Project 4
Dont be a busy fool
Do you brandish the notion that you’re so busy about on a daily basis? Are you constantly overloaded but achieving very little. Are you being honest with yourself? I don’t think you are. Still reading? .. Sort your priorities out?
1. Time management – Make sure you know how to organise your own time. Its your day. You should run the day dont let it run you. OK sometimes its inevitable that time flies away and you get pulled into conversations and meetings beyond your control or that the half hour you thought youd have to take a time out an grab a sandwich melted away when your meeting overran. You need to operate some non negotiables into your life.
2. Non negotiables – what are the three things at the top of the day that youa re commmitted to achieving today? These can be absolutley anything but make sure they are things that you commit to not letting bleed into the next day or week. They can be both personal and wrk tasks. This will alleviate your mental load. For example: Pay credit card bill, take and submit meter reading, send mum flowers for mothers day..
work tasks can be complete a project – you have dedicated today to complete project X. You are only annoying or cheating yourself if you dont complete it. Set up call with X to discuss…the sooner you start something you wnt be overwhelmed. Clear your email box or at least clear the last week’s flagged emails. Answer a certain person about a specific request.
Difficult Managers
I’ve had my fare share of difficult and absolute rubbish managers. Some have been nice but inexperienced and some have been outright nasty. Generally speaking, the problem is usually that your manager is on their own career trajectory and only wants to use you to elevate his or her career rather than help lift you up.
There are many ways to tackle difficult managers. The worst 2 managers I had were both women and both at a certain point in my career. Both were women, both were fat and unkempt and both were rude. And I mean this was the general observation of the office, not just me and the team working for them.
Person A – A complete waste of space, a loud talker, flattered by senior management attention but not interested in managing. Quite disgusting to be around, didnt shave her armpits and came into work frequently with unclean stained clothes on.
Person B – Evaded boundaries for example would know I have logged off at 6pm and then call at 8pm while I was in the gym to ask where a file was… not important. Would query me on items but was not avble to explain anything. Was overtly conforntational.
Person C – Timid in nature ‘a nice guy’ but too int eh detail and too focused on why there was a doubel space in a document rather than helping me with the actual content
Person D –
Are you letting yourself down?
This is sometimes me. I deliver excellence. My delivery is not excellent. Maybe youre a grumpy fucker, an uptight fucker who hates things being done any way except your way, a lazy fucker who does the bare minimum, a sloppy fucker who always makes mistakes, a sloppy fucker that balmes other people (lots of managers fall into this catagory) …
Asking for what you want
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Difficult Co-workers
So you’re struggling to connect …
How to set expectations around your workload
Set yourself realistic deadlines. Sometimes deadlines will be imposed upon you but quite often you will have the flexibility to set your own deadlines. If you fear people often get agitated with you for being slow or you get annoyed with incoming requests, you are probably not managing expectations clearly enough.
1. Always acknowledge a request. So Barry from Finance is a pain in the neck and constantly sends teams messages following up his emails. Make sure you acknowledge people. We’ve all been sat in a restaurant where the service has been poor and it takes forever for someone to take your order. I liken this to that. Make the other person feel seen. Hi Barry, Thanks for your email, I will come back to you by the end of the week. This is perfectly acceptable. If Barry is nagging that he needs something by the end of the day and you are stuck on something else or do not have the headspace to tackle his request today. Hi Barry, Thanks for your email, I will struggle to meet today’s deadline due to conflicting priorities/deadline on project X/currently covering Jay while he is on holiday… would it be OK to get this to you tomorrow/Wednesday at the latest. Now Barry may be an egomaniac/more senior to you/absolute moron but youve set a boundary and youve been polite. Dont feel bad. Do meet his request in the time you ahve given.
2.It’s perfectly OK to ask the person making the request to ‘nudge’ you. Heres what I mean: Say Barry asks me for some information that I either dont know the answer to off the top of my head or it is not readily available and needs time to collate. It is perfectly OK to acknowledge the request but say to Barry, please do nudge me If I havent got back to you by the end of the week. What does this do? It allows Barry to remind you that he needs something from you in a specified time frame and also acts as a second reminder when you may be swamped with other things in your inbox.
3.As you get progressively more senior in an organisation i
3. Are you over analysing the question?
were you one of those kids at school that never finished exams in rnough time. Do you ghet feedback that youre too in the weeds but you care about the detail? ,,
You mental health is as important as your physical health. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. Everyone has days where they feel completely RUBBISH and sometimes getting up and getting on with it helps override the blues. But what if youre carrying around a little more sadness. First of alll, sometimes you need a douvet day. I dont think this is wrong advice. Sometimes taking a time out for yourself to sleep in, watch movies, clean, go running, cook, read, can be the tonic you need. Maybe you even need two days. We talk about burn out later but this could stop you reaching burn out. Lets also talk about mental health. Maybe youre going through a break up, caring for children, a parent, maybe your relationship is going through a rough patch, maybe youre just feeling unfulfilled, maybe its hormonal, maybe things havent felt like theyre goign your way and youre just teary or angry or fed up. Taking a couple of days sick and labelling as ‘unwell’ is aceptable. If queried you can always say you had toothache. What if its more serious… 2 weeks and getting help in another section..
You are perfectely entitled to take a sick day when you are not feeling 100%. You have to set boundaries. You are an adult. If you are in an organisation where there is a formal procedure for calling in sick then follow this to a tee and do not rise to any catty or undgnified comments. If you have to contact said manager directly, make it brief. Hi xxx I am unable to come tot he office today as I am unwell (youa re not obligated to give a reason for your illness. I hope to be in the office tomorrow. Thanks for your understanding. If you have work which needs to be covered for this day try ot arrange it and communcate that too ie.I have re arranged the meetingw ith John to Friday and Amy can cover XYZ until I return. Do not fee; guilty for looking after your health.