benbo

I have tried a lot of things to harness the myriad of tasks, TODOs, reviews, updates, statuses, and the like but nothing really has worked well.  

As a manager and owner of a farly large area I feel pretty confident in my ability to do a good job at what is expected of me.  What I have found is that I spend a lot of time remembering things I need to accomplish or provide for someone whether it be for a person on my own team or a partner team or group only to forget them moments later.  I am sitting here trying to think of the best way to represent these deliverables without listing a few of them out but I may need to do just that.

• Send email regarding environments config to Operations Group
• Review Test Plans
• Read a spec on a new feature being implented
• Create bugs for the 3 issues I found in the product last night
• Send my China test team a mail regarding a presentation I made to them while I was there
• Create that set of environment scripts I have been try to get around to doing
• Finish the test vision document for my test team
• etc.

So, there you have an idea of just a few of these tasks that I somehow need to wrangle, remember, record, and constantly chip away at not to mention organize and prioritize them.

The only thing that has kind of fit the bill for me is to carry a voice recorder.  Yeah, I know this sounds corny but it has really worked for me.  When I am driving to or from work, I have this recorder in my car and I speak my tasks into it as they come to mind.  Once I get home or to work, I transcribe them into Tasks in Outlook.  I seem miss fewer and fewer things this way.  I find that my head is clearer when I am driving and these important tasks float to the surface of my conciousness.  When I am in the moment at work, I get caught up in the here and now and supress those tasks and forget about them.  I also find that I have an operating buffer in my brain that constantly is being purged and reused.  If I don't write down or record a task when I think of it, it will be over-written in just a brief amount of time.  Pretty much a fixed length queue.

So, if you are having these same types of problems remembering tasks you need to accomplish, think of dropping by Best Buy and picking up a voice recorder.

Sitting down to a picnic I dip into my picnic basket and reach for a freshly made sandwitch.  Mmmmm... it tastes so good with the cool breeze and warm sun on my face...my ankle..."what the heck?"..."an ant!"  <slapping my ankle>  "Oh crap, more ants!"  "Where are they coming from?", I say as 4 of my napkins and plate get caught up in the breeze and fly off.  "Dag nab it!"  I run off to grab my napkins and plate and upon my return, I find that through all the comotion my sandwitch has gotten that crunchy feel to the outside of the bread.  What was just a beautiful outing has turned into a race to recover.

This is what my life as a lead feels like sometimes here at Microsoft.  I have had to develop skills that help enable me to withstand these times and I am always looking for ways to mitigate the surprises that always seem to show up when things are rolling well.

Time management is becoming THE most desirable skill for a new or even seasoned manager.  I feel like I have made a lot of progress in tuning my work life to be able to absorb the hiccups of normal life as a leader here at MS.  I feel like I have a pretty good work/life balance and managable stress level even in the midst of the most trying times.

I plan to use this blog to outline my thoughts and learnings.  I hope that this exercise will make me a more confident and efficient manager for my direct reports and peers.