How to Handle Work Emergencies + other Unknowns

ah, “emergencies”

We could never expect to manage the unknown, but we do know that – just about every day – *stuff* comes up that was not scheduled. Dealing with unknowns leaves us feeling reactive instead of proactive, and we lose a sense that we have control over aspects of work and home life. Living in a state of reaction leads to unease and stress.

Having buffers or a contingency plan is a prudent way to stay slightly ahead of the emergency. Buffers provide a sense of freedom, and ultimately reduce stress.

Back when I was managing my finances as a single woman, I would allocate every dollar towards large debts like my car payment, student loans, and mortgage. I would live marginally on some small remaining amount because I felt this bullish approach was necessary to eliminate the debt. I never gave any forethought to develop a plan for other annual expenses … like auto insurance, trips home to California, and Christmas!! I was creating emergency-like situations with my finances by not fully recognizing known costs. For years, I created emergencies when it came to managing my daily life too. I completely neglected how much time and energy all aspects of the day required, and then I wondered why I was behind the eight ball all-the-time.

I’d learned with my finances, a good first step to being more realistic was to look at EVERYthing I’d purchased in the last 12 months. I decided to look at my calendar in a similar way. How did I actually *spend* my time within a given time-frame? I often encourage clients to do a this type of chronological audit. Whether you look at the last three days, week, or month, by reviewing how you actually spent your time, you are better prepared to either:

• make more time per future planning e.g. “getting to the gym really requires two full hours start to finish, so I need to do more meal prep on the weekend if I want to eat home-cooked meals AND go to the gym during the week” … OR
• decide to do things differently e.g. “it really only makes sense for me to get to the gym on days I work from home, since these days don’t require the 2+ hours commute”
  Either is an awesome choice if it means you are being more deliberate and feeling freer about the circumstances of your life.

So how can you do this with LIFE – how can you bring more freedom and less stress by adding buffers day-to-day?

Conduct a mini-chrono-audit on yourself. Review the past 3 days, week, or even month. After you’ve finished, what are you seeing? Just acknowledge if the ‘spend’ on the currency of time is aligned with your best ideals. Then decide what adjustments are required for more realistic and compassionate planning!

Note: This is NOT about perfection! (Ha, for me, it’s mostly about not being so damn lazy!) This is about being a little more cognizant, because overall, human beings are very bad at knowing how they’ve spent any of their resources, whether it’s money, food, or time. (This is why tracking is so effective in weight loss and financial budgeting!!!)

If your role (at work or at home) equals reaction state…

For most of my professional corporate life, my role has required constant readiness. I work in an information/research center at a management consulting firm and internal clients come to us for guidance when approaching tougher research tasks (like finding production cost and yield for specific polymers broken out regionally, or accessing a contact list for residential roofers in the northeast). My main job is to react to these requests. My main job feels like a series of mini-emergencies.

The first step for me is to realize is that my employer values this state of readiness and my ability to assist. Dissonance is congruent with the definition of work. The return for this mental (and sometimes emotional) energy drain is a paycheck. And every once in a while, I’m paid by way of sincere thanks from a distressed associate.

The second step is to maintain focus, reserve and conserve energy, by not switching unnecessarily. We lose tons of brain fuel when we attempt to ‘multi-task’ or rather, ‘switch-focus’ repeatedly. One can maintain a state of reactive readiness AND not be distracted by email (or phone alerts, etc) for short increments of time. (In most environments, the world will not shut down inside 20 minutes!) So give yourself a buffer by setting focus even for 15-20 minutes without letting yourself be distracted.

Additional idea for those who really struggle feeling like it’s 100% reaction all the time: stop trying to schedule so much into your day! Do a really honest chrono-audit of your average day. If you are reacting 40% of the time (and systems cannot be set up to mitigate this) then don’t attempt to schedule 70% of your day towards other project work. Acknowledge that your time spent assisting others also equates to getting things done!

About Linda Stacy

Linda is a Boston-based Productivity Specialist and author of The Whole Package Professional: The Definitive Guide to Productivity, Success and Fulfillment in Business and Life. She created the LivingBluPrints System based on her experience as busy professional in the management consulting industry, an entrepreneur, and years of research, training, and living her best life.

Linda brings her transformative Productivity Workshops and On-Site-Seminars to corporate audiences, entrepreneurs, and hyper-busy professionals.

When the time is right, connect with Linda (linda@livingbluprints.com | 617.512.9572) to help you or your team build your blueprint to succeed in 2017!