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I was wondering how people overcome getting randomized at work, i.e, getting too many little things to work on from different projects. This in my opinion is causing the quality of work on a particular task to deteriorate.
Any advice will be appreciated.
"I would be thrilled to native check that translation for you. Please route the order through my boss. You know how it goes, I'm only twenty seven, nobody here expects me to be able to manage my own time." "Boss, you're going to get a request from Tokyo to use me for a translation project. If you approve it, $PRIORITY_PROJECT will slip two days late. Your call."
I sometimes ended up juggling eight or so projects at the last day job. Finally I learned to take the advice of older and wiser employees (at my company and elsewhere), and started using my manager as a firewall. "I would be thrilled to native check that translation for you. Please route the order through my boss. You know how it goes, I'm only twenty seven, nobody here expects me to be able to manage my own time." "…
I soon became overloaded, and I decided that I would have only a certain number of slots open for projects. For example, two projects from this department, two from that and one pet project (my choice).
I would say no to any new projects that didn't fit in a slot. This doesn't work as well when the source of the problem is that you must accept all work pushed on you. In that case, you probably need to talk to your manager.
Think hard about if the problem is your inability to say no to an interesting project.
The solution: Get proper project management practises in place. Split up a project's work in quantums of atleast 3 days. Don't discuss other projects when your programmers are busy working on something.
po has an interesting point. Don't take very small projects which don't fit in your schedule. Another approach would be to talk and upgrade small projects to bigger projects and quote more time for them.
I had had this happen multiple times. Multiple team members had sources of randomization removed by the scrum master, once it became clear that the sprint work was suffering.
One of the benefits of using a process like Scrum, if it has a daily standup meeting, is that if you are being randomized, you just say all the things that you worked on. The team will get the point in short order, and can get it addressed. I had had this happen multiple times. Multiple team members had sources of randomization removed by the scrum master, once it became clear that the sprint work was suffering.
I think the first thing to understand is if you're accepting these small tasks because you have to or because you want to. I found that I would often find every little problem interesting and relevant and would accept working on it. I soon became overloaded, and I decided that I would have only a certain number of slots open for projects. For example, two projects from this department, two from that and one pet proje…
Thanks.
I sometimes ended up juggling eight or so projects at the last day job. Finally I learned to take the advice of older and wiser employees (at my company and elsewhere), and started using my manager as a firewall. "I would be thrilled to native check that translation for you. Please route the order through my boss. You know how it goes, I'm only twenty seven, nobody here expects me to be able to manage my own time." "…