I am so much better at getting things done on days that I have meetings than on days that I don't. You'd think a wide open calendar would be a good thing. "Look at how much time I have to get stuff done!" But no, there is nothing I need to do any time management around so I just say, "Look how much time I have to do whatever I want! I'll still have plenty of time in the afternoon to buckle down." Lo and behold the afternoon comes around and now, "It's Friday afternoon and no one gets anything done on Friday afternoons so why should I?"
I am such a slacker sometimes.
However, to counteract my slacker tendencies I have created a plan. It's a two fold plan. (See, this is what I do while I'm slacking off. Make plans, lists, think about what I should be doing at home. I'm still doing something, just not what I'm supposed to be doing.)
The first part of the plan is to pretend I am leaving my job in two weeks and I have to wrap up all the loose ends before my replacement (not that anyone could replace me) comes in.
The second part of the plan is to set a timer (I found one on-line) so I have to work for a certain amount of time before I get another amount of time to "play." This keeps me on the straight and narrow and not searching the internet for vast amounts of time.
What you have to understand is that I have a strange job with no deadlines except those that are self imposed. [Oops! Gotta run, my "play" timer just went off. Back in 30.] [I'm back] Luckily, I am not a procrastinator by nature or I would have been fired years ago. I have to create fake deadlines in order to function and move projects forward. It's actually working quite nicely this two part plan of mine.
You're probably wondering what sort of job has no deadlines. I am the unofficial queen of "other duties as assigned." You have no idea. I am the receiver of projects that do not fall in anyone else's job description or department. Sort of pie in the sky - "Wouldn't it be nice if someone could work on this? Hey, wait a second, why don't we give it to Sassy Pants to figure out?"
While there are a few things that have deadlines, most projects are so long term, or so amorphous when I get them that I have to make up what needs to be done when. In addition, none of my projects have any bearing on any other project so nothing builds on anything. It's nice in a "choose your own adventure" sort of way but can really get you frazzled when you don't know what is a priority, or you are working on three different projects at once and get an email about the fourth. It is helpful that I am afraid someone will ask me out of the blue where I am on something. This is probably secret Part 3 of my 2 part plan - use my fear of letting someone down, or looking stupid, to get stuff done.
Well, I have one last 30 minute chunk of time today so I gotta go. My Monday self will thank my Friday afternoon self when she arrives at work and her email in-box is clean and all the sticky notes are organized or chucked. Have a nice last few minutes of work! Unless you are in a different time zone. If so, best of luck to you.
I am such a slacker sometimes.
However, to counteract my slacker tendencies I have created a plan. It's a two fold plan. (See, this is what I do while I'm slacking off. Make plans, lists, think about what I should be doing at home. I'm still doing something, just not what I'm supposed to be doing.)
The first part of the plan is to pretend I am leaving my job in two weeks and I have to wrap up all the loose ends before my replacement (not that anyone could replace me) comes in.
The second part of the plan is to set a timer (I found one on-line) so I have to work for a certain amount of time before I get another amount of time to "play." This keeps me on the straight and narrow and not searching the internet for vast amounts of time.
What you have to understand is that I have a strange job with no deadlines except those that are self imposed. [Oops! Gotta run, my "play" timer just went off. Back in 30.] [I'm back] Luckily, I am not a procrastinator by nature or I would have been fired years ago. I have to create fake deadlines in order to function and move projects forward. It's actually working quite nicely this two part plan of mine.
You're probably wondering what sort of job has no deadlines. I am the unofficial queen of "other duties as assigned." You have no idea. I am the receiver of projects that do not fall in anyone else's job description or department. Sort of pie in the sky - "Wouldn't it be nice if someone could work on this? Hey, wait a second, why don't we give it to Sassy Pants to figure out?"
While there are a few things that have deadlines, most projects are so long term, or so amorphous when I get them that I have to make up what needs to be done when. In addition, none of my projects have any bearing on any other project so nothing builds on anything. It's nice in a "choose your own adventure" sort of way but can really get you frazzled when you don't know what is a priority, or you are working on three different projects at once and get an email about the fourth. It is helpful that I am afraid someone will ask me out of the blue where I am on something. This is probably secret Part 3 of my 2 part plan - use my fear of letting someone down, or looking stupid, to get stuff done.
Well, I have one last 30 minute chunk of time today so I gotta go. My Monday self will thank my Friday afternoon self when she arrives at work and her email in-box is clean and all the sticky notes are organized or chucked. Have a nice last few minutes of work! Unless you are in a different time zone. If so, best of luck to you.
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