As I was walking around yesterday attending multiple meetings my mind wandered back to my days as a dishwasher.
I often say that I learned most of the lessons for running a business by being a dishwasher and for many of my friends this is an all too familiar story, but yesterday while running down one street, responding to emails on my blackberry, and adding things to my to do list for the day, I remembered a feeling:
That feeling was the same one I felt when I was "in the weeds"
In the weeds is a slang term for being backed up. It means that all around you there are things to complete and they have piled up so much that you are literally up to your ears in dishes, trash, pots, pans, silverware, mugs, glasses, etc.
There's only one way to get out of the weeds and that is to make some room to work and then start working with the little room you've made. As you start to clear that space and get some of those dishes clean, you work really fast and rack two more racks of dishes, and silverware while the first rack is running. Once you have three racks ready to go, and you have no more room to rack, you go on and make a rack of mugs, then a rack of silverware and you rack like crazy until the machine stops and you send the next rack in. You then un-rack the first rack and place it in the empty space made by the third rack. Now you have even more time so you wash some glasses, take out the trash until it's time to un- rack again. So what's the point for producers?
Every project you have is a rack. You have a team that you have to assemble, emails to answer, money to manage, and relationships to cultivate. You have to get those things lined up and in order before you can move forward and add another rack and in order to have another rack, you need room. So when you have six projects or more running, you have to start to make room to move. This sometimes means letting something sit for bit while you rack for the current project, but the most important thing is to make sure you have space to work.
So if you're feeling in the weeds with any project, ask yourself what you could do to make some room. Here are some tips to get out of the weeds.
- Create a list of projects and due dates and identify which things are easiest to complete quickly and which will take more time. In other words, which items are your plates with eggs that will take time to wash and which items are glasses which get rinsed, racked and are done?
- Survey your landscape. This is especially helpful with email glut. Look at the whole picture and go right down the list checking off anything that can be addressed after the immediate response items. You know which emails need to be answered now and which can be answered later, so prioritize and rack.
- Get someone to un-rack. Find a partner you trust to take care of some of the things that don't need a personal response from you. Sometimes all you have to do is send out a proposal that's been pre-made, why not have someone send it out for you while you deal with the personal responses you have?
- Take out the trash. Once you prioritize and know what is not worth your time, get rid of it. Remember your time is an investment and if any thing or anyone is abusing your time and causing you to waste it, you need to move on. This is often the toughest one to do, but is pretty much essential to getting out of the weeds.
And there you have it. Some lessons from dish washing. Now if you are reading this and think any of this is useful information, than rather than comment today, I'm going to ask you to do something a little different.
Pay it forward.
Give these tips to someone who could use them.
And remember that you need to start racking or nothing will get done.
So go on...
Rack.
Excelsior!
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