(no subject)

[foxgrrl]

So, a lot of people say to me: "Can you do $foo when you have a moment?" or "Can you work on $foo when you have some spare time?" No, no I can't, for everything that I do, I have to NOT be doing at least six other things. (And in general these are things that only I can do.) My time is way oversubscribed. You're just adding to my growing anxiety by giving me one more thing I can't do.

(This is really annoying at work, because I'll have two several-hundred hour long projects, but one will be the highest priority, so I need to work on that above all else, but I can work on the other project "when I get the time"… which never happens. So it seems like I'm never completing anything.)

Comments

Re: Low-hanging fruit

[foxgrrl]

It really has nothing to do with actual priority; rather, it's an interrupt request to satisfy a political obligation.

Been there, done that.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

I am way task overwhelmed in my normal duties. That means I add it to the list and don't do it, unless it's critical, at which point I have to treat it as an interrupt and do it.

Making my management team look good to their bosses is _always_ a critical interrupt.

[foxgrrl]

Yeah, this sounds like me.

[anaisdjuna.livejournal.com]

Sounds like some frustrating suck.

*huglets*

[whimsywanderer.livejournal.com]

Hmm,

This sounds to me like 2 separate cases. At work, and not at work. And conflating the 2 seems a poor method. I've little advice for your at work issues, as I've never dealt with that sort of work environment(intentionally). But as for out of work...

Worrying and letting anxiety build over the opportunity costs of 'free time' activities is silly. It's your free time. If you are not relaxing and enjoying it, at least to a degree, than even having so many possible wonderful activities has it's own opportunity cost. The opportunity to be relaxed and fairly stress free. Shrug. If you are really stressing out about things not getting done, that aren't by any means 'required', then it might be time to take a moment, and slow down. Actively and intentionally not get stuff done, and remember that that is ok too.

I worry that you've been sick a lot lately, and sounding more stressed lately. The two might be interrelated. Not that the stress is making you sick, but rather it is making it harder to fight getting sick.

[ovrclokd.livejournal.com]

i tend to respond to those with some variant of "to be honest, i have N things in the "when you have a moment queue", so i'm going to have to decline your request due to oversubscription. if you feel that me working on this is a higher priority than my current tasks, feel free to discuss it with my manager." (who i know damn well will just ask me whether it is and then give them a similar brush-off.) level of diplomacy is highly dependent on whether i know / like the requestor and how nice they were in approaching me.

i've learned the hard way that it's better to punt someone upfront than to let them task me with something that will only a) stress me out and b) piss them off when i never get around to it...