Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The weekend tends to erase all prior history. That is a bad thing in endeavors that are worth our time.

Monday morning. A good weekend behind me. Okay, now what? Well, what’s interesting in the tech and culture news? Oh, look at that. I’ll spend some time exploring it.

Problem: I am paid to do something. Now, what was it? Hmmmmmm… How did the weekend erase everything? Where was I?

Solution: Keep records. That is an organized-person habit. I’m not an organized person. My employer, however, pays me to avoid the great history eraser that the weekend can be and continue with what we were doing the last week(s).

One Solution: I’ve used this for about 35 years. It works for me. I keep a Steno pad on my desk. That is one of those spiral-bound notebooks that flips vertically instead of horizontally. Everyday, I pencil in the things that happen. Wrote this. Read that. Talked to this person. Emailed that person. Okay, I recorded history.

Monday: First thing, look back through the notes from last week. Avoid the great eraser that the weekend can be. Sometimes I open a document on the computer and write a summary of the prior week. Other times I merely read the notes, think, and jot new notes on the calendar of the coming week.

Wow. That is organized. I’m not organized. My employer doesn’t care if I like being organized. I am paid to be organized. I am organized at work. I can be as flippant as I want at home.

At work, I am organized. I don’t let the weekend erase history. I continue this week with what was left unfinished last week.

Yes, I use a lot of paper-and-pencil tools. They are backwards compatible. I can read the history I jotted 35 years ago. If the computer crashes, no problem. If the computing system changes and last year’s records are gone, no problem. Spilled coffee? No problem. Paper and pencil works. Being organized works.

Please, try it. Don’t let the weekend erase history.