Following a month where work has gone off the scale thanks to more incoming work and less staff I've launched into a new project today which relates to boosting the organisation's social media profile. Am I mad to have taken it on? Possibly, but it's interesting, new and full of potential. I'm also trying to get more involved in the different parts of the company and develop my career in a more interesting direction, five years of admin having worn me down to a nib, so it makes sense to grasp these opportunities.
One big problem: Whilst I felt enthused as I walked home from work I also felt overwhelmed. I can think of four distinct projects I'm working on, along with piece of training I'm about to undertake, finance, PA work, events preparation and everyday admin work. I can't fit any more hours into the day and the only work I'm willing to take home is for the training course if I can't squeeze it into my day somewhere. I want time to write, make things and spend time with my husband, friends and clingy elderly cats so bringing home work is a no no.
I've always relied stubbornly on pen and paper but this amount of time planning was giving me too many separate To Do lists and making things look even worse, so I'm giving an online planning app a chance. I've set up a Trello account and so far it's looking good. I've set up one board to share with the people who'll be working on that particular project in other offices so we can co-ordinate our efforts. I've set up five other boards to cover different areas, so that each of the five work areas (and their many sub-areas) that are supposed to be my number one priority (!) are now separated out from each other. Now that I've got them in distinct lists everything makes more sense in my head and although I havn't reduced the amount of work or increased the amount of time I have it all looks manageable now and I can see what needs doing now and what can be put off reasonably. (I can also see that I should be paid more, weep weep.)