The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 9 September 2008

I was looking at my lists of things to work on, and got to wondering. I keep lots of lists, but the key ones are my "To Do's" and "Scheduled Tasks." But maybe I should add a "Round Tuit" list . . .

At one time, I was involved in discussions about whether people were developers, operators, or help desk. The difference was that help desk people, for example, really liked very short-term problems, dropped on them with little or no warning. They also didn't seem to mind repetitiveness -- having people ask the same questions repeatedly wasn't really irritating. Operators, on the other hand, preferred midterm problems. Things that took a day or a week to take care of. They also really seem to like procedures.

That leaves the crazy people -- the developers. No interruptions please -- and I'm going to wrestle with this issue for a week, a month, a year. And you know, I am really one of these.

I've also seen discussions of deadline or process -- milestone or river? Some people really seem to enjoy having deadlines set, and do their best work as the clock ticks down. Others set themselves quotas and work steadily at it, grinding away and covering everything in time.

I know I tend to be obsessive -- I'm going to do a little bit Monday morning or Friday evening, again and again. Deadlines -- I usually turn them into weekly or daily assignments and get things done early. I really dislike the last minute rush. And as for emergencies? I really subscribe to that notion that your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency for me. Even though I know too many people who believe that Mike is a great handler of crises, just because I often can come in and take care of their messes at the last minute. I think they don't understand that the quiet manner covers some real anger when they pull that, but . . .  I get the job done first, then walk off in disgust.

Today's puzzlement, though, is the list of really low priority stuff that I would dearly love to get to sometime. I've noticed that they tend to sink to that list, and then just sit there until I get tired of seeing them and wipe them out, unfinished.

But I'm thinking that a round tuit might do the job better. Beside my "today's work" and "regular jobs," add another list that gets picked at once in a while (probably Friday afternoons -- pick a regular time, anyway). And whenever I pick it up, do a dab at the first job on the list, then slide it to the end of the list? So they rotate around, getting at least a little time every now and then?

I suppose the other part of this is the scrap sheets that I do my thinking on. Scribble down an idea, expand it into a plan, add outlines, worksheets, little bits and pieces -- and then turn it into PowerPoint, article, or whatever.

There's lots of different ways to slice work into manageable chunks and start chewing on them. But sometimes you need to stop and think about what's falling off the edges. A round tuit, now, maybe that's the way to keep those longterm jobs inching along. I think I'll put that on my todos list for tomorrow :-)

(taking a break from the stuff on the list for today -- don't tell anyone, okay?)