John Linton ...and it has occurred to me for the first time in decades that I have tyranised myself over many years with the use of 'to do' lists.
In two weeks we will be heading off to the EU for some badly needed r and r ...... and a little bit of work. As usual it always appears to me that I have left everything too late to actually get the required 'tidying up' done so that I can leave the office with a clear conscience for a few weeks....this time is no exception and I am going through my usual pathetic "will I cancel the tickets now or will I be able to squeeze it all in" thoughts - knowing I won't cancel anything but still wondering why I can somehow go through such nonsense? Pathetic is the correct word but, despite what some 'pop' text books might say, 'self knowledge' doesn't actually help any situation in any positive way.
I have 11 'critically important' items on my current 'to do' list, plus 16 'revenue affecting' items and 28 'must do within 120 hours' items - about average for this time of year but it seems much more difficult due to the absolute time constraint of holiday departure. It raises the issue of what is a realistic 'job load' for any responsible person and, much more interestingly, what would really happen in things as relatively unimportant as commerce if 'critically important' issues were not dealt with within a realistic time frame? I'm pretty sure the answer is.....nothing....or near enough nothing. So what is it that 'charges' business to do lists with so much urgency/importance/worry or however any individual treats them?
I have no idea - I have always (as far back as I can remember) been a to do list maker and user and have always dealt with the lists of items by starting at the top and doing the items that seem to be the shortest/easiest and when I reached the bottom I went back to the top. At the end of each period (a 'period' being not related to any particular time frame but just when the list got too long for the one piece of paper or got too messy with 'crossings outs'). I started using this to do list method for "real" so long ago my 'piece of paper' was an IBM punched card which was a convenient size (for me) and could be slipped in to the inside left hand pocket of your suit jacket (in the days when I wore a suit to work). It's only over the past few years that I have started dividing things I add to the to do list in to the three categories I used above.
I don't know what the most common method(s) of reminding people who have fairly wide ranges of responsibilities that are based on innovations or totally new characteristics - in other words things that don't have a procedure or method to address but call for something entirely new to make them happen. I have talked about it briefly to various people but I don't recall getting any replies that I can remember that were helpful. Presumably there are many methods of handling a 'creative' job that constantly involves not just thinking of new ideas but deciding how they can be implemented.
There is absolutely no way that I am going to get through my current to do list let alone deal with the 4 - 5 things I add to it most days so I have decided to do what I should have done many years ago - I'm going to ignore it and simply do what I can in the next fortnight. I have worked under the pressure of meticulously adhering to a work schedule that only ends when I have done everything I set out to do each day or just got too tired to continue trying and that is too great a burden for me as I continue to age in mind and body.
It is now well past time for Exetel's managers to take on a much more serious part of the decision making and for us to employ a few more people to allow them more time to do that. I would like to see what life is light when you get a full night's sleep again and actually think about something else other than the business every second of the day. Probably not the best thing to do 'cold turkey' but with the unbreakable deadline of taking leave in the immediate future maybe it will be possible.
So yesterday I contented myself with finalising the design of a "Why Buy From Exetel?" business service 'brochure' and whiled away the rest of the day reading the papers and watching nonsense on Foxtel. I feel much better this morning.