System problems are the hardest to see but fixing them produces the greatest gains. A nonprofit executive I was coaching complained that, even though she scheduled big blocks of time, she couldn't make progress on several high priority projects because of constant interruptions by a government funder. I asked her three questions... "How often? How much lead time? How much time to respond?" The light went on... her jammed up schedule didn't include any 'buffer' time to deal with disruptions that were more predictable than she realized. The system solution was to schedule three open slots per week, which allowed her to use the scheduled blocks as planned.
So true! I find this is the case with work and time… and also with finances. There’s always something unexpected cropping up… to the point where you should have a line item in your spending plan to include “stuff happens”. It’s often DIFFERENT stuff each month, but there’s always something.. best to plan for it.
YES. I've worked with three people who always have emergencies. After the 5th or 6th one, it's starting to get obvious that it's to do with their life setups and planning, not true emergencies. It's really quite exhausting, because you end up having to pick up the slack because of their foreseeable unforeseen emergency. But you know what else happens? Some of the emergencies are genuine emergencies but these people seem to have them more than other people. Why is their kid is always breaking something, or why does their car break down more than others, or why do they suddenly get called into a whole week of emergency meetings? I honestly don't know. Living at 100 kilometres an hour all the time actually creates more accidents?
I loved this post that has me thinking about buffer time slots to deal with the unexpected. I really like the terms "Known Unknowns" and "Unknown Unknowns!" My daughter who is really smart schedules meetings in her calendar with herself to do deep work!
System problems are the hardest to see but fixing them produces the greatest gains. A nonprofit executive I was coaching complained that, even though she scheduled big blocks of time, she couldn't make progress on several high priority projects because of constant interruptions by a government funder. I asked her three questions... "How often? How much lead time? How much time to respond?" The light went on... her jammed up schedule didn't include any 'buffer' time to deal with disruptions that were more predictable than she realized. The system solution was to schedule three open slots per week, which allowed her to use the scheduled blocks as planned.
So true! I find this is the case with work and time… and also with finances. There’s always something unexpected cropping up… to the point where you should have a line item in your spending plan to include “stuff happens”. It’s often DIFFERENT stuff each month, but there’s always something.. best to plan for it.
Love this post and trying to see my blind spots
One for me is making sure I plan dinners ahead and making that a line item before I start my day
Thanks for reminding me to have buffer time built in for the unexpected !
YES. I've worked with three people who always have emergencies. After the 5th or 6th one, it's starting to get obvious that it's to do with their life setups and planning, not true emergencies. It's really quite exhausting, because you end up having to pick up the slack because of their foreseeable unforeseen emergency. But you know what else happens? Some of the emergencies are genuine emergencies but these people seem to have them more than other people. Why is their kid is always breaking something, or why does their car break down more than others, or why do they suddenly get called into a whole week of emergency meetings? I honestly don't know. Living at 100 kilometres an hour all the time actually creates more accidents?
I loved this post that has me thinking about buffer time slots to deal with the unexpected. I really like the terms "Known Unknowns" and "Unknown Unknowns!" My daughter who is really smart schedules meetings in her calendar with herself to do deep work!
This is a profound lesson.