[HN Gopher] Seven Levels of Busy
___________________________________________________________________
Seven Levels of Busy
Author : kiyanwang
Score : 241 points
Date : 2022-11-16 06:27 UTC (1 days ago)
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| jll29 wrote:
| Many companies, and certainly some people I know, are keeping
| busy and confuse "operationally busy" with "successful". Most
| people that are too busy stop thinking strategically, and instead
| restrict all their energy and attention to short-term
| firefighting.
|
| Rapidly-changing diaries are problematic already at much lower
| levels than "business level 7"... they also interfere with your
| own ability to plan your day.
| GCA10 wrote:
| I'll offer a companion scale that speaks to when/how we declare
| stuff done and ship it.
|
| A. Levels 1 and 2. I ship stuff when it's as excellent and
| finished as I can possibly make it.
|
| B. Levels 3 and 4. I'm too busy to get every last detail tidied
| up, but when I ship stuff, it's 90% of what I wanted it to be. I
| don't always nail the deadline 100%, but on both quality and
| timeliness, I'm respected and seen as someone who doesn't let the
| team down. I secretly like peeling away when it's almost done,
| because there's usually something more valuable and exciting
| coming next.
|
| C. Level 5. I'm very erratic. On a few key projects, I'm still
| shipping in a pretty dependable way. But the amount of half-done
| stuff in my mental attic is scary. I've still got the willpower
| and credibility every now and then to offload/kill the most
| hopeless projects, and that gives me a bit of a reprieve.
|
| D. Levels 6 and 7. I don't have a coherent approach to shipping.
| Incomplete work leaves my control when someone else seizes it
| from me. There's a ton of stuff that's half-done that I may never
| have time to revisit. I'm too tired to sort out anything -- or
| put up a fight.
| klyrs wrote:
| After years of burnout, my psyche rewrote 6 to prevent 7. When I
| get to that point, my subconscious rebels and I stare into the
| depths of the void rather than work. My conscious mind notices
| this behavior, I tell everybody what's happening and I cancel or
| indefinitely delay _everything_ except for literal life and
| death. I take a few days off, then set a goal of one focused task
| a day. If that only takes an hour, that 's fine, I did the task.
| Gradually I increase the load, but I know from repeated burnout
| cycles that impatience will deepen the wound.
| feoren wrote:
| > a goal of one focused task a day. If that only takes an hour,
| that's fine, I did the task.
|
| It's a rare privilege to be able to rebalance your own workload
| like that. As a consultant, I have some ability to do this, but
| if I accomplish one focused task that takes an hour one day, I
| only get paid for one hour that day. I cannot make myself less
| busy without literally lowering my pay.
| klyrs wrote:
| It is. I'm an established researcher, and my coworkers see
| the lead-up to the crash -- at levels 3-5, I'm over-producing
| enough to keep folks busy through the lull. I know that my
| productivity has peaks and troughs, and when I'm on fire it's
| difficult to hold back (ADHD life-hack: doing what you love
| risks detrimental hyperfocus). But, as a researcher, when I'm
| doing my job, I'm not unblocking issues; I'm creating work
| for others months to years down the road. Supporting that
| work (this is where I can be a blocker) is often very low-
| touch and high-reward so that's what I focus on in the down-
| times.
|
| If I was an hourly contractor, I'd be billing for those extra
| hours in the hopes that I could cover myself after a crash.
| But I'm not sure that contract research is a thing. And...
| have you considered billing by the day? I've never been a
| contractor but I've heard it's a thing.
|
| But... it's not like I have a choice in the matter. I've
| forced myself to work through burnout for literally years at
| a time, and now that part of me is broken forever. That's
| what "unsustainable" means. I will eventually quit tech, or
| move on to management, when the time comes.
|
| If you cannot find slack and your busyness is frequently
| hitting 5-7, breakdowns will occur. If you can't recover
| without going broke, you haven't found a sustainable balance.
| Again, not a contractor, but the advice I've heard from
| contractors is to charge more.
| feoren wrote:
| > the advice I've heard from contractors is to charge more.
|
| Maybe I need to get out. I can't charge more: I'm salaried
| in a giant corporation full of consultants. They literally
| have a "quota" for how much they can give out in raises
| each year, despite the fact that me earning more means
| _they_ also earn more (via the multiplier). Doesn 't
| matter, it's heresy to give employees high raises.
|
| Except I'm not _really_ salaried, because I only get paid
| what I bill. And I can 't bill for downtime, because that's
| fraud. So I really have the worst of all worlds. Going for
| a 30 minute walk to clear my head means 30 minutes of less
| pay, even though my employer benefits from that. For tax,
| overtime, and labor law purposes, I'm salaried and exempt
| (to the benefit of my employer), but for my actual
| paycheck, I'm hourly (to the benefit of my employer).
|
| Frankly I doubt the practice would be legal in any country
| with reasonable fair labor laws. Unfortunately, I live in
| the U.S.
|
| Still, it's better than working in some code mill where
| they burn you for 60 or 70 hours per week and pay you for
| 40.
| mgrassotti wrote:
| There are higher levels
| jamesgreenleaf wrote:
| If Level 7 is minute to minute, then Level 8 must be something
| like a combat or survival situation in which every split-second
| matters.
|
| What's beyond that? Eldritch horrors?
| [deleted]
| mv4 wrote:
| Being busy feels entirely different when you are in charge. If,
| however, your calendar is controlled by other people...
| sublinear wrote:
| Why break it up into levels? You schedule time and stick to it.
| All unscheduled time is considered busy. No interruptions. Deal
| with it.
| DharmaPolice wrote:
| What % of employees do you think are in a position where they
| can just blanket refuse all interruptions?
| Maxburn wrote:
| Seriously, as a tech lead I take a lot of calls for
| help/advice from junior techs up through senior leadership.
| Cut all that off and see how long I still have a job.
|
| I encourage use of "asynchronous" communication like txt and
| email and letting calls go to voicemail. Key item is to
| actually follow up on those things several times a day.
|
| I've taken to coming in at 6AM and getting things done before
| the 8AM flood hits. Second flood happens during lunch. Not
| much during the end of the day so generally off at 4 which is
| nice.
| dopidopHN wrote:
| > Cut all that off and see how long I still have a job
|
| Don't cut it. Ask if it's urgent. If not, say you can come
| to it in X amount of time. If the person is junior or
| insisting, tell them the laundry list of questions you will
| have to get context. And ask if they did all that research
| already.
|
| It has the double nice effect of motivating people to
| diagnose their stuff better. And usually once you are free,
| the stuff is solved.
|
| I tend to avoid tech lead position now but I hold many and
| it went well. Setting boundaries works !
| pixl97 wrote:
| In general it's the senior people that are the problem
| as, well, that's how seniority tends to work.
|
| Ignoring junior people has its own risks. You generally
| have to follow up and ensure they did the research, by
| asking questions, which takes up time. Most of the time
| as a team lead you'll be there for training and guidance
| to ensure your Jr team members get beyond that position.
|
| Honestly it just sounds the parent poster is given too
| much to do which will always lead to stuff getting
| dropped, something ignored, or overwork on someones part.
| Maxburn wrote:
| We have a good crew and most do that. Some seem to only
| live in the moment, walk in and give me a updated IP for
| something and I'll tell them to email it and I'll update
| it when I'm working on that. There is a certain
| percentage of problems I can solve with a email link to
| our intranet docs though...
| Maxburn wrote:
| Oh, the real frustration is I've got a senior in another
| dept that doesn't answer emails and texts. He is in a
| world of immediate chaos because everyone knows that so
| you either call him three times or it doesn't ever get
| done.
| bloopernova wrote:
| I know one of those too.
|
| They intentionally don't fix their "broken" deployment
| environment so someone else has to do anything CI/CD
| related. It's infuriating because their attitude reads as
| anything is beneath them, and they have no respect for
| others' time.
| tomrod wrote:
| Time to apply Machiavelli.
|
| This is the situation where you escalate to their boss.
| If you don't have the clout, have your boss or your skip-
| levels escalate.
|
| Don't accommodate bad behavior by others. Get email
| documentation so when they cause your things to break you
| have leverage.
|
| Fortune 500s operate this way. CxOs like the crab-in-a-
| bucket approach because they get to be heroes and build
| their empires on the corpses of failed departments they
| take over. Tell them exactly what you need of them and
| why things are breaking and they are all too happy to
| assist since this aligns to their incentives. If they
| fail to help, your department is the one that will soon
| be the corpse, and you can freshen the resume.
|
| (Note: I personally hate those kinds of organizational
| dynamics, but its one thing to find them distasteful but
| useful and another to deny their existence).
| projectazorian wrote:
| > Don't accommodate bad behavior by others. Get email
| documentation so when they cause your things to break you
| have leverage.
|
| Who says it's bad behavior? Maybe they're at capacity and
| their manager told them to deprioritize requests coming
| from outside the team. Maybe the OP's requests are
| unreasonable or better handled by someone else.
|
| Not enough information here to make a determination one
| way or the other. One thing is for sure, people need to
| stop viewing colleagues as their servants. Most people
| want to be helpful, if someone doesn't help you when you
| ask for help, there is usually a reason.
| tomrod wrote:
| Requiring everyone to place three telephone calls because
| email / IMs are ignored is objectively bad behavior. The
| drivers may be varied but* the outcome remains the same.
| Assuming OP's claim is an accurate retelling, this person
| serves as a delivery roadblock and is either incompetent
| or lazy at managing their time and resources. Ergo, there
| is clear need for the OPs organization to either realign
| the roadblocker's priorities or to build out the
| functionality themselves.
|
| Roadblocker's intent to do good is immaterial -- their
| actions and tactics are resulting in poor outcomes for
| those that are required to partner with them.
| sublinear wrote:
| Preferring async communication and advising people to
| prepare before attending scheduled meetings is what I was
| suggesting, yeah.
|
| Everyone needs to be at the same level of organization and
| agree upon what topics are and aren't relevant for each
| meeting. This is the flip side of work from home culture.
| You have to have your shit together. No excuses.
| [deleted]
| throwaway98797 wrote:
| must be nice to be that valuable
|
| us mortals of meddling ability and position need to compromise
| agumonkey wrote:
| Pretty useful for my own use. I realize that I hate living above
| triage-hard level. Thanks
| krallja wrote:
| What's it called when your brain skips straight from level 2 to
| level 7? Asking for a friend, who is myself.
| pizzaknife wrote:
| Id offer that simple vocabulary we use in "agile" is indicative
| of why we even reach stages above 3. I offer the use of the term
| "sprint" as evidence.
| ttyyzz wrote:
| you can use agile in a good way here - say you are a dev and
| somebody wants something from you. your schedule is set, all
| the tasks for the sprint have been planned and you commited to
| doing them. you can just say "i have not time for that but you
| could try to to talk to the PO. the product owner could adjust
| the prioritization for the next sprint accordingly.."
|
| Working at the shout of other people tends to damage you and
| the company in the long term (If you are building things and
| have to maintain them).
|
| I understand that not everyone is a developer and this example
| does not fit every role. Likewise, an "agile" way of working
| should not be used for every job.
| kybernetikos wrote:
| It is very odd that the two week cadence gets referred to as a
| sprint. Sprints are definitionally not done at a speed that can
| be kept up for a long period of time, yet we expect our teams
| to 'sprint' unendingly.
| Sakos wrote:
| That's an interesting take. Are sprints sustainable?
| marcosdumay wrote:
| Yet they are sprints by definition. There is no pause to
| evaluate the work, fix past mistakes, globally plan the
| system, understand how it will fit when applied.
|
| Scrum only has the part when you get your head down and code.
| Finished it? Good, let's see what is the next task, get our
| heads down and code again. "Sprint" is a very apt name.
|
| (Of course, that is because the activities that actually
| bring product quality got somebody specialized on them. You
| can't find a best portrait of the Western management culture
| looking at management, disenfranchise the workers that
| actually know how to do things, bring somebody with no skin
| on the game and plenty of conflicting interests to make all
| the decisions.)
| krallja wrote:
| Scrum also has the sprint planning and retrospective phases
| in between the sprints. Many teams also take time to do
| "backlog refinement" as a second-order sprint planning
| process.
|
| My scrum trainer said, with full conviction, "I've never
| seen a retrospective done well that took less than four
| hours."
|
| Nobody does Scrum. Everybody just does the part where you
| have a defined list of tasks for a sprint and burn it down
| until you get close enough to zero before the next sprint
| starts. It's called "scrum-but."
| revskill wrote:
| Ahh, i've seen my friends busy debugging and manual testing their
| code throughout the day.
| warner25 wrote:
| I know this is supposed to be about "work" instead of "life," but
| I'm trying to decide which one is the baseline level as a parent
| of several children. I'm thinking Level 4, but maybe Level 5.
| When my kids ask if / when we can go somewhere special or do some
| project together, I frequently find myself just shaking my head
| and saying that I can't answer for anything beyond the next
| couple of hours, because I need to coordinate with mom and all
| their siblings' schedules, and because I don't know who's going
| to get sick or have a tantrum that derails our plans, etc.
|
| When my wife or I go down with illness or injury ourselves, it
| immediately goes to Level 6 or 7 for the remaining parent.
| thenerdhead wrote:
| I believe that being busy is a myth. It's one that we all fall
| prey to and end up accomplishing nothing because of it.
|
| Like any system, you need enough slack. That slack makes you
| resilient over the long term. It gives you what you value in
| life. Autonomy, relatedness, and competence to whatever you set
| your goals towards.
|
| I hate the mentality of "if it's not in a calendar, it's not
| happening" because this is the opposite of slack. There's a
| beauty in serendipity when it comes to not being busy. It opens
| more doors than closes them in my experience.
|
| I would argue that the optimal level is negative in that you're
| not "busy" by the definition, but you are tackling your top goal
| until it is accomplished and then to the next one. You won't even
| make a dent in it if you're constantly distracted by small
| immediate things. You have to learn to set boundaries and say no.
| It's the only way things actually get done.
| WhitneyLand wrote:
| Even if it were true as you say that there is an optimal amount
| of "slack" with which to operate, how does that mean being busy
| is a myth?
|
| There are jobs where you can get hired and almost immediately
| be at the higher levels of busy as described here, and it's not
| really easy to get an entire culture or organization to quickly
| buy into a new philosophy.
|
| People have paid the price in health and happiness for
| surviving in these situations. Whether they could be handled in
| a better way or not, I don't see how it makes any sense to call
| their business a myth.
| thenerdhead wrote:
| Thanks for the candor comment. Here's how I think about it:
|
| I'm arguing for the individual to buy into a new philosophy.
| One of not being busy. Modern busyness is a construct we
| accept out of fear. Fear of getting fired, fear of missing
| out, fear of being passed over for a promotion.
|
| Most of the things we think we need to do, we don't need to
| do at all. Constant context switching and divided focus is
| not a thing humans do well at. I think we've misunderstood
| the power of mono-tasking.
|
| There's a great paradox in it all. The less busy we are, the
| more we can accomplish. Maybe others have noticed similar
| phenomena.
| artitars wrote:
| In my opinion needing enough slack in a system certainly rings
| true for many jobs that rely on high intrinsic motivation
| (probably also academia). Slack is also something that is
| essential for creative jobs, where you need the space to think
| and come up with new ideas.
|
| Looking at the levels of busyness the concept of requiring
| slack is still compatible for me. If I am at low levels of
| busyness (< 4) there should be capacity for planned slots of
| slack, where goals can be worked on with own pace, ad-hoc
| meetings and guidance from peers (to fulfil the SDT
| motivational needs).
| lob_it wrote:
| Technology added the phrases "set it and forget it" and "one
| and done".
|
| Analog (some) can chase their tail and consider that busy while
| innovation is onto the next goal.
| iamthirsty wrote:
| So you don't think someone like, I don't know, the President of
| the United States is not _actually_ a busy person? (At level 7)
| thenerdhead wrote:
| I'm saying people fall into the "busy" trap. There are
| presidents who are level 7 and accomplish nothing. There are
| presidents who are level 2-4 and accomplish a lot. Eisenhower
| comes to mind. He was pretty famous for his philosophy and
| methodology on this while willing to "do nothing". He
| accomplished plenty without the need of constant human
| intervention.
| sweuder wrote:
| If the president is at Level 7 then it is an utter failure of
| their administration. Whatever the president's busy level is,
| it needs to be something that can be kept up with for years
| at a time without breaking down. They've got whole branches
| of government at their disposal to delegate tasks. I'd
| imagine the president's staffers try and keep it at or below
| a 4 90% of the time.
| astral303 wrote:
| There's a great book by Tom DeMarco that argues for having
| slack, and for that being critical for innovation: "Slack:
| Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total
| Efficiency"
| thenerdhead wrote:
| Thanks for the recommendation! I'll add it to my book list.
| Would love to dive much deeper into this idea but have only
| found a few books thus far that barely touch the subject.
| RajT88 wrote:
| If you are wall-to-wall with meetings, any follow up items
| which require concentration have to necessarily take place
| after your work day.
|
| I have been the top level of busy before, where I have work day
| full of meetings, and then a work day of actual work after all
| the meetings.
| kortheo wrote:
| I find this a useful framework for thinking about busy-ness. I'm
| someone who skews towards feeling over-responsible for things,
| has a hard time saying 'No', etc. Comments here are making me
| realize that not everyone is like this and that maybe a better
| workload balance is possible. Does anyone have suggestions for
| books, articles, etc that have helped you improve your workload
| management and set boundaries regarding projects, ask for help
| when you're overloaded, etc? I often feel like I'm just at the
| mercy of what is put on my plate by other people.
| teach wrote:
| I'm not such a person myself but I hear "The Art Of Saying NO"
| by Zahariades is pretty good. Not quite the same topic but I've
| also heard good things about "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a
| F*ck" by Manson
| kortheo wrote:
| That looks promising, thank you!
| vegetablepotpie wrote:
| I like that he describes it as levels, and that there are hints
| of objective measures for each level. If this were adopted in
| organizations, it would be a useful tool for management to assess
| who needs the most help.
|
| The common through line is how much stuff is getting dropped, and
| how much control do you have on what work you take on.
|
| There are some context dependent things that tells me this is
| written from the perspective of someone who works in an office,
| such as "Work hours spill into life hours." and "It is clear by
| how I walk how busy I am."
|
| There are some undefined aspects, for example, I'm at level 2
| when I have tasks that "are reasonable, knowable, and not
| deadline-based." What level am I at when I have at-least one
| deadline based task. If I'm on a scrum team, and everything needs
| to be done by the end of the sprint, does level 1 & 2 not exist
| and everyone starts at level 3?
|
| I would love to be able to point to something like this. I see
| three books on this authors website, if it's in any of these
| books I'd like to ask people in my office "have you read x?
| There's an idea in there about y that I think you'd be interested
| in."
| 1123581321 wrote:
| I've read his management book and I don't remember anything as
| easy to use as this scale.
|
| 7 Habits is a classic self-help book that would accomplish some
| of this. Although, it approaches the problem of business
| indirectly with concepts like degree of control vs. degree of
| concern. It also suggests principles that an overly busy person
| cannot follow, but never connects the dots by explicitly saying
| "you're too busy."
|
| Another one to look at comes from R&D management: Principles of
| Product Development Flow. The first couple chapters,
| especially, explain the problems of trying to maintain a full
| schedule (queueing theory.) I would probably make a resource
| based on the book rather than just handing someone a copy,
| unless you know they'd not be intimidated by it.
| https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Product-Development-Flow-G...
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Prioritize your work by importance, not urgency.
|
| Work only on the first item on the list until it's done.
| xwowsersx wrote:
| I'm at a Level 6 :(
| Pelam wrote:
| I'd say anything beyond level 3 is likely already unsustainable
| for longer periods if you want to avoid stress related ilnesses.
| Depends on other factors of course.
| Rygian wrote:
| Indeed.
|
| The post neglects to mention at which Level one would start
| saying "No." And I argue it should be Level 3, to avoid going
| to Level 4.
|
| If I found myself in Level 5, 6, or 7 the only explanation I
| would find is that I've very badly mismanaged my time for too
| long.
| phtrivier wrote:
| So... What ? I've yet to find myself in a position where I was
| wondering on which level of such a scale I am.
|
| The only interesting question is "I'm perpetually at one of the
| last two or three stages, how do I go down the scale ?"
|
| (Ironically, reading HN is one of the things _not_ to do.)
| surfsvammel wrote:
| This makes me thankful. I realise that I am leading a very
| balanced life today.
|
| There was a time when I was completely overworked. A short
| project, but it was devastating. It was stressful for everyone
| involved, but mostly so for me and a colleague of mine. I was in
| my early thirties and she in her early sixties. We worked day and
| night, taking taxis to and from work, to get home, for 4 hours of
| sleep. She came out of the period unscathed, no problem at all
| while I developed claustrophobia, insomnia, paranoia and
| depression.
|
| Those went away, after some time, within a year or so. But I, to
| this day, think that I dodged a bullet. It could've gone so much
| worse.
|
| One big learning, or realisation, that I had, from that
| experience, was that taking one of those self tests, showed all
| the signs of being over worked and stressed. But. I didn't feel
| stressed. That was the killer. I didn't feel stressed, and so I
| kept going thinking 'I guess those tests/signs apparently don't
| apply to me'.
|
| Never again.
| edw519 wrote:
| When I'm working for someone else, I'm usually around Level 4.
| Most difficulties are details I know don't really matter like
| dealing with others, especially meetings and calls. I stay on top
| of them, but I'd prefer to never have to deal with them, taking
| time away from what's really important.
|
| When I'm building something for myself, I'm almost always at
| Level 2. At Level 1, I never finish anything. At Levels 3 and
| above, I never seem to find the time to dig deep enough to build
| it good enough.
|
| I honestly believe that the greatest stuff can get built at Level
| 2, which I've always thought of as the "Baby Bear Level", not too
| hot, not too cold, just right.
|
| I don't think I've ever allowed myself to get above Level 4. My
| father and all my uncles seemed to be around Level 6 or Level 7
| their whole lives at work to make a couple more bucks. They all
| worked themselves to death. I vowed I would never do that. Sure,
| I could have done more and earned more, but I kept my promise to
| myself.
|
| I'm taking a little break for this HN visit, but the results of
| what I was working on before look good and I'm excited to move
| on. No immediate deadline. Loose schedule. Going to have a ball
| getting 5 or 6 things done today. For me, this is the only way to
| work.
| aflukasz wrote:
| Somewhat related: Oliver Burkeman has some interesting thoughts
| about time management and how people have this tendencies to
| schedule too much as a coping mechanism to deny their limitations
| around the time they have and how much they can accomplish given
| their constraints.
|
| I didn't read any of his books, but heard him on Sam Harris'
| podcast/app and found his take interesting and stimulating
| reflection about my own behaviors. Certainly worth looking up, if
| you believe you might be affected by similar phenomenon.
| andsoitis wrote:
| "For every parcel I stoop down to seize
|
| I lose some other off my arms and knees,
|
| And the whole pile is slipping, bottles, buns --
|
| Extremes too hard to comprehend at once,
|
| Yet nothing I should care to leave behind.
|
| With all I have to hold with hand and mind
|
| And heart, if need be, I will do my best
|
| To keep their building balanced at my breast.
|
| I crouch down to prevent them as they fall;
|
| Then sit down in the middle of them all.
|
| I had to drop the armful in the road
|
| And try to stack them in a better load."
|
| --- Robert Frost
| kvathupo wrote:
| Tangentially related: has anyone found luck with book clubs?
|
| My friends have a few, but I'm not terribly interested in
| science-fiction (further narrowing the pool I imagine). I'm not
| limiting myself to book clubs full of programmers, but I
| suppose it'd be nice to discuss tech-adjacent books, e.g.
| Bostrom.
| nerdponx wrote:
| Sounds like my ADHD.
| evancoop wrote:
| These pings annoy me, night and day, Incessant asks without
| delay, And lines to code to earn my pay... And lines to code to
| earn my pay.
| seanhunter wrote:
| Little known fact: Robert Frost wrote this after playing "Death
| Stranding".
| mjrbrennan wrote:
| I had no idea he wrote the first Strand-type poem.
| dspillett wrote:
| This applies to trying to do too much in non-working hours as
| well as conflict between the two. I feel I'm at 5 and have been
| for a while in terms of not having time for everything I've
| decided to do (particularly the things I've told others I will
| do) and I'm too belligerent to let things drop. I perhaps must do
| something about this!
| jasperry wrote:
| The trick is to become more and more resentful about how you
| are being used until that feeling is stronger than the
| stubbornness that won't let things drop. ;)
| dspillett wrote:
| One of my key issues is being (sorry for the technical
| medical terminology here) a bit of a manic depressive
| fuckwit. Manic me gets big ideas & plans things, and being
| all excitable he tells everyone about said intentions so that
| the rest of me then feels the need to find a way of making
| happen! I do it to myself more than there being other people
| to be resentful of.
| jasperry wrote:
| I was surprised that even at level 5 it still says "stuff isn't
| getting dropped." Might I suggest starting to drop stuff well
| before that level? Yes, on purpose. It can even help you find out
| what's really important and who actually is relying on you to do
| all that stuff.
|
| Overall, this sounds like it was posted by a person with an over-
| active sense of responsibility, which I can relate to all too
| well...
| nuclearnice1 wrote:
| I agree with the sentiment.
|
| From the text I _think_ he draws a distinction between
| consciously deciding not to do something and missing it
| entirely.
|
| Level 5 allows consciously dropping -- saying "I'm sorry [can't
| do it] a lot"
|
| Level 6 - you aren't seeing everything and they are getting
| dropped WITHOUT intent. "Just saying "No" to inbound things is
| not enough."
|
| As an aside, guidelines violating clickbait number title? "The
| Seven Levels of Busy"
| scott_w wrote:
| It's not clickbait because it gives you what it promises you
| ryandrake wrote:
| As someone who's work days are always level 5, and
| occasionally level 6, I think that transition (5 to 6) is the
| point where you absolutely need to ask for help. 6 inevitably
| leads to 7 if uncorrected.
|
| At many workplaces, it's totally OK to drop things
| deliberately. I've been told by managers that [Company]
| deliberately loads you with more than you can do and expects
| you to make the right judgment calls. It's even sometimes OK
| to drop them by accident as long as you know they are being
| dropped and communicate the droppage after the fact. When you
| start dropping things and don't even know you're dropping
| them, that's usually where it starts becoming a problem for
| the organization and where it starts coming up in performance
| reviews.
| ajb wrote:
| Yes, it's well observed, but the fact that only the top level
| is considered 'unsustainable' is an issue - level 4 is already
| sub-optimal as there is no margin. And there are 3 levels above
| that.
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