Since they say it’s bad to apologise for not posting, I’m going to try not to do that, but instead ‘fess up to a massive gtd-reversal, wagon falling-off incident, and general deadlines-looming stress. In the next few days, a project that I have been working on for over a year finishes, and a tender has to go in for another piece of work that will start in March if we get it. In an ideal world, this wouldn’t be a problem, but I currently have three blue-screening stop-erroring windows pcs to deal with too, and the long days are starting to hurt.

What I’m trying to do though, is take a step back, and examine my reactions to all of this. Am I serenely taking time out each morning to prioritise my tasks for the day, taking my 15 minute break every hour to stave off RSI and insanity, or keeping up with my fun jobs? Am I heck. What I am doing is coming in early and going home late, and working solidly for several hours at a time without a break. I am being irritable with people who come to me with perfectly reasonable requests, and at the end of the day my back, eyes and head hurt.

So- a learning experience! Rather than complain about this- I want to set out my manifesto for dealing with similar problems in future. I figured that if I blogged about it, then it would be out there causing massive embarrassment if I fell off the wagon again. Here goes…

I pledge:

  1. To work 48 minutes out of every hour and take 12 minutes off to make coffee/use the bathroom/read my feeds/stretch. I will stick to this ratio and not be tempted to read feeds during my work period;

  2. To take 15 minutes every morning when I first get in to plan my day (even if it just says “Work on Report” all day);

  3. To follow GTD/Time Management for Sysadmins principles in prioritising any further tasks;

  4. To be nice to my fellow people, particularly my hubby and my dog when I get home!

I’ll let you know how it goes…