Saturday, May 27, 2023

The Saturday Morning Post: Ducks in a Row




Some days I have my ducks in a row, some days I don't. I missed a conference call recently, I thought it was at 10:00 AM, it was at 9:00 AM.  By the time I realized I was late for it, it was nearly finished and I said, puck-it, I missed it. That is rare for me.  I can't remember the last time I missed a meeting, that I intended to go to.  

I have gotten better about deciding that some meetings, some calls, I am not going to go to. If others from my department are going to be on the call, I ask myself, is it critical that I be there?  If not, I tell them to cover it and skip it.  If all 4.2 of us are on the call, the overall cost is nearly $500 an hour, and I am the most costly of the team. 

So much of my time, I am overwhelmed with work, then I will hit a cycle where I am not.  And I feel guilty when my work is as done as it is going to be, and I have only put in 7 or 8 hours.  I have to remind myself about the 10 and 12 hour days, and Saturday meetings - time that I only get back if I balance it by knocking off a little early when I am caught up. Even with that, there will always be work that could have been done.  I figured out 35 years ago, that I would have a long to-do list when I die, and that is okay.  

I was working on some travel planning recently.  It was a little complex in that I needed to estimate driving times from point to point, and balance it so I didn't end up with 10 hours of driving one day, and 2 hours on another day.  I somehow messed up the timeline, I had started making hotel reservations and had to modify two of them, or I would end up with an extra day in the middle of the trip with no place to go, and no reason to be where I was.  One was easy, and even less expensive, one involved two phone calls and a follow up email, but all of those ducks are now in a row.  I even went back and double checked against the calendar.  

I am a planner, I always think my strength is the big picture, but I am often drawn into the details.  Getting the right ducks, in the right order, qack-quack-quack. 

18 comments:

  1. My professional strength was the little details. I love the details. As for those ducks, SG once said in a talk about organizational management he gave to about 100 people that it was important to keep all your ducks covered.

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    1. If I keep them covered, they won't get wet in the rain.

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  2. I am terrified of making a mistake when booking for holidays. I triple check times, dates and places, and then get my partner to check too. Whatever, that has worked for me and I've not made a mistake...yet.

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    1. I almost always catch the mistake before we leave home.

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  3. Planning is good, but shit happens, eh.

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  4. It's always nice to plan a trip and to see those plans come to fruition. However, without the internet, such planning would be nigh on impossible.

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    1. I can remember road maps and the Holiday Inn Directory

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  5. "no place to go, and no reason to be where I was," after a while, you get used to it. Trust me. 😄

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  6. I'm with Debra. All the planning in the world, but one little thing beyond your control can shut things down.
    I am all about the details, but really able to switch things up if something else works best.

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    1. The day of a meeting was changed, I have a day in Denver with nothing on the schedule, I wonder if the Mint has free samples?

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  7. I am a big picture thinker too! I've had a hard time with a new boss who doesn't seem to understand that I can't work with just the details, I need to big picture to put it in context.

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    1. We need to see the forest so we can understand the trees

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  8. I had five teeth pulled on Friday. I look like a one toothed beaver. I'm thinking about putting on some overalls and visiting my bestie in West Virginia. I have no more ducks left to give. Sorry, painkillers make me loopy.

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    1. Good luck on the dental work, and let us know if you are as close as West Virginia,

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  9. I say this a lot at work "Now that I have the duck in a row (after gathering the data) how are you?"

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