I am in Amsterdam waiting to board a flight home. I have had limited sleep during this trip, but have had a productive time. One of the keys to being a good leader is getting all that administrivia done, without it having a negative impact on your leadership. Trips like this one offer me the opportunity to get caught up on far too often delayed projects I have assigned myself. This reflects my strength and weakness at the same time. Although I fancy myself as being focused and disciplined, I am married to an incredibly disciplined wife, and I have never been able to emulate her discipline. When she makes a “list” she works it off with no delay. In my case, I frequently get backed up and find myself needing times like the last two days, to knock out a variety of projects. I am diciplined enough to use the time, but I manage to take on far too much, so more often than I like, I get behind.
My wife keeps telling me that I try to do too many things, and frankly she is correct, I do. That said, I never have actually made a serious effort to stop. It is in my blood to multi task. But…if you are going to multi task, you can not allow yourself to fail to “keep up.” Frankly, all too often I do, but I have observed many others, who when they get behind, just never seem to get caught up. ironically, I am not convinced I am any better disciplined than they, but I do know that when I get in trouble, I manage to get seriously focused and catch up. If you are somebody with my weakness of overloading, then I hope that you also have my strength of being able to catch up before it becomes a crisis. If not, you need to start working on that, because if you are perpetually behind, you will never achieve your goals. If you can not get it done yourself, get help. In my case, it is not inconceivable that my strength actually comes from that disciplined wife. She is my anchor, and I hope you find one. It truly make life easier.
