728 words in this post brings me to 968 words. Time for yoga!
What's a typical Friday like for you? Antsy anticipation until you get to shut down the computer and start the weekend? A little nagging pit of your to-do list in your stomach trying to call attention to what remains unfinished for the week?
First, a bit of personal backstory. Then, what I'm doing different and why it matters more in the long run.
When I had a traditional desk job in a big company, Friday was my catch up day. While most people raced through the day to be able to leave early, I locked myself in my office and stayed late, taking advantage of the quiet period in the afternoon when the phone stopped ringing, emails slowed to a trickle, and people stopped visiting my office. In that one day, I believed I would kick ass and make the harried rest of the week worthwhile.
I hit the easy items first, the ones that needed little nudges to keep them moving. I sent reminders, left voice mail, scheduled meetings. My burst in uninterrupted productivity meant my coworkers would start the next week even further behind. Sure, I would suffer the consequences, but I reveled in my momentary feeling of accomplishment.
By lunch time, I was tackling back burner projects. It took time to equilibrate with each one, to figure out where I was and what action I planned to take. I realized I forgot to follow up or I didn't hand off when I needed to. At this point my day began to derail. I had kept too much in my court and had become the bottleneck. I was so far behind! Anxiety and hopelessness infiltrated my early afternoon.
Then, without fail, the phone would ring around 2:30 pm. It was the Friday Afternoon Crisis, the thing that would occupy the next several hours because someone needed a miracle delivered. Desperate customers who need a product delivered Saturday, requiring time to expand and geography to shrink. Senior managers needing urgent analysis for a presentation next week that they found out about two weeks ago. Taking charge because no one knows what else to do and Coworker A is on vacation and Coworker B already left for the day and stopped answering his phone.
Miracle delivered or crisis postponed, the presence of my coworkers evaporated by 5:00 pm. The cleaning crew and I had the building to ourselves. The stacks of paper on my desk were useless now, the day was too far gone. I filed it all away again, leaving a trail of sticky notes like bread crumbs for the following Friday. My desk cleaned, I turned back to my computer for a few last emails. 6:30 pm. 7:00 pm. 7:30 pm. Sometimes 8:00 pm. My car was the last one in the parking lot as I headed into a weekend defeated and sapped of motivation.
The only ass that got kicked on those Fridays was mine.
Cut to the present. I have noticed that even in a state of non-traditional employment, my expectations are not different. I still look to Friday to deliver miracles I couldn't put together during the week. My feelings of defeat have not changed because although my venue has changed, my behavior has not.
Last Friday, I decided I'm done with that old and busted behavior. The new hotness is what I call Well-Fed Fridays. There are logistics issues with inviting you all over and cooking you big meals to show appreciation. So instead, I give you my attention on Well-Fed Friday. I'm giving my Fridays over to appreciating the contributions of others and making sure I tell them about it. Examples:
- Writing recommendations for people on LinkedIn
- Contributing to discussions on LinkedIn
- Commenting on blogs & sharing them with other people
- Sending meaningful direct messages on Twitter
- Picking some Twitter followers and looking at their tweets, their blog if they have one, finding out what they are all about
-Andrea
No comments:
Post a Comment