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Our Motto:
If working 24 hours a day isn't enough, you have to work nights.
- James Moss, 1985, USNA
Our Challenge: TMI/TMO/TLT/TL$
Too Much Information / Too Many Options / Too Little Time / Too Little Money!
-
Steven W. Gilbert, Founding President, TLT Group
TLT Group - Nonprofit Org Founded 1998
11 comments:
Even worse: "I'm going to take a couple of vacation days next week so I can catch up on my work."
Is it really a vacation if you take your laptop? Your PDA/Cell Phone/Blackberry/...?
You arrive at your office in the morning and write your list of priorities for the day. About 5 or 6PM (or later) you look at the list and realize that you haven't begun the first item.
This reminds me of one of my husband's favorite lines, "What do you mean, that you can't come to my meeting because you have to get some work done?"
I get overloaded because I can never say no to seeing a student. And then when I'm helpful to one, I get emails from two of his/her friends wanting to schedule an appointment! So I started having "student appointment" anxiety because although I love seeing students I didn't want each appointment to add to my overload! I knew it was time to see a therapist, but I dont' have time to schedule an appointment with one! :-)
Saundra
"Next week there can't be any crisis. My schedule is already full."
Henry Kissinger (Born 1923)
- included in Email signature from
Debra Sheridan, Fla. Intl Univ.
"If I go ahead and create that web page / file / link / database now, I'll really save myself some work in the long run..."
I send emails to myself from work about what I need to do when I get home; emails from home let me know what I need to do at work... :-(
Are you always late for those meetings that fill our schedules? I think that, too, is symptomatic of overload. There is always one more person/student/email/phone call wanting "just a moment of your time." I have to learn how to say "No, I'm going to a meeting."
You are happy you now have a wireless tablet PC so you can return e-mail messages while attending a meeting. Is that a good thing?
Well... now we have a trade-off between being more "efficient" handling email and being attentive during a meeting!
Of course, right now - WHILE I'M DOING UPDATES AND CHEKCING EMAIL AND REVIEWING NEW POSTINGS TO SOME BLOGS - I'm multi-tasking by watching an old replay of a "Law and Order" episode about OVERLOAD in the form of an HMO that had limited the amount of time that a doctor was permitted to spend with a patient being "treated" at a prison. Subsequently the prisoner/patient was released. When he was no longer incarcerated or under the supervision of a doctor... and no longer under supervised medication, the prisoner/patient then murdered someone.
The "defense" is that the HMO restricted the "overload" permitted for each doctor so stringently that many patients were not treated adequately or responsibly.
So, I'm multi-tasking and splitting my attention and probably doing a less capable job writing this comment... but I'm also learning about another situation where the "overload" is (fictionally) causing even greater problems!
“University of Washington Computer Science professor said a few years ago when asked what were the required office hours for faculty in his department: ‘There are no required hours - you can work any 80 hours a week you want!’”
John Heilman
Provost and VP
Auburn University
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