Run your day, don’t let the day run you

This resource first appeared in issue #113 on 12 Mar 2022 and has tags Becoming A Manager: Other

Run your day, don’t let the day run you - Kahlil Lechelt

A manager or leads’ day in research computing is much busier and filled with a wider variety of demands than we’re used to as an IC. It’s vital to maintain some sort of control over the tasks you’re working on. Lechelt gives good advice:

Everything goes in a task list - email is not the place to store to-dos.
Have a small list of things you will get done today, leaving slack in the schedule for things that come up.
Have your calendar be the single source of truth.
You’ll slip somtimes. It happens. You’ll abandon your task list, get stuck in fire-fighting, stop putting work activities on your calendar. Accept it and start back where you left off.