I’m usually a bit wary of management/coaching/self-help gurus. I figure that at best they offer a bag of common-sense tricks, at worst a stack of buzz words packaged in expensive training courses.
However, lately, i’ve found myself in a stressful situation. I’d been lucky so far: i got given clear goals, reasonable deadlines, room for initiative. I did a good job, sometimes, i think, even exceeded expectation, or got the job done in half the time.
Then i landed on this project. Clearly understaffed. I’m usually quite confident and cheerful, but 6 concurrent tasks, interrupted by urgent (of course) request are a bit much, even for me.
At some point you realize that it’s time to sit down and think – take back some throttle, regroup, think strategically. Just to keep it enjoyable, and refrain from developing digestive problems.
Well, i just took a week off – read some zen philosophy, walked large expanses of empty beach in France. And i bought following book: ‘Getting things done’, which seems to be quite the rage in silicon valley. I especially like the subtitle ‘The Art of Stress-Free Productivity’ (probably a better read than ‘The Art of Assembly Language’, too).
So i’m willing to set aside my scepticism, and see what array of tools are on offer here. For the short term. For the long term, well, we’ll see … life is short, and the options are many.
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