08/24/2009
When I signed up to work at Gravity Switch, I don't remember "fire-fighter" being a part of the project manager job description. And yet most days each of us needs to tackle something (or several somethings) urgent, important, and unexpected.
These can range from a problem with a client's website server to a piece of work that we received today, and needs to get done, tested, and published... today. I'm fairly certain our business isn't the only one where people experience the problem of fighting fires, but we decided we were going to do something about it.
One of our clients, Matthew Cornell, specializes in time management and productivity training. Bill, Kelli, and I spent a full day with Matt in our office learning some pretty neat things about commonalities in workplace stress, and processes that have helped lots of people before us. I won't share all of his secrets, but I want to note a couple of the highlights of what we learned, that are already making a difference:
- Don't check your email. No really, don't. Email is an integral part of our workday, but if you're like most of us here, you have yours set to notify you every time you receive a new message. If you're like me, you can't resist that command, and you check your inbox almost constantly, in case there is something you need to respond to RIGHT NOW. As it turns out, most of the time things can wait for a few minutes. I know this is a hard lesson to learn (and I'm still learning it myself), but I'm starting by trying to check my email no more often than once per hour. When I do, I scan for anything that might be urgent, and I set aside everything else for later in the day when I have a block of time set aside to process it all. Because, why use up your mindspace ANTICIPATING fires?
- Make a daily plan. What this means for us at Gravity Switch is not what we thought. We thought we had this covered, by each of us having a task list where everything important lives, that gets prioritized and reviewed once a day. Wrong. Matt pointed out that each of us has a task list 150 tasks long. Phew! What a weight on our minds each morning when we brainstorm how to fit it all in, and each afternoon when we're berating ourselves for only completing the first 5 or 10. We're trying something new; choosing 8-10 tasks; breaking them out into a new list for the day; and tackling them one by one without getting distracted or overwhelmed by the rest. Of course, the phone still rings sometimes, and sometimes other new things just have to get done today, but you know what? My mind is much more ready to take these things on when it isn't already worn out before I start.
And these are just the "little things!" We were pretty impressed by Matt's knowledge and experience, as well as his dedication to helping us with OUR specific concerns, and the workshop was fun to boot!
~Tess
Gravity Switch Project Manager