Credit: Picasso

Improvisation

An approach when you don’t have time.

I’m having one of those weeks. A whole lot of good things are happening, but they are happening at the same time.

I’m not spending more than 24 hours in the same city at the moment. I have plans to ‘catch up’ on the plane, or get an early start… but I fell asleep or slept in.

I’m getting ready an hour before key meetings, instead of preparing days before.

This isn’t ideal. But it’s life at the moment. This is my approach to getting through times like this.

1. Accept. Be content
   “I wish I had more time. But it’ll be ok”
2. Be honest with your peers. Don’t apologise. Be objective.
   “I’m not as prepared for this as I would’ve liked, it’s one of those times”
3. It’s ok to disappoint. Prioritise
   “Hey I’m sorry, can I look at this next week? This isn’t a good week”
4. Change your meetings to information extraction instead of presentation. Use activities
   “I’d like to run an activity to help us understand this key design issue”
5. Improvise. Be comfortable. Be confident in the unknown. Take a leap. Learn from improv comedy
   “Yes and”, “could you tell me some more”
6. Change personal expectation from completion to experience and progress
   “We’re closer than we were yesterday”

Clearly I’ve written this to help me get through today. This is my run sheet.