Listing Everything I Do
My director sent a memo around asking everyone in the office to make a list of everything they’re working on. I thought about it while doing other tasks for about an hour. My biggest obstacles are where to begin and how to make sure it’s an inclusive list.
I think I’ll break the list into sections, something like:
- Things I do each day
- Things I’m supposed to do each day, but usually don’t because there are only so many hours in the day and one of me
- Intermittent tasks
- Short-term projects
- Long-term projects
- The waiting list
- Things I should be doing, projects I should be involved in, maybe
I’m very curious about what’s going to end up on the list. I do many, many things, some of which I’ve probably long forgotten. I have lists of projects from when I started and I have a long list–the left column on my whiteboard. Some of those things have been sitting there for years now.
I’m tempted to use the whiteboard for brainstorming, but then I’d have to erase everything that’s up there–a task that makes me cringe because I think about putting what’s up there back.
Addendum 2/3: I just sent in my list. I’m almost disappointed it’s only two pages long single spaced. I kept staring at it thinking, “That’s all I do?” I came up with about twenty-one things I’m supposed to do each week. Three tasks I’m required to do each day account for 2 to 4 hours of my day. No wonder I never get anything done.
