What comes to your mind when you think of the word “flexible”?
For me, it’s my schedule.
I have to admit that I am one of these rigid types when it comes to my work schedule. My days are planned in my calendar weeks in advance…in ink. I am determined, on any given day, to accomplish what I planned for that day.
Ah, but life doesn’t always work that way.
Things come up. A small project may come my way which needs to be done by tomorrow. I may (only very occasionally) be called away from my work. Who knows?
What I do know is that I have to be able to rearrange my schedule and be flexible.
When doing this, I always take into account which project or task has the tightest deadline. Whichever one does gets the highest priority. After that, I ask myself which has the second-tightest deadline, and so on. Then I attack them one by one.
And so my planner sometimes ends up with blotches of ink on the days’ entries, as I scratch out whatever has to be rescheduled from that day after writing it in a different day. (For the record, the things I accomplish are marked with a check next to the item.)
A planner can be written in and scratched in and it doesn’t mind at all, as it is made of paper and plastic and can’t think for itself. My brain, however, is another story.
It’s always painful for me when I have to reschedule something or insert something that wasn’t planned for that day. But this does not mean that I don’t do it. As I rearrange items in the calendar, I think, “I will still be getting things done.” I force myself to think flexibly. If you are in business, being flexible is not an option.
Hmmm…maybe I should start writing in my planner in pencil?
What techniques do you use, dear reader, to make yourself think in a flexible way as you work?