Most jobs, especially in technology, include frequent priority changes, requests for information, and just general to-do list churn every day. This can lead to stress but also to forgetting important things or missing deadlines. I've suffered from this to some degree or another throughout my career and have come up with a couple strategies that help. These are by no means "silver bullets", but they can help me keep up with changes and reduce stress.
I've been kind of forgetful for my whole life. (Friends and family reading this post will heartily agree.) When I was in high school, I played trumpet in the marching band. Our marching band played at football games almost every Saturday in the fall, so this was a regular occurrence for me. I never forgot about the event at the right time, but once or twice a season, I'd forget my trumpet, which, with the possible exception of my band uniform, was the most important part of my being there! Eventually, the band director made sure there was a spare trumpet available for me to use when this happened.
As I started working, I would forget the perfectly decent lunch I had in the refrigerator when I left in the morning. This meant that I'd have to spend money on buying lunches. I fixed this by putting my car keys on top of my lunch in the refrigerator when I made it to be sure I couldn't leave home without it. After doing this trick a few times, I was able to get into the habit of remembering my lunch. Developing this trick, and others like it, have really helped with forgetfulness but also for unexpected requests and dependencies.
Being conscious of this kind of pattern and creating your own tricks for mitigating it will help you in a few different ways in your career. You'll be less likely to forget important things, you'll earn a reputation for staying on top of things, and it will help diminish your stress levels because you know that you're less likely to miss things.
Each of us can develop our own approach to this. My approach to this problem centers around my inbox and my calendar. I don't like having lots of unread email in my inbox. Over time, I've learned to use unread emails as a kind of to-do list. This tends to work better than a written to-do list for me because it's always current in my inbox, whereas a written list has to move from page to page or note to note. The second trick I use is related to my inbox: I create calendar appointments to tackle important things that include an email reminder. I create zero-duration appointments in my calendar with email reminders so that I remember to do things. The emails contain just enough information to be actionable.
One other tick I use is more analog. I use a hand-written notebook to keep track of my notes during the week. I've tried various electronic versions over the years but a physical notebook is best for me (with my favorite kind of pen, of course). I think the physical use of a pen helps reinforce what I'm writing. But the trick itself is to draw square check-boxes beside to-do items. They're quick and easy to add during meetings and they stand out during those times when I'm looking back over the last few days to see what I need to keep up on. I also just love checking things off of lists. Sometimes, they age out of relevance (even in a short time), but even then, I'll cross them out with an X and still get the pleasure of checking something off of my list.
There are an infinite number of ways to tackle this problem with an almost infinite number of tools to help. I've created a system that, while not perfect, works for me. I encourage you to take some time to come up with a system that will work for you. Don't be afraid to tweak it or even change it wholesale to make it better. Please share your solutions in the comments - I'm always open to change!
No comments:
Post a Comment