JFCS Career Development Consultant Jeanne Williams shares some thoughts on staying productive as best we can right now.
When I think of my clients, family and my own “new normal”, I realized that there are a few fundamental things that seem to be working during this challenging time in our world.
First, I had to determine how to juggle 24-hour news, gather facts about the virus and identify my responsibilities that change daily or at times, hourly. I had to identify my values, vision and personal mission statement. For me, my mission is to stay current with the ever-changing facts that the CDC and Allegheny County Health Department provide, adhere to their recommendations and lean on my faith in order to mitigate fear. Everyone is unique and your personal mission statement may vary, but your action plan should resonate with you and be achievable.
Next, I am learning how important it is to continue planning how I am going to be the most efficient each day. In order to do this, my morning routine of getting up the same time each day (although I now sleep in later), taking a shower, grooming and putting on “work” clothes; (howbeit, jeans with a nice top), and eating breakfast with that all important cup of coffee gets me ready for each day and fools my mind that I am now set to start my work day. I am fortunate to have a designated space for my home office, so when I take a break, have lunch or finish at 5 p.m., I leave the office and enter a room of the house that functions outside of my workday.
Finally, in order to be the most productive each day and with the same 24 hours each of us are granted, I use a concept called, “compartmentalization”. Here’s basically how it works. In this example, I identified 4 responsibilities/tasks that are important each day. Your concentric circle will look different and the number of your drawers may be more than the 4 pictured below if you add circles. But the commonality is each of the responsibilities/drawers must be open every day. The amount of time each drawer is open will change daily depending on demands, whether it’s the weekend or a workday, etc. Inside each drawer there may be a task list/”to do” list that has been determined during my daily planning time which for me is 15 minutes in the evening or morning. The goal is to keep important things from becoming urgent. This is so important for many of my clients whose day is already full and now I am asking them to work on their job search. I hope this helps you as you create your own plan to stay on course.
