The Campbell Academy Blog (39)

Making sense of Monday

In normal circumstances these days, when I'm not travelling somewhere, Mondays are the day to set up the rest of the week and the weeks to come.

So when normal service is resumed and I'm in a good place, I get up on a Monday morning, walk the dogs, see Callum off to school, and work at home.

That means organising the list (lists), which has become something like a PhD doctorate exercise.

There is lots to do in all of our lives, both a huge amount of work commitment and a large amount of domestic commitment, as well as things to sort and fix.

And so, how do we make sense of that, and how do we start?

For me, at the very best of times, it starts on a Sunday night.

If I find I have space that's not stressed and everybody else is in a good place, then I'll spend an hour or an hour and a half on a Sunday night organising the list. My main list is in Asana, our project management tool, and it's my CC MP Meeting list (MP is Marie, my PA, and we work together in sorting the list out).

We meet somewhere online virtually in the middle of a Monday to look at that list, and Marie always says to me, "Oh my God, your list is terrible."

I start by prioritising the list, making sense of it, dividing it into high, medium, and low priorities, and putting dates on the things that I never make or meet.

In Asana I can chuck them around, move them from top to bottom.

Being me, I start about 20 new projects every Monday and never cancel any other projects, so the list gets longer and longer until it is a catastrophe, and then I have a forest fire to get rid of the stuff that's never going to get done.

Then, I try to see if I can move stuff on my list into other people's more appropriate lists or pass it on to them through Slack or emails if it's external.

I make sure my emails are up to date.

I make sure my Slack messages are up to date.

I try to make sure my blogs are in and scheduled at least as far ahead as I can, which takes the pressure off.

And only then can I get to work.

Ideally, I would walk the dogs, take Callum to school, and then ride my bike, but today, I decided to ride my bike later (and that is really dangerous because it might not get done) just to make sure that the rest of the week is sorted.

These days, I wonder how I ever managed without the Monday session to do this, how I ever kept on top of anything, or how I ever got anything done.

As the organisation gets bigger and there are more of us and more people to do more things, the Monday setting up session will squeeze into Tuesday and then Wednesday, and then making the lists, setting things forward, and passing it on to other people will become the vast majority of my job.

It's interesting how things change, isn't it? It's interesting how it alters.

Worth stepping back from time to time to see what your job looks like just to make sure it is the job you actually thought it was.