that-I-really-should-do-more of.* It’s probably not enough, but it’s a start.
This is about making your own time for your own most important stuff, because no one’s going to do that for you. You don’t need permission or someone else making a deadline for you. And you just discovered that you can make the time.
Go!
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*(I’m serious about the scheduling bit. I just started doing it. It makes a huge difference)
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How busy should you be (the 125% rule)?
Whatever amount of time you set aside for work, you don’t want to be 100% busy. You don’t want just enough work so you can get it done in the time you’ve set aside. You want more.
How much more? Lately I think the right amount is around 125% – that is, having 25% more work to do than you could really get done.
If you handle this in the right way, it forces you to work both smarter and faster: smarter comes from being forced to triage and put the most important things at the top. Faster comes from learning to spend the right amount of time on things, which means less time for things that are less important (without throwing quality out the window). Faster also comes from learning to say ‘no’ politely to things that you should say ‘no’ to (e.g. meetings you don’t need to attend); and smarter comes from making time for new things that could be great, knowing that something will be sacrificed in the meantime.
There’s a limit, of course. 200% busy is a disaster…it means the end of your personal time and your sanity, and it’s completely unsustainable. I started my career as a management consultant with a 200% job. I learned a ton, but I was always exhausted, I essentially sacrificed my personal life, and I never could have kept that up for the decades it takes to build a career. And 25% is mind-numbingly boring (it’s possible – I actually had a job that devolved into this), not to mention you’ll never produce enough to get anywhere professionally.
So if you’re at 100% and have been asked to do more, take advantage. Don’t be afraid to work hard. And if you haven’t been asked to do more, find somewhere to jump in and do more.
What does 125% feel like? It feels like (usually) controlled chaos…”usually” because there are always ebbs and flows, so if you’re normally at 125% you’ll have some 150% peaks that are very hard to manage. 125% is a little overwhelming, but it’s also exciting. You’re stretched, you’re pushed, you’re learning. And you’ll discover that you can get a lot more done than you thought possible.
(Oh, and if you hadn’t noticed, this is part of the reason that having a job you hate makes it very hard to be very successful. Success comes from a lot of things, but hard work is part of the answer. Think about how painful it is to work really hard for 10, 20, or 30 years at something you basically dislike or don’t care much about.)
The bar is rising
The more people I talk to who have recently lost their jobs, the more I see how challenging it will be to find new, meaningful work in the current economy. The good news is that this won’t last forever, and if you’ve always thought that you might make some sort of shift – whether into the non-profit sector or otherwise – this economic mess might just be enough to jump-start you move in another direction.
Now’s the time to lay the groundwork for that next move, even if it is three, six, or more months out. If you can, volunteer, start that pet project you’d always meant to do, roll up your sleeves, meet people, make yourself stand out from all the other people who were swept up in this economic tsunami.
On the flip side, if you still have your job, don’t forget that the bar is rising. Those hundreds of thousands of Wall Street types who are out of work? (who I blogged about here) They are hungry and skilled and aggressive and networked. Now is a great time to raise your own game and be even more indispensable.
(OK, in truth, you should always be indispensable, and especially if you are in a mission-driven organization, why would you be there in the first place if you’re not passionate about what you do?)
But now’s the time to dig deeper, to over-promise and then over-deliver. Now’s the time to make your co-workers’ lives easier, to roll up your sleeves, to burn the midnight oil. Now’s the time to lead.
Laying low and hoping you’re not noticed is a horrible life strategy. But right now, in particular, it might also be the best way to lose your job.
10 things I knew nothing about a year ago
Here’s a short list of things 10 things I knew absolutely nothing about at the start of 2008, before I started writing this blog:
- What an RSS feed is / how it works
- The differences between Bloglines and Google Reader
- Which is better: WordPress or Blogspot
- The difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
- Technorati rankings
- What a trackback is, and whether they are good or bad
- Akismet spam
- Maimonindes’ 8 levels of tzedakah
- What’s in Vogue in India
- How to write a blog post, and why you’d bother
Nothing special about me.
It’s just that, once you’re done with school, you learn stuff as the RESULT of doing new things, not the other way around.
Which means “not knowing how” really isn’t an excuse for not doing something new.
How else you gonna learn?