Get-It-Done Guy Action Day (not!)

A lesson in the difference between busyness and productivity:

I had the honor of participating in Stever Robbins' "Get-It-Done Guy Action Day". The purpose of the action day is for a group of people to get together hourly for 5 minutes and commit to a daily goal and hourly goals.

I had a day of action planned. In the morning, I had planned to create tickets and assign work related to our ongoing lease replacement of computer hardware, and to review and update projects.

After lunch, my plan was to catch up on email and anything that came in during the morning.

The first call with Stever was at 9:00, I had to drop off early as I had an emergency call. Problems with our new video conference equipment.

Missed the 10:00 call for due to a hastily arranged conference call to discuss a software problem. Dropped off that call early because a new executive was having a PC problem. I don't do regular PC support anymore, but I do take most of the executive calls.

Missed the 11:00 call because of an impromptu meeting with our Facilities Manager and our Telephone Engineer about the new video conferencing system and upcoming moves within the building.

Left for lunch about 11:40. Ran out and got some groceries at the only Trader Joe's in the region, which is close to the office but far from home.

Back in less than an hour. Tried to eat. Network team fixed executive's issue. Went to test. Missed the 1:00 call.

Asked to meet with our CFO for software upgrade at 2:00. At 1:55 received call from an executive assistant who had a virus on her laptop. Picked up laptop and met with CFO. Missed the 2:00 call.

Cleaned off virus and updated laptop for admin. In my office at 3:00. Called in and gave update. Got support (yay!) Planned to spend next hour trying to get on track with projects (see 9:00am). Emergency call - had to drop off.

Made the 4:00 call (two in a row!) In between 3 and 4 had been called away 3 times. Now planning what work to take home to work on. Didn't make the 5:00 call as I was on the road and heading for home.

All in all, a very busy day. I am certain that I burned off at least two pounds with all the running about I did! How "productive" was I? About a 20 on a scale of 1 to 100. I did get my shopping done and I processed some leased hardware that was returned to me which I turned around quickly and returned to the leasing company.

On the busyness scale it was 100. I didn't have a free second.

What did I learn?

Having a plan for the day and for each hour is helpful. While I didn't complete much on my list of goals, they are all ready for me for tomorrow. Since they were all written down, something I don't have do every day, I had them to refer to, when I thought my day was going to settle down, so I could have gotten started instead right away instead of wasting valuable time wondering what I should be doing next. I recently made myself a similar "cheat sheet" for things around the house that I could be doing when, in a brain fog, I would rather just check Twitter and Digg!

To Stever and my fellow participants, thanks for the opportunity to take part. I hope to do it again soon, and have a day of action instead of reaction!