2010 - A whirlwind time at work

I realize how time can fly by so fast and how important it is for me to document the phases of life I go through. What I think of as normal right now turn out to be different in a matter of months...

My life at the minute is most easily described as "a whirlwind" and this image depicted it well - with the craziness but also the brilliant and positive colors.

Here's a typical workday....and seems to be the case for the next 12 weeks (tax season)

6:00am

Alarm goes off, I press snooze repeatedly and yearn for more sleep

6:45am

I have a "oh crap" moment, especially if I have a 7am meeting (yes, they happen more and more often)

6:46am

Check email for any emergencies (latest job is in an operations environment)

7:00am

Shower, weight myself (it is January after all), get dressed, run around going "I'm late" over and over again

7:15am

I've eaten something, kissed the hubby, checked email again, packing the bag with last minute items and am running out the door (of the fabulous home!)

7:30am

I'm at work (yes a great commute!), checking voice mail, email, and trying to gather my thoughts and priorities for the day before the floodgates open

8:00am

And the meetings are official going...

10:00am

More meetings

12:00pm

Still more meetings

1:00ish

I grab 10 minutes somewhere in the time zone to microwave my Lean Cuisine meal (reminder it is January) and a Diet Pepsi and to have a pee. You would not believe how hard it seems to be to just take a 5 minute break between meetings to pee - you upset the person that runs the meeting - or you are running the meeting....

2:00pm

More meetings

5:00pm

The official meetings have stopped, but I get a lot of "drop by" visits and calls from others that are in the meeting madness like me. Many actions and decisions get taken at these drop by's

6:00pm

Breathe.....now I start my "work". I check emails, make decisions, create reports, communicate out, write reviews for employees, make plans for the team, etc...

8:00ish

I strive for earlier but it always seems later that I leave. I can't seem to leave until I feel like I have "achieved" something (see my strengths = achiever and focus). I leave mentally exhausted.

9:00pm

I walk in the door, change into sweats or pj's, kiss the husband, maybe eat something, and sit on the sofa for some zone-out tv.

9:30pm

I'm feeling antsy and can't "just watch tv" so get out the iPhone and fiddle - often Twitter or Facebook seem to be the best tool to randomly connect. Twitter has now creeped into being a work thing too, so doing that one....

10:30pm

Nodding head on sofa, wake up drooling, get up and march to bed. Asleep in 5 mins. Guess sleep comes easier than it did last year....

welcome to management

I got a promotion a few weeks ago. I am now a group manager for a business team where I work.

I think thought that this is really a disguise and the description should be "there is a big mess with a team and a process and we need someone to clean it up".

You Can Expect....for your first few weeks/months...

• you will have everyone dump on you about why things are broken
• you will find no-one wants to do anything to fix it
• but they will still moan about how bad it is and how great it was

Glad to be of service! At least I know I'm needed

I also managed to wear myself out so much that my body gave up - along came a cold and 7 days of bedrest! Crazy!

Of course, my compute was in bed with me...and have to say that I have actually managed to achieve a lot this week. Should I stay in bed more often - avoid those meetings that are non-stop on your calendar to "meet".

Emails, IM, and the phone have been absolutely wonderful....especially IM for those "quick, can you get this, are we crazy, why are we still online at 11pm" conversations.

I did officially have my first 11pm meeting last night....not due to any changes in time zones...because we were working late. Crazy!!!!

This is not how things need to get better

aaaarh - it's only tuesday and just dreading this week.

two days of non-stop g go go to get numbers, connect people, influence, read latest news....etc...

i'm not afraid of hard work - but am trying to find that BALANCE we all search for in our work and life. i reached a stepping point for something new....stepped away from work and now instead of a new balance - it seems to be more work than ever! crazy!!!

i keep recognizing it - so i can move forward and find the better balance....

Worklife: Promoted to a cube

Monday rolls around again and I'm in a new location. I got promoted from my office to a cube! So I spent a day last week cleaning out the office, was quite cleansing as actually ended up throwing most of it away. Also decided not to bring any of my "personal" stuff to work. No pictures or gadgets or fun things....do have about 3 boxes of this stuff in my garage though!

I definitely feel in a weird place...between 2 jobs...between 2 people...between 2 eras in my life. Flip between the two whilst trying to balance it all out. Really hard.
I think I shall leave it at that....and eat a choc chip cookie.