Be the Duck!

Last week I was asked how I manage conflicting priorities, aggressive deadlines and daily firedrills and remain successful.

I have not mastered time management, but I have routines that allow planning and prioritization especially important when dealing with aggressive deadlines, conflicting priorities and daily fire drills.

After I stopped laughing, I realized her question was genuine and for a brief moment I felt quite the fraud.  But then I typed,"Be the duck."  There it is.  Quick.  Concise.  Visual.

For those of you who have not heard me talk about my mom, let me introduce you to a Sandyism.

For years, my mom would tell my brother, sister and I to "be the duck".  It became humorous as our friends would ask, "why be a duck?" or "whats up with your mom and the duck?"  At one point, she even cut out a cartoon and put it on our refrigerator.  Not quite like below, but same message.

I remember the day, at a local pond, when she pointed out the cool composure of the duck.  Just gliding across the water.  From the surface, duck is calm and collected.  But underneath the water, the duck's feet are paddling, working with the water to move in the intended direction.  She extended this to people and those that always appear to have their stuff together compared to those that appear to always be in a state of chaos. 

My siblings and I knew that when Mom said, "Be the duck" it meant to demonstrate composure and grace through steady control over emotion. 
Daily I am challenged with all the above and daily I remind myself to be "the duck". 

To help me "be the duck" I have implemented three simple productivity tools into my daily routines:   1) Years ago, I started using a Personal Kanban to organize my work.  Kanban is so simple to implement.  It allows me to prioritize my work and ensure my work in progress stays in balance.   I love that our Architecture Oversight team has embraced Kanban using Jira and has rolled it out for the Patterns Development work as well as our transformation work.  Check it out here.
2) Another technique I use is the Pomodoro Technique which is a simple way to focus exclusively on one task / project for a set amount of time (traditionally 25 minutes) and then take a break (traditionally 5 minutes) and then going back in for another 25 minutes.  I use this in the mornings and lunch for email.  Basically, I turn off distractions (IM, text, and other), set my cell phone timer for 25 minutes and open up email and hyper focus.  When the timer goes off, I stop, save what I was working on to draft and take a break.  After the break, I repeat.  It is amazing how many emails I can respond to without distractions and with a time limit. 

3) Finally, I am a firm believer in setting intentions with agendas for meetings.  When asked to attend a meeting, I will ask for the intention and the agenda.  This helps me ensure I am ready for the meeting or in some cases address the need without having a meeting.

Happy Thursday!