“This Can Wait - … ”
After being absent from the office for nearly 3 weeks, I was hammered by the work load from all directions. Manager A wanted an Enterprise level of design document done by 8am. Manager B requested my participation in meetings from 8am to 4pm. Manager C wanted me to finish another design paper by end of this week. All the sudden I felt that I needed to borrow all of the octopus’s hands/legs to do everything. Oh, not to mention that I am running two blogs too. Ahh!!! I am screaming…
Ok, one thing at the time. I am a human with two hands and one brain. I have only 24 hours and I still gotta eat, sleep, relax and have a human’s life. So, let’s face it, I can’t get everything done within the limited amount of the time. So I guess I just have to be honest with myself and my managers/co-workers/blog readers, “Sorry guys, I can’t get all of the stuff done, but I will prioritize so that everything will be accomplished within a reasonable time frame.”
First thing first, which task is the most important? Manager A is a big guy and his stuff is the most critical piece. OK, I will do Manager A’s stuff first. Do I really have to sit through the meetings for the whole day? Probably not. So I requested a time slot from Manager B to dedicate the discussions to my project. Can Manager C’s stuff wait? After talking to Manager C, he agreed that Manager A’s stuff is far more important, so he gave me an extension till the next week and stated the reason of the delay in his status sheet. As far as the blogs go… eh… who cares?! Ok, ok, I am just joking. I care a great deal about my blogs. But I can only squeeze that much time each day to blog. Thus, my personal blog has to wait…
5 or 7 years ago, I probably would sacrifice my personal life to make everyone happy. I’ve learned my lesson that even if I bust my ass to please everyone, not everybody can be pleased. There were always something I didn’t do right and I was the one to be blamed for not producing the most thoughtful work. Bottom line, how could my work be thoughtful if Ive only had a fraction of time to think about it with a tiring brain and sleepy eyes? I finally learned to be realistic and reasonable to myself and admit,
“I can’t do everything perfectly on time. This will have to wait… “
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POSTED IN: Fabulous Work Life Balance
3 opinions for “This Can Wait - … ”
ME Strauss
Dec 14, 2005 at 7:55 pm
Good for you! I’m glad to hear it.
I’m all for you having a fabulous personal life to go with the fabulous person you are.
Liz
Vikas Shekhawat
Dec 15, 2005 at 4:50 am
Well, I too am handling 3 logs. But anyway, u r right, one cannot please everybody. We’ll have a limited/same number of hours and maust make the best out of it. The cartoon is fabulous.
Christine(Yuna)
Dec 15, 2005 at 11:00 pm
yeah..it’s a bit hard to keep up with two blogs all the time when we’ve all got full time jobs…When the job becomes a bitch,work/life/blog balance is quite difficult to achieve…just have to make the best out of it.. :-)
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