Today we had a lunch meeting. While I was pondering my veggie burger, the person sitting next to me said, "I don't know about you, but for me I have all these plans for things I'm going to do, then every day, all I end up doing is putting out fires."
His comment isn't unusual. I think a lot of people feel that way at work -- trapped in "fire-fighting mode" and not getting any actual productive work done. It's frustrating because at the end of the day you look back and have almost zero sense of accomplishment. Life becomes a blur of meetings, phone calls, and antacids.
Some of this type of "fire-fighting" stress comes from not planning ahead. But some types of companies are more prone to business emergencies than others. For example, if you're a business owner advertising that you can deliver pizzas in 30 minutes or the food is free and then you don't take the time to give the delivery guy decent directions, you can pretty much expect a frantic call in about 29 minutes.
Anyway, as our business grows, I think about these things because I don't want my life to become a blur of meetings, phone calls, and antacids. I'm not a workaholic, and I don't want to be one. Plus, it's not good for my clients if I turn into such a stressball that I can't think. A lot of the work I do requires concentration, so the ole brain needs to be able to function.
In my case, my secret weapon is my location. I don't have an office downtown, so people can't just drop in to chat. When you live in the middle of nowhere, no one just ambles on by for giggles. But because I'm remote, meetings in town are time-consuming, so I try to plan ahead and group meetings and errands on certain days of the week.
So yeah, sure I have a lot of contact with my customers, but I also get unbroken concentration time. And the hounds usually get their afternoon walkie. Hey, the canines have their priorities too ;-)
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