Working Smarter for ME
Being a technically adept, creative professional has been at the top of my list of accomplishments since I started working. I want to be good at everything and push myself hard when it comes to being on top of everything at work and at home. The problem with being this sort of perfectionist is that even when I delegate, I say yes to more and more because I don’t want to be left out, I don’t want to be forgotten and somehow cast aside. My company does the same thing and has taken my ability to say no away, which compounds the problem. This thought session helped me think in a new way about what I can do to change where I am at; to perhaps save my life.
I pour everything I have into work and my family gets what is left over, which sometimes is uncreative, unfun, and tired wife/mom. I have no time for me, whether that is exercising, reading, sewing, or creating. I love what I do, but I have set few boundaries for myself and my company will always ask for more if they think there is more to give. I’ve not been one to worry so much about sunk costs — the amount of time and energy I’ve put into various projects. But, I struggle with the value of the intangibles like health, creativity, and relationships. How much value should I put on those things? I’ve tried to take the emotion out of this decision and I have added options over the course of the past few days.
Questions I’m wrestling with:
- How do I balance my children’s growth with our family’s finances?
- How do I balance more work opportunities with my need to be home more?
- I love what I do, and get frustrated when people outside my team change the direction of our team. How to I keep our team progressive and nimble, yet focused and productive?
Change agent:
- My health has taken a few hits recently — sleep, weight, energy, temper, creativity
- My oldest son has begun to need more attention, to receive love in a different way than he was before, more time spent with him is important to him.
- There are new ideas nearly monthly at work that we as a team can work on and I feel like I’m being pulled in many different directions, unable to focus.
To help with the emotional side of things, I’ve added some detail to help define dependencies to make the idea great, events that would need to take place, and a score to highlight time and resources needed. The amount of time and resources (additional people, financial, emotional energy) involved with each decision receives a score of 1 (low input) to 5 (high input). After reviewing the row of information, I’ve ranked the “goodness” of the decision, average, good or great.
Based on my framework, I am going to try a few of the decisions because they are not mutually exclusive. I’m going to put more of my personal wants/needs on my calendar — working out, family time, thinking time etc. and I’m planning to review my workload and my company priorities. I will discuss the extra workload and priorities and travel with my boss and discuss options from there; some of those options might be hiring more staff, limiting travel or eliminating some work. I also am going to talk with a few of my personal advisers about having my own business and gather their advice.
While it doesn’t seem like these decisions are amazingly different than what I might suggest to an outsider in viewing their situation, this process has been a eureka moment for me. I took the time to take a breath, to think through options, to talk with others and know that there are options available. I can take steps now to improve my situation.
Decision Options I contemplated in no particular order include the following:
1. Change jobs to work standard business hours, 9–5.
2. Limit travel with fewer face-face meetings.
3. Only travel 2 weeks per month.
4. Start my own business where the kids can work with me.
5. If add work projects like livestock or ethanol, then eliminate other work projects.
6. If we add sustainability project, we must eliminate current work.
7. Be a stay at home mom.
8. Schedule workouts, family time, think time on my work calendar.
9. Change jobs within the company that has less travel.
10. Hire a career coach.
11. Hire additional people to cover new topics & some current work load.
12. Review my priorities and rewrite my deliverables based on 40–45-hour work week.
13. My husband is a stay at home dad.
14. Use my vacation/sick time to step away for 4–6 weeks.