Day 50: Balancing Act

I have a pretty busy life, I cram a lot into my days and weeks. I'm OK with that. Work, family, a crazy dog, sports, small business*, and so on. Downtime is a luxury. For example, after my Florida lean tour last week, I tacked on a hop through Quebec City so I could race in the Canadian National Master's long track speed skating championship. Yeah seriously. That's just how I roll.


So, I come home very late on Sunday, completely physically and mentally exhausted, and behind the 8-ball on a number of other TODOs on my list. Monday is busy, very busy, and I don't feel as if I've accomplished much. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday all fly by, and before I know it - it's Friday. Friday. Where did the week go? What did I accomplish this week? Was it enough? More importantly: Were they the right things? 

I am a big fan of Covey's Quadrants - shown below - in helping me to navigate my daily tasks.

I try to ask my self: where does this task belong? And is it the right thing to do?

So let's look at it, let's break down the week (or at least some highlights/lowlights);

Monday
Team huddle & gemba walk - Quadrant II
Worked on creating a better production job book - created a sample and gave it to Production to play with and give feedback - Quadrant II
Expense reports and email backlog - Quadrant III/IV
Responded to a customer regarding a proposed contract - Quadrant II
Weights at the gym - Quadrant II

Tuesday
Ran with the dog in the morning - Quadrant II
Team huddle & gemba walk - Quadrant II
Worked on our departmental objectives and strategies for the year - Quadrant II
Coaching a co-worker - Quadrant II
Too many emails - Quadrant IV
Watched "Rick Mercer Report" - Quadrant IV

Wednesday
Worked on a presentation - In-between Quadrants I and II
Team huddle & gemba walk - Quadrant II
Continued on production job book prototyping - Quadrant II
Too many emails - Quadrant IV
Dentist appointment - Quadrant II
Speed skating in the evening - Quadrant II
Watched "Dragon's Den" - Quadrant IV

Thursday
Ran with the dog in the morning - Quadrant II
Spent all day in a strategy meeting - In-between Quadrants II and III

Friday (so far)
Cycling - Quadrant II
Team huddle & gemba walk - Quadrant II
More production job book updates - Quadrant II
Updated internal CI activities & projects - Quadrant III
Lunch with my team - Quadrant II (and a bit of IV :-))
Worked on my MBB blog, talked with my coach - Quadrant II

Not too bad... better than I expected. 

Is it balanced? I think it is... I constantly receive comments along the lines of "how do you find time/energy for all those things?" And while there are some days I feel less productive, or more stressed, overall I think it's pretty evenly spread out. 

The weeks I travel for work are obviously completely different, and I think that is where the challenge comes in. There are so many activities associated with business travel that fall into Quadrants I and IV that it is almost inevitable that stress and frustration increases.


Running between gates? Quadrant I
Checking in? Quadrant I
Running the gauntlet of security and/or immigration? Quadrant IV (in my opinion)



Boarding and trying to stow your bag(s)? Quadrant I
Trying to sleep or watch a movie? Quadrant IV
Almost any other in-transit travel activity? Quadrants I or IV. 

I see almost nothing that fits into Quadrant II.

I used to try and work on flights, but in all honesty, as soon as the person in front of me reclines their seat, I cannot operate my laptop. So I don't bother anymore. I deal with it once I am at my destination and spend the time thinking. But perhaps this explains a bit why I feel so unbalanced when I travel for work. 

The nature of the activity guarantees it.

I guess the trick is to identify ways to maintain balance during these times. 

AMac