Shifting to a new shift
Published by on September 19th, 2008
Timezones are a killer. The recent attempt to harness the extended work hours of liaising more closely with the team in San Francisco by shifting my work days into a later schedule (starting around midday), was a complete failure.
Working what amounts to an evening shift, meant closer integration with the San Francisco team, but also a serious degradation in  - for want of a better phrase - work/life balance at this side of the pond. Not being fully on UK time, and not being fully on Pacific time, generated a complete inability to schedule any aspect of life outside of work.
The situation inevitably came rapidly to crisis point. Gratefully, the SF team were supremely understanding and at their suggestion I am now back onto a UK schedule, starting in the morning and finishing my day no later than 7pm (emergency firefighting aside). That offers around a 3 hour overlap to pack in any meeting schedules. Today is the end of the first week with this new schedule has been in place, and, thanks in no small part to the cooperation of the SF team, it is working extremely well for me, and there appears to be no detrimental affect on productivity.
Squeezing the time breeds efficiency
Unsurprisingly, reducing the acceptable span of hours for work tasks each day has not slowed productivity and task completion. With an extended day, tasks would naturally inflate to fill the available space.
Now tasks have a positive evening deadline, and one critical factor comes into play: if a non-critical task remains incomplete at the end of the day, it is absolutely fine to leave it and continue in the morning. That’s a new one for me!
Too big a price to pay
Two day-to-day aspects of life took a serious hit with the previous evening regime: spending quality time with my wife, and continuing my writing.
Production of Table Rappers: Persistent Spirit had distressingly slowed because the only available time for this work were the first few hours of the day. But I am entirely unable to write creatively in the mornings! Writing full time is my long term goal, so to say this aspect is critical is something of an understatement.
If this week is anything to go by, there is now time to write in the evenings once more, when I am at my most productive and inspired creatively.
One day at a time
It is early days, but so far, realignment to UK time is having a very positive effect in both efficiency, productivity, and overall peace of mind that there is more to life than work.
