Been so long since the last post, but what can I fill this one with that isn't pages and pages of anger and frustration ?
I know, let's fill it with love and understanding and.....
Ah bollocks to that !
This week has been hard. Looking back on last week's blog, I can see that this is becoming a regular thing, something that I am steadily accepting, and rather apathetically shrugging my shoulders and carrying on. With a tough, hard fought week at work where everything went mental (one of our competitors announced that they would be increasing their prices and it seemed that everyone in the world wanted to speak to us). On the good side, we have two new guys in our team who seem to be getting along really well, but have had great success to show some of the more established hands that you can do things if you put your mind to it. Progress with a couple of the team who have perhaps struggled to take charge of things, and seeing them realise that they can have an effect on their results if they chose to approach it in the right manner. Great to see, one in particular pretty much shining all week with a brilliant 'I am going to get this done and nothing's going to stop me' focus.
It has been non stop though, hard work. Really seeing the fruits of their hard labour. Feeling exhausted by the week, but elated with how things ended up.
It has been the usually roller coaster ride though of the highs and lows of elation and near depression. The yo-yo ride of emotion inside work has not at all coincided with the operation of the same ride outside of work. Elation at finally submitting the poster design to the printers, and getting some publicity material 'out there' has helped start off the week, but Monday's rehearsal left me feeling rather flat and with the desire to run away as fast as my legs could carry me. Wednesday, on the other hand, we focussed on going over and over a couple of the really intense scenes in the show. These are the ones with lots of things going on at the same time (our trademark chaos), and are hard to plan and direct. Even harder to execute with people still holding on to scripts for dear life.
With some gentle encouragement, they were able to drop their scripts (for the most part) and we got through three different scenes, with great progress being made in the timing and performance of all concerned. No easy feat, but was helped certainly with everyone actually dropping those pesky scripts and with all the cast actually being there, which must be about the first time that has happened.
Still only three weeks to go before the show. There is now a crowd from work going along, it will be great to have that support.
Showing posts with label working hard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label working hard. Show all posts
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Spent so long waiting for the bus after work today that I felt that there was little point in the end, my going home, I might as well stay there. As I am back in work at 8am, any delay in getting home, after an 8pm finish makes me feel that the time, energy and trouble getting home from work, and then back again is time wasted.
I spend so much time going places, to I every truly arrive ? Destination or journey ?
Which is more relevant.....
I have Helen coming round tomorrow, to get some more work done on the play. We need to get some more writing done. We spent last week sorting out some of the organisational stuff about meeting up with people. We still do not have a confirmed date and venue. We've put up a facebook event for the meetup, but can't fix the location until I can get hold of someone at the pub we've contacted that can make a decision.
Clock is ticking. If they can't do it for the price we like (free) then we will hold it here. Won't be that much of a problem, and actually would be quite nice to have people here and read through the show. We have to stop all this moving back of dates. It's what's killing our motivation and focus. All the time the pressure of the looming deadline is absent we won't feel the burn, and the desire to make things happen. Helen and I have realised that all the time there is date we have to work to, that's set in stone, that we can't get out of, we are able to achieve so much. The rapidly disappearing days, weeks and months brings us to focus. When we know that the 'immovable' date actually isn't, IE, we can keep moving it, then we just loose all drive and attention, and we waste so much time. As indeed we have.
We had originally aimed to have the show completed by the end of December 2010, and have it good to go, ready to start workshops he first week in January. Where the hell has all that time gone ? We've had about two months where we haven't even looked at the script. That means that it's even harder to get back into the swing of things. We had to read through the work so far the other week, which probably isn't a bad thing.
I spend so much time going places, to I every truly arrive ? Destination or journey ?
Which is more relevant.....
I have Helen coming round tomorrow, to get some more work done on the play. We need to get some more writing done. We spent last week sorting out some of the organisational stuff about meeting up with people. We still do not have a confirmed date and venue. We've put up a facebook event for the meetup, but can't fix the location until I can get hold of someone at the pub we've contacted that can make a decision.
Clock is ticking. If they can't do it for the price we like (free) then we will hold it here. Won't be that much of a problem, and actually would be quite nice to have people here and read through the show. We have to stop all this moving back of dates. It's what's killing our motivation and focus. All the time the pressure of the looming deadline is absent we won't feel the burn, and the desire to make things happen. Helen and I have realised that all the time there is date we have to work to, that's set in stone, that we can't get out of, we are able to achieve so much. The rapidly disappearing days, weeks and months brings us to focus. When we know that the 'immovable' date actually isn't, IE, we can keep moving it, then we just loose all drive and attention, and we waste so much time. As indeed we have.
We had originally aimed to have the show completed by the end of December 2010, and have it good to go, ready to start workshops he first week in January. Where the hell has all that time gone ? We've had about two months where we haven't even looked at the script. That means that it's even harder to get back into the swing of things. We had to read through the work so far the other week, which probably isn't a bad thing.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Have you ever heard of the 80 / 20 principle ?
The idea being that you end up spending 80% of your time with 20% of people. In business this could signify that you spend 80% of your resource time with the customers that either make up 20% of your customer base. This means that the remaining 80%'s needs get ignored as you don't have the time left to help them.
In my work, this can mean that I spend 80% of my time with a very few members of my team, which in itself isn't something to object to. The danger though, is that all that time is severely unlikely to deliver anywhere near a decent return on all that time spent. It's also likely that the rest of the team don't get any quality time as a result.
That can lead to resentment of that person(s) by the rest of the team, who perhaps are really desperate to spend some time with their manager, and get some support.
Now if the person(s) taking that amount of time up, do actually really need that help, or if they feel particularly insecure, they'll feel considerably worse if they can feel or see the reaction of their colleagues to them. It might be very easy for that to quickly be about personal feelings, rather than tasks or actions.
It's a tricky situation, and not that easy to deal with, whilst emotions run so high.
If everything that I had to deal with in my job was easy to fix, they wouldn't have to pay me so much, and I wouldn't feel so rewarded when I get them sorted. You really don't get job satisfaction if you don't work hard, but working hard isn't the only answer. No one wants to slog on and on and on endlessly with no outcome in sight.Working hard is not enough in itself. We, you, I, need to work smart.
The idea being that you end up spending 80% of your time with 20% of people. In business this could signify that you spend 80% of your resource time with the customers that either make up 20% of your customer base. This means that the remaining 80%'s needs get ignored as you don't have the time left to help them.
In my work, this can mean that I spend 80% of my time with a very few members of my team, which in itself isn't something to object to. The danger though, is that all that time is severely unlikely to deliver anywhere near a decent return on all that time spent. It's also likely that the rest of the team don't get any quality time as a result.
That can lead to resentment of that person(s) by the rest of the team, who perhaps are really desperate to spend some time with their manager, and get some support.
Now if the person(s) taking that amount of time up, do actually really need that help, or if they feel particularly insecure, they'll feel considerably worse if they can feel or see the reaction of their colleagues to them. It might be very easy for that to quickly be about personal feelings, rather than tasks or actions.
It's a tricky situation, and not that easy to deal with, whilst emotions run so high.
If everything that I had to deal with in my job was easy to fix, they wouldn't have to pay me so much, and I wouldn't feel so rewarded when I get them sorted. You really don't get job satisfaction if you don't work hard, but working hard isn't the only answer. No one wants to slog on and on and on endlessly with no outcome in sight.Working hard is not enough in itself. We, you, I, need to work smart.
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