Bottlenecked!
This past week I took an unexpected break from my blog. I am committed to blogging and writing at least three times a week. However, last week was a different story.
I would like to say I took the break because I was out saving the world or I was on vacation (I can dream!), but the reason I took an unexpected rest was because I was flat out too busy!
I find myself for two or three weeks each year in a week I like to call a “bottleneck week”. A bottleneck week is when work and commitments from different angles all come to the same cross roads at the same time. I remember living back in the UK where I had a 50 minute commute each day to work but lived only 10 miles away! I use to complain and get mad each day because the people who designed the road system had created hundreds of bottlenecks. Last week I found myself in a bottleneck I created!
As a leader I have a lot to learn. The lesson I was taught last week showed me that as a leader you have to plan well and not to bite off more than you can chew. I had three big assignments and events that intersected paths. If I had planed a little better a few months ago, the heavy work load of those three assignments would have never had to cross paths!
When you find yourself in a bottleneck three things happen:
- You feel the stress and pressure – No one works most effective and productive when under the gun!
- Everything you do ends up being average not out of this world – Individual projects do not run as well as they could if they had the road by themselves
- You end up having bad memories of the project – The project suffers long term because of a bad system.
One thing I am learning is that less is more! The less your life is cluttered the better you become at what you do. Bottlenecks should be left to bottles not leadership, work, your social life, family life or the roadway system!
What bottlenecks are you going through at the moment? What can you do to prevent a bottleneck in the future?
Hey Alex,
This is a little wordy, sorry about that but we had a rough night last night. I’m having a, when coffee isn’t enough kinda day.
Sorry to hear of your stressful time. Hopefully it will get better from here on out. Right now I do not have any bottlenecks of which I am aware. I will say with a new baby I find it difficult just to keep the dishes out of the sink. Right now they are piled high, you can still get a glass of water from the fosset but barely.
However when I did youth ministry I was way over commited. I had to learn to say, “No.” I was forgetting things, showing up late and not getting enough sleep. The apostle paul said this one thing I do, I do well. Now Im not sure of the context that verse was used in, but it is something I keep in mind and helps me not feel guilty in saying,”no.” I cannot do it all and I am not supposed to do it all, and if I know I have all I can handle then I say “no” because I will end up letting someone down by not doing it well! They may be dissapointed at an initial ,”no”, but they will be more dissapointed and frustrated when I am not returning phone calls, running behind deadlines and only having what appears to be a halfhearted attempt.
Blythe and myself cleared our schedules of all commitments for july, aug and sept since we were having our first child and did not know what to expect. I would rather be under commited with the ability to add things to our schedule then the opposite.
If you are remolding a home they tell you to add 20% to your cost estimate and have the 20% plus your initial estimate as you total budget for the project. So for planning for projects shoot to have them done a week and a half to two weeks ahead of schedule. So if something you need to take care of comes up you can handle it and still deliver a well excuted project on time.
Hey Alex,
To tag on what Chuck said. He has being trying to teach me this for the last four years…I think it is starting to sink in but I still have a long ways to go. I think the key to not over committing is to have your own “Chuck” who reminds you frequently when you are over committing yourself, “If there is one thing I do, I do well.” When he tells me this, it helps me realize I am going to have or have my hand in too many pots.
Hey Blthye, you could be onto something there. I wonder if we can clone Chuck and sell him. The marketing campaign could be, ‘everyone needs a Chuck’
Alex I ran into your site a while back and bookmarked it. Since then I have learned that Scott McChrystal and I are going to be at your church in November. I look forward to reading your blog and eventually meeting you.
Blake Leitch
Hey Blake, glad you found me on here. Looking forward to meeting you on Nov. 8. Should be a good day