Do It Now

Ah the old call to action; the antithesis of procrastination and apathy; the old ‘Do it Now’. A concept I struggle with daily. I try the to do list, but it’s a waste of time, because like the wil ‘o the wisp I let myself flit to the tasks the are more interesting, more challenging and what I inherently feel are a better use of my time. Obviously I live in dreamland there; after all it’s the devil in the details that makes the world go around. It’s the crossed t’s and dotted i’s that make business profitable and managers happy.

Once I thought that these things were a strength of mine and then in my last annual review my boss pointed out that really, I am not all that brilliant at the mundane stuff and that really, my filing system is spontaneous rather than organised; and even I have to admit that things make sense to me at the time, but when I am looking for a file three months later and its not filed in a ‘logical’ place that perhaps spontaneous filing is not the best approach for someone who is aiming to be a shared services manager.

And look, I am all for knowing what your own weaknesses and strengths are but sometimes I really think that I was better off thinking that I was much better than I really am. Knowing that what I want to do is not necessarily the thing that I am best at fills me with self doubt and then I think that if I am doubting myself how the hell does my manager feel?

But apart from a masters degree in creative filing, a doctorate in flitting from interesting project to interesting project and an Emmy in ‘Don’t’ do today what can be done by someone else tomorrow’ I think that I am pretty damned good at what I do. Because even in my worst, avoid the drudgery moment, I am still better than the ‘others’. They would have NO idea how to call the building management and complain about the lack of air con; they wouldn’t know where to start on finding the best price for copy paper and they would never cope with learning the difference between symmetrical and asymmetrical broadband connections.

So you know what; even though I am probably pretty crap at doing it now, I am pretty good at what I do anyhow 