Someday, some work expert will undertake a study that will try to explain just how it can be that so much productivity takes place on a Friday. I’m sure they’d say it has something to do with not wanting to leave work to sit and wait for next week. Or to avoid weekend work. And, sure, that’s part of the motivation. I don’t want to do work this week’s work tomorrow and Sunday. Tomorrow and Sunday, I have to start on next week’s work.
Next week I have a regular week plus the continuation of that big project that ate up so much time that I took a week off from writing here. It was a big document, one meant to describe the year of work, which is odd considering we’ve so far gone through just six of the 10 months. The document was page limited, which I almost hit, because it is meant to be a narrative of your work, and I can write about that in exciting detail. Except I wrote too much. Somewhere along the way, when I was working on that last month I completely overlooked that I was supposed to write four pages. It was an easy mistake to make, considering the two separate checklists I’d received. Two different checklists.
Also, this document has two separate tables of contents, the vestigial limbs of previous documents of this useful and well-intended paperwork.
When I submitted it for review, my colleague who is guiding me through the process pointed all of this out. But he’s glad I did it as I did, because that’s what next year’s version will be like. So I’ve started the master document, basically. And the committee that reviews these things formally was kind enough to give me some good feedback for correction and improvement. I received that Wednesday, and started working on that this evening. I’ll be with that for a few days off and on.
Also today, I had a committee meeting, where I did the magic of rewriting things we’ve been writing for a couple of months. A lot of stuff got done today — smooth, purposeful, and efficient. And also a lot of grading.
None of this week’s grading can get in the way of next week, which starts tomorrow, and more work on that packet, which I’m eager to finish up by the middle of the week.
That’s how you know how productive all of this has become, I know precisely when everything will be done.
