The blog

For you who prefer listening to reading, this post is also available as an episode of the ""Done!"" podcast:

Final­ly! (Or is it?)

But now it was going to hap­pen. He would put into action those things that had been in his mind for a while. He could­n’t help but feel a cer­tain excite­ment as the last meet­ing was com­ing to an end, and the clock was about to strike 2 pm, so he could retreat and focus.

It final­ly hap­pened. Now, let’s go! DING! A text mes­sage: ​“Check your email. Urgent!” He opened his email. There it was, an email from head­quar­ters. Four big tasks to be com­plet­ed by Mon­day at 8:30 am! There goes the after­noon. And the idea work. And Sat­ur­day after­noon. And Sun­day evening.

Next time will be better

He told me this when I had just stepped off stage the oth­er day and stayed behind to answer those nice one-on-one ques­tions. He asked, ​“What should I do in sit­u­a­tions like those?”

At that moment, there’s not much else to do but bite the bul­let and com­plete the four tasks. But it’s prob­a­bly not the first time an order has come with short notice, and it will prob­a­bly hap­pen again. That’s the next oppor­tu­ni­ty you can address now — to sim­pli­fy the sit­u­a­tion then and prefer­ably avoid it altogether.

Do this

Find out the rea­son why the order came with such short notice and find a solu­tion to it.

That is,

1. ask your­self why there was such short notice and note the rea­son you come up with.
2. Ask why that rea­son occurred and note the rea­son for that in turn.
3. Ask ​“why?” as many times as you need until you get to the root cause that you have the abil­i­ty, author­i­ty, and knowl­edge to influ­ence (just like the clas­sic ​“five whys?” method, I have a tem­plate for that I have men­tioned before).

• Is there any ini­tia­tive you can take ear­li­er that starts the process at head­quar­ters, result­ing in you receiv­ing the order with the four tasks (this time with bet­ter notice)?
• Is there any infor­ma­tion you can pro­vide unso­licit­ed at an ear­li­er stage?
• Is there a ques­tion you can ask reg­u­lar­ly ear­li­er on that would meet Olle at the gate?
• Are there any uncer­tain­ties regard­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties that can be clar­i­fied so that noth­ing falls between the cracks just because it was thought of at the last minute on a Fri­day after­noon right before Mon­day’s meeting?

More notice than last time

If you under­stand why the notice was short, you can make it longer for next time. Maybe the notice won’t be as long as you’d like, but at least it will be longer than this time. And, there will be more times. If you refine the process each time, you will increas­ing­ly be able to have your focus hours and your week­end in peace. Per­sis­tence pays off.

What do you do?

What would you have done if you were in my lec­ture par­tic­i­pan­t’s sit­u­a­tion? Please write to me and tell me. I want to know!

(Done for the week but still got work on your mind? Here are eight ways to turn off work dur­ing the week­end!)