Busy Mondays | Day 94 of 100
2min read
Monday's are always busy. It almost feels like people have worked through the weekend and can't wait to speak to you. In reality, it is more likely that the weekend has given enough of a break to partially renew some vigour in your colleagues. Either way, Monday rarely allows time for 'deep work' or time alone for a singular focus.
Whilst there are many 'tactics' to managing time to be more effective, e.g. time blocking, batching, scheduled breaks. On a Monday there are not many ways to do this whilst maintaining a high level of 'customer service' to your colleagues. Someone or something must make room for something else, meaning the lower priority task or person ends up disappointed and with a lower level of 'customer satisfaction' from whatever service you provide to your business.
The saving grace is that we're all in the same boat and can sympathise with each other's workload. Before we know it the end of the working Monday has arrived, the working to-do list is probably roughly similar to where it was at the start of the day but with any luck the email inbox is smaller, atleast some of your colleagues are satisfied, and you can regroup and tackle that list tomorrow. I have found it particularly important during Covid to be strict about the barrier in time where I switch between work and personal life as there is no longer a barrier in the physical space between those two aspects. Perhaps there should be a similar tactic employed for allowing for more constructive 'deep work' in the workplace rather than a continual flow of varying levels of shallow work. Maybe a company wide 'interruption curfew', because time blocking doesn't always seem to do the trick.