I’m glad this week is finally over. It was a hard one, with lots of meetings and lots of ‘high’ priority items that needed to get done (thus the limited amount of blog posts). While I actually accomplished quite a bit, I felt that it ended on a pretty sour note as a few items just got by me.

Since I tend to feel that blogging is somewhat therapeutic (and without going into too many of the details), I thought I’d share some of my thoughts and lessons learned this week.

Lesson #1: The Importance of Focus
Personally, I think I suffer from a small amount of technology-related attention deficit disorder (which reading as many blogs as I do doesn’t really help). If I read about some really interesting technology, one of the first things that start going through my head is how I can apply it to make my job more productive, how it can help me work smarter, how it can make the team more efficient or how it can make the product better or easier to use. I’m a sucker for that, and sometimes it gets in my way of getting some of my normal day to day tasks done as fast as I could because some time is spent exploring and learning. While I normally consider this valuable (and essential) time spent, it can also lead to lesson #2.

Lesson #2: The Danger of Over Committing
It’s hard for me to say “no”, and I need to start doing that more often. If a teammate needs help, I’m willing to offer some of my own cycles to help out. If my boss gives me a project, I usually never say “I don’t have the time”, but rather “I’ll figure a way to get it done”.

The problem with this is that I already have more than enough work items on my plate (I own developing tests for two very large features that really need my full attention). Not saying “no” caused me to get into the bind that I did this week - several high priority items came colliding in at once, and I was in a mad scramble to get them all done. And when that happens, something is bound to get bumped (even a little) and people aren’t generally happy about that. Neither am I - I feel like I let them down.

Lesson #3: Communicate Clearly and Itemize Deliverables
Compounding the problem of being over committed is that I didn’t do a very good job communicating over what my particular deliverables were on one of the projects I was working on. I had one understanding of what they were, which didn’t match what the other team expected.

From now on, after I have a meeting or conversation regarding work items, I am going to make sure that a clear, itemized list of deliverables (and dates) is understood. Again - I feel like I let them down.

Lesson #4: The Value of Lists
Positive note of the week - I started to believe in the true value of lists (thanks to OneNote). This last week, I created a page that had 3 lists:  “High Priority”, “Secondary” and “Nice To Have (To Do List)”. Throughout the week, I recorded status, typed in notes, ticked off completed items, etc. Writing my status report today was a breeze, and it allowed me to get through (most) of my high priority items.

Lesson #5: Leave Work at Work
Before I picked my son up today at 4pm, I was in a pretty bad mood. Why? Because due to my not communicating clearly and over committing, I was going to have to take some time out of my weekend with my wife and son to get back on schedule. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job and what I do, but family is more important. Plain and simple.

Anyways, I’ll wrap up here. I need to dig out my copy of The Simplicity Survival Handbook, and read very carefully.