CMU School of Drama


Monday, April 16, 2018

I Used This Simple Chart To Prioritize My Crazy Busy Work Life

www.fastcompany.com: I was a few weeks into my maternity leave when I heard that my company named a new CEO. Several of my colleagues emailed me saying, “You’d better get in here; she’s developing relationships with the key people, and you’re missing out.” Anxious and fearful of missing out on making a connection with the new CEO, I cut my maternity leave short and went back to work. Several months later, I found myself operating on “Transactional Mode.” I so badly wanted to feel accomplished by checking things off my to-do list that I spent all my time attacking small tasks and let the big ones slide.

2 comments:

Sarah Connor said...

I think that this article poses a lot of really useful techniques for staying organized and really prioritizing the things you need to do from what you want to do or think you need to do but may not actually need to. One thing I found super useful here, and in some other articles I have read on the topic, too, is the idea of setting up specific nonnegotiable that you will not compromise on. Not only making those things nonnegotiable in terms of career goals, but also personal health goals, relationship goals, and unrelated goals like charity and other worldly things. It's so easy to forget about the things you want to do outside of work, especially in such a crazy environment like this, but keeping yourself on track with more than just academics or the next production is really important and will help keep you healthy and more productive in the long run.

Marisa Rinchiuso said...

I enjoyed the premise of this article. I do find it extremely difficult to balance my life, even just as a student. Especially being in a program like CMU Drama, it is hard to pause and reflect on what matters to me because everything feels so lightning fast. I often prioritize school so much that I end up letting it rule the rest of my categories. I also don't know what is non negotiable for me. Perhaps that is because I am still young and am unsure, or maybe it's just that I haven't given it time. Relating to the article, I do wonder what types of items she would say to put under the categories; some of hers are so tangible, others are vague phrases that connote an assortment of things. I find that extremely tangible activities provide the best clarity for me personally, of course that's because of my need for "action items" in life rather than others who like to operate on grand themes.