Own Your Area

07.23.10

I was recently having a conversation with a coworker about productivity ... discussing how to "own your area" and take control ... I commented that everyone has a different working style. No one way is right; no one way is wrong. The definitive point is whether or not your chosen style allows you to meet your goal – getting the job done.

Personally, I'm a "conquer and divide" kind of worker. I have to look at the sum of all the tasks needed to complete, break them down into stacks, create a list, rank the priorities, and then methodically work thru it. While my desk may appear as chaos on any given day – to me, it is a complex system of order. This stack comes before this ... and so on. If my desk is clean and stack-free – I need more work! ?

There are people out there (I'm told) who like to handle 15 projects at a time and bounce back and forth ... they have their own mini system for keeping tabs on all moving at once ... and somehow – inexplicably it may seem – they get the tasks completed on time. The mere thought of that causes my pulse to increase and my heart to thump.

The bottom line ... your style doesn't matter. Just your delivery.

So as this summer season begins to really sink in and hit ... don't let the pressure build or the panic take over. Don't look around and worry that your style doesn't mirror that of a coworker or seat mate. Take stock at what your own personal strengths are. Align those with the tasks you need to complete. Formulate your game plan. And then execute.

Reindeer was founded on the belief that we are a team. And a team is only as good as its weakest player. Don't be the weakest player. Be the player with the plan for getting the job done. You'll find the pressure is much easier to manage when you have the added comfort of feeling in control.