On Boredom

I truly hate being bored. I don't mean "I have nothing to do" bored, I mean "I'm doing something that requires less than 1% of my thoughts but doesn't leave me free to think/do something else" bored.

I don't think I'm alone in this sentiment. I've noticed that most geeks also hate that latter form of boredom. I can't say I'm surprised--most geeks are intelligent, creative, and like using their brains; the antithesis of boring work.

The problem with this is that with my job and with the jobs that many geeks have, we have rote, boring work that HAS to get done. This work is very easy to delay until it becomes a problem for me, for the geek, or for someone else at work. To avoid this, I employ the following strategies:

• Identify the boring work. If I want to avoid the work badly enough, I can conveniently "forget" that it exists. I try to identify what I have to do but might prefer to ignore at least once a week.
• Don't delay gratification. I'm a morning person. If I try to kick off my day by getting the boring work done "first", I may as well just go home. Instead of investing my high-energy morning creativity in interesting, creative tasks, I have just frittered it away by doing energy-sapping, boring work. By waiting to do boring work until my mid-afternoon slump, I maximize my time and energy investment. (Note: If I weren't a morning person, I would probably reverse the process and do boring stuff first thing when I was mostly brainless.)
• Assign a time to boring work. Approving invoices is perhaps my most tedious task. When do I do it? Friday afternoons, of course. Why? My brain has already left the premises, so I may as well spend my time wisely and do my rote tasks then. Also, by assigning a time (which is on my calendar with a reminder), I don't allow myself to conveniently "forget" to do the work.

But enough about me. How do you handle the boring parts of your job? What works for you? I'd love to learn new strategies!

See me on ILTA TV

Edited: You can see me talk on ILTA TV (broadcast live from ILTA '09). I talk about Twitter in a one-on-one interview, and then I talk about E2.0 along with John Alber and Gerard Neiditsch.

On Wars and Battles

Over the past few weeks, I've found myself using the phrase, "Right war, wrong battle." As a principled leader, I've fought wrong battles many times without realizing that fighting those battles may have cost me the wars I was trying to win. As a geek, I've found myself doing the same thing. I've been so concerned with doing things right that I miss out on my chance to do what might be far more effective in achieving the right result.

Think of it this way: if you use all of your ammunition in winning a single battle, you won't be able to fight in subsequent battles, which will cost you the war. Whether your ammunition is political capital, human resources, trust, or budget, this analogy holds.

I'm resolving to ask myself the following questions:

• What war am I trying to fight?
• Is this situation simply a skirmish?
• Will winning this battle cost me the war?
• Is there a better battle for me to fight?
• What is my ammunition? What resources am I burning to fight this battle?

Surrendering a battle isn't my nature. I am passionate about achieving effective, efficient results for my company, and my default behavior is to fight for that in every situation. I'm hoping, however, that by prioritizing the war over each battle, I will become a more effective leader.

On Burnout

This isn't actually a blog post. This is just letting everyone know that between my grandfather's passing 2 weeks ago and the (totally awesome) ILTA Conference, I've been a little out of action.

Wait, maybe it's a blog post after all. Turns out that I just can't keep my mouth shut when I have a thought.

Except that this thought is, "I'm burned out". Not such a surprise, after presenting some obscene number of times last week (6 if you count the regional meeting and the vendor presentation. More if you count two quick ILTA TV spots (that I'll link to when the links become available)). Here are my observations on being burned out:

• I repeat my thoughts to myself more than usual.
• I repeat my thoughts to others more than usual.
• It is much harder to put together a complete sentence.
• I have to write more things down.
• Unfortunately, I find it difficult to read my handwriting.
• People keep telling me I look tired.
• Rote tasks are actually easier.
• I keep habitually working long hours, but don't get as much done.
• I feel stupid.
  

When I'm less burned out, I should be able to apply the above to leading my geeks. Right now, though, I'm just glad that we have a long weekend coming...