What do You do When Your Schedule Conspires Against You?
You may have noticed that this blog as been completely dormant for nearly a week now. It has been one of those weeks where every client or potential client or potential client I have ever had decided they need something from me immediately, if not sooner. It’s the sort of problem you wish for when things are slow, but dread when it actually happens.
I’ve been living my life this week by the advice outlined in the Million Dollar Leverage post on What to Do When Your Schedule Blows Up, and putting in my share of very, very late nights. Still, there are only so many hours in a day. Chris Guillebeau offers some more great advice in a recent post at The Art of Nonconformity:
Problems:
- Your friends and family members who work at traditional jobs won’t understand.
- The crises are all yours for the managing.
Solutions:
- Simply decide to stop doing stuff.
- Improve your personal productivity skills, including planning and implementation.
- Delegate or outsource
Thanks Chris for the great advice. Really, check out his blog, which is full of great stuff.
The question remains though… how do you handle a sudden major influx of work? Outsourcing is great if you have something lined up or tasks that don’t require much training, but that’s not always the case. Hiring is risky because the fever pitch of work may not last, and then when things die down you end up overstaffed. Granted, it’s a good problem to have, but it’s a problem nevertheless.
What an inspiration! Go Kyle Go! Buckets and buckets of blessings on your...
Hi Kyle, thanks for including me here. I appreciate it.
Good luck with all the new business! In the long-run, it’s probably a good problem to have.
April 21st, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the note. I really enjoyed your post and hope others will benefit from it as well.
I’m sure you’re right though, it’s certainly good for the long run, but it just results in a few sleepless nights in the process.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:20 am