Tragic Sandwich

The weekend is almost here, so it’s a good time to think about how to get ready for next week. M.R. Nelson of Wandering Scientist drew upon her extensive experience in project management to write a terrific ebook titled Taming the Work Week: Work Smarter, Not Harder. She was kind enough to send me a copy to read prior to our interview; the insights and perspective she shares in the ebook are definitely worth paying for.

Taming the Work Week quickly and succintly addresses a number of approaches to making your job more manageable. One of the things I appreciated about Nelson’s book was that she emphasizes that this is not just for working parents–this is an issue for everyone, because we all have lives outside of work. She goes on to discuss a number of topics, including how to track and increase efficiency and productivity, how to contain the expansion of the workday, and how to avoid the common fallacy that more hours worked equals more work accomplished. After reading it, I wanted to know more; read on for her responses.

1) Facetime culture–There can be a lot of variation here. It’s one thing to adapt to a boss who prioritizes certain hours, but what about the boss who expects you to always be checking emails? How do you get credit for time worked outside the office? What about the boss who values facetime over productivity?

To be honest, if I found myself in a work culture that strongly favored facetime over productivity, I’d start looking for ways out of that culture. I just don’t have the patience to deal with that nonsense anymore. However, I know that a lot of people can’t get out of that culture or  work in fields that are dominated by facetime work places. I think there are some things those people can do to make their work life more sane. One thing I mention in the book is the fact that most facetime cultures seem to notice how late you stay more than how long you take for lunch, or even what time you get in each morning. So one thing to do is to look at what time periods are most noticed and rewarded at your work, and see if you can arrange your schedule to be there for those while taking some flexibility in the less noticed hours. For instance, if your work notices how late you stay but not how long you take for lunch, start taking real lunch hours and using them to clear errands that would otherwise eat into your family time on the weekend. 

The easiest way to get credit for the time you work outside of the office is to leave some obvious sign you were working- such as an email or two (just don’t start expecting answers after hours or you’ll become part of the problem!) But more important than that is to actually be productive during that time. There is no point in bringing home your laptop just to log two hours of busy work. In most non-pathological work places, the productivity will be noticed and people will know you’re really working at home. It is not enough to just login from home. You really have to make that time count, or else why bother? Even in a facetime culture, people notice who gets things done and who doesn’t.

You can gently teach a boss (and colleagues!) about the benefits of valuing productivity over facetime by occasionally mentioning a study or article you saw about the benefits of downtime for productivity or the like. But here again, I think productivity tends to speak for itself. Even in a strongly facetime culture, it is hard to argue with results. So start racking up the results, and keep a file with the evidence of the results, for use come review time. 

For a boss who expects constant email responses, I’d try setting some expectations. At various points in my career, I have had jobs that required me to be reachable after hours, and to take a Blackberry on vacation. I handled this by making sure my team (and my boss) knew when they could expect me to check my email, and telling them to call if they needed a response more quickly than that. On vacation, I checked the Blackberry twice a day. After hours, I’d check as soon as I got home, after dinner, and after I got the kids to bed. I only read emails whose subject indicated they were urgent. No one ever abused my trust and called me for frivolous things. I’d also make sure that the boss really expected those responses. My current boss sends a barrage of emails, full of questions, over the weekend. But he doesn’t expect us to respond- in fact, he laughs at his penchant for getting into discussions essentially with himself (because no one else is responding). It just happens that weekends are the time he uses to catch up on emails. Not every weekend emailer is as aware of the potential impact as my boss is, but not every weekend emailer expects responses, either. Don’t assume that you have to respond- pay attention to what happens if you don’t, and adjust accordingly.

That leads into my final tip, which is that sometimes a facetime culture isn’t as strong as it seems, and you can set boundaries and keep to them and still succeed. Don’t request accommodations, just state your boundaries and stick to them- and keep producing a lot of high quality work. If it seems that this approach is not getting you where you want to go at your company, then you can start looking for a healthier place to work. 

2) Time tracking–what methods have you tried? What do you find most successful/versatile?

I’ve used spreadsheets and an online tool called Toggl. I like Toggl better than the spreadsheets, hands down. It is very easy to use, and not intrusive, particularly since I have a computer-based job and can just leave it open in my browser. It is designed to be used by people who charge by the hour for their work, but that is essentially what time-tracking is: charging yourself for your time, and holding yourself accountable for how you spend it.

3) How do you balance accountability with a lack of authority?

Ah, this is a biggie. I remember very well the first time a boss told me I had to demonstrate I could get results without having the authority to demand them. It really pissed me off. But he was right, that IS a key skill. I didn’t really appreciate how key it is until I spent a lot of time as a contracted project manager, which is the ultimate “accountability without authority” position- I didn’t even work for the same company as the people I was trying to direct, but my continued employment depended on my getting them to do what I needed on my project. That job taught me how to pay attention to what would motivate the people whose help I needed, and figure out how to make them want to do what I needed. Also, it turns out a lot of people are happy to help you as long as you give them enough lead time so that they can work it in around their other responsibilities- so having a solid project plan can be a big help. I could give people weeks or even months notice about something I needed, and then just check in with them periodically to make sure it didn’t get forgotten.

Of course, sometimes, you just have to flag a lack of progress to the people who have the authority to issue orders- but I haven’t had to do that as often as you’d think. When I do need to do this, I make sure the person with authority knows the consequences of the schedule slip: i.e., it will delay the project by X weeks, or require us to spend Y extra dollars to keep a data center open longer. So again, a solid project plan is key: I’m not just whining that I can’t get what I want. I am stating a problem and describing the consequences of that problem.

4) What’s the most challenging thing for you about taming the work week?

I have a tendency to over-optimize, so sometimes I can burn myself out even though I’m not working a ridiculous number of hours. I forget that the breaks in the middle of the day are just as important as leaving at a reasonable hour. Yes, it really is OK to spend 5 minutes reading a blog post after I finish a big task! Finding the happy medium between wasting heaps of time and trying to be productive in every available minute is key, and I struggle with that sometimes.

5) What’s one change to your schedule that you’d like to implement, but haven’t been able to?

I’d love to have full control over my schedule, so that I could optimize my time globally, not just within my work week and within my non-work time. But our corporate culture is really not set up for that. I have a lot of flexibility, but not full control. 

6) What do you most want readers to take away from your ebook?

Can I name two things? I want readers to recognize that you can have a successful career without allowing it to consume your entire life, and also that long hours can actually be counter-productive. 

Taming the Work Week is also available on Amazon.com.

Photo by Paul Swansen, via Flickr. Creative Commons.