Busy to Death
barryoreilly.com
Busy to Death
1–10 of 72 posts
Re: Busy to Death
#2> Thinking is an activity too—don’t undervalue it. Make time and space for it in your daily work schedule.
This is why I find it impossible to work effectively in open-plan offices. I'm often looking off in to space, thinking. But I feel compelled to make clickety-clack noises on a keyboard, continuously and unproductively, lest people think I'm not working.
Re: Busy to Death
#3> Thinking is an activity too—don’t undervalue it. Make time and space for it in your daily work schedule. This is why I find it impossible to work effectively in open-plan offices. I'm often looking off in to space, thinking. But I feel compelled to make clickety-clack noises on a keyboard, continuously and unproductively, lest people think I'm not working.
walks are helpful for that, but then you can't do that too much for the same reason you can't sit and stare.
Re: Busy to Death
#4> Thinking is an activity too—don’t undervalue it. Make time and space for it in your daily work schedule. This is why I find it impossible to work effectively in open-plan offices. I'm often looking off in to space, thinking. But I feel compelled to make clickety-clack noises on a keyboard, continuously and unproductively, lest people think I'm not working.
And here I am trying not to look pissed off at everyone around me because they're sitting there doing little to no work, talking, and making noises.
Re: Busy to Death
#5In jobs where I feel sure I'm doing my job well, I overtly show when I'm not busy. Walking around, playing video games, chatting, even working on my own business (with boss's permission) etc. I see other people worriedly noticing when the boss is coming or being afraid that the guard will notice they often turn up late in the morning. But it doesn't bother me at all. I'm doing what I was hired to do and there's no need to make a show of working. Sometimes coworkers see me on the computer and say "you're working hard" but I laugh and say "no, I've been pissing around all day, I'm really lazy". Of course this does depend on the job - sometime you are hired to make full use of your time, not just get things finished.
However, I have worked in places where I always felt I wasn't performing well enough. Stayed at my desk doing "things" as fast as I could and still being behind on deadlines, a couple of times by making big mistakes that meant weeks of work turned out to be useless. I'd go home drained and stressed and still not be refreshed enough to think clearly again the next morning.
Re: Busy to Death
#6In professions where you get paid by the hour (e.g., contractors, lawyers, etc.) being busy is a proxy for making more money. So when people say, "I've been swamped," it's a polite way of them saying "I'm making bank."
Re: Busy to Death
#7> Thinking is an activity too—don’t undervalue it. Make time and space for it in your daily work schedule. This is why I find it impossible to work effectively in open-plan offices. I'm often looking off in to space, thinking. But I feel compelled to make clickety-clack noises on a keyboard, continuously and unproductively, lest people think I'm not working.
You should install a covert clickety-clack noise maker in your keyboard, or just under your desk.
Re: Busy to Death
#8> Thinking is an activity too—don’t undervalue it. Make time and space for it in your daily work schedule. This is why I find it impossible to work effectively in open-plan offices. I'm often looking off in to space, thinking. But I feel compelled to make clickety-clack noises on a keyboard, continuously and unproductively, lest people think I'm not working.
I love when CEOs talk about how they set aside dedicated time for this, Jason Fried comes to mind.
Re: Busy to Death
#9> Thinking is an activity too—don’t undervalue it. Make time and space for it in your daily work schedule. This is why I find it impossible to work effectively in open-plan offices. I'm often looking off in to space, thinking. But I feel compelled to make clickety-clack noises on a keyboard, continuously and unproductively, lest people think I'm not working.
And here I am trying not to look pissed off at everyone around me because they're sitting there doing little to no work, talking, and making noises.
I'm working in a small office with 4 to 5 developers. I actually enjoy the company and don't mind the occasional phone call or chat. Sometimes I can overhear another conversation and add my 5 cents to it, which I believe to be valuable.
We also use slack and 'idle-ping' other team members first and keep conversations in slack if possible. This works quite well, too.
Recently we had an intern, which had a very annoying tic: While listening to headphones he now and then started to sing/whistle/hiss along, quietly but audible. It's strange and a personality thing, but it took quite a few days until I snapped and told him to stop. It also started again after a couple of days and I had to tell him again.
There a two things to note: For some people it takes a lot to complain about something and for some people it takes a lot to change a habit. In a large office this can be problematic.
Re: Busy to Death
#10> Thinking is an activity too—don’t undervalue it. Make time and space for it in your daily work schedule. This is why I find it impossible to work effectively in open-plan offices. I'm often looking off in to space, thinking. But I feel compelled to make clickety-clack noises on a keyboard, continuously and unproductively, lest people think I'm not working.
You could write down what you're thinking while you're thinking it. I usually use a google doc to organize my thoughts. It frees up active memory to get your thoughts out of your head and onto paper where you can see them and no longer fear forgetting them.