Back In The Saddle

I apologize for the two-month delay in writing a post.  I was going gang busters until AdSense rejected my application so I sort of lost steam.  I think I’m going to reapply, though, and see how that goes. 

In the meantime, I found a new job.  Yes, I had only been at my last job for a short while (9 months to be exact).  I won’t go into the details of that, since they are pretty nasty.  Suffice it to say I got out of there just in time.   So today I’m going to talk about cutting the crap and not feeling bad about it.

That’s right.  I walked away from what I thought was as close to perfect as I could get in a job.  You know why I walked?  Because I wanted to leave on my own terms.  I don’t feel bad about that.  At all.  I did at first, but I got over it.  When you hit one of those roadblocks  - you know the kind I mean – that make you stop and wonder what the heck you did wrong, then it’s time to stop and evaluate what you want.  Don’t feel bad about that.  Just evaluate.  Decide what you want.  Don’t feel bad about saying to yourself that you deserve to be treated better.  Don’t feel bad about looking for something else.  Cut that crap out.  Do what is best for you and your family and move on. 

You know what else you shouldn’t do?  Don’t feel like you wasted your time at that particular job (or whatever it may be).  You know why?  Because that time wasn't wasted.   It never is.  You always learn something from each experience, no matter how horrible it that experience may have been.   

So that’s it for today’s post.  I had to get back in the blog saddle.  I think I’ll write more later about the job hunting process and how to cut the crap out of that.  Boy, did I learn a lot this time around…

Cutting the Crap at Work

In an effort to be more efficient around here, upper management has decided that we need to cut out as many afternoon meetings as possible.  This, they say, will allow project teams to work uninterrupted through the afternoon, and hopefully they will be more productive.  I say HUZZAH to this new cutting-of-the-meetings edict.  After all, Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings… They did it by killing all those who opposed them.  Just sayin’…

So that made me contemplate how I can cut the crap at work.  I probably shouldn’t be looking at Facebook or writing for my blog… Those two are givens.  But I think I can actually make a difference by really sharpening my meeting agendas and making sure only the necessary people attend.   I also think I can be more efficient in my email writing strategies.  I need to make them information dense.  I can do that.  I think.  I’m sure there are a TON of other ways to make things better.  I’m going to look into that more. 

Last year I started reading a book entitled Managing Workplace Chaos by Patricia Hutchings.  It’s a pretty good book that advocated the idea of speed reading to get the info we need.  I think I need to pick up this book again and re-read it.  Do any of you have good reading suggestions?  Or ideas?  Tricks? Tips?  Anything on cutting the crap at work to become more productive?  Talk to me!