I have been reaching for a team lead position that is currently vacant, and sacrificing a lot of myself to do that. For example, when junior team members need help, I listen. When I see a department need, I respond to it. When I noticed that we have a ton of work in the pipeline, I develop a report to communicate to management that we're about to drown and don't have a liferaft. All of this is not in my current role, and I'm overdelivering. To a fault. I have reached a point - yesterday, in fact - where I had 5 or 6 people stop by my office for input within a 30 minute interval. While I was trying to get other things done.
I need to do the equivalent of closing my office door and getting my own work done. I need to set better boundaries. My responsibilties from my current role have been delegated somewhat - but others have not and I am falling behind on deadlines. On projects that are only mine, so if they don't get done, it reflects badly on me. Maybe only to me, but still. For example, I'm scheduled to attend an optional seminar all day today, but have bagged it to work from home and actually get work done in a quiet, uninterrupted room.
To top it off, I'm nearly 36 wks pregnant and have not been sleeping well. This wouldn't be a big deal (every pregnant woman wakes up at least once a night at the end, right girls?) EXCEPT for the fact that when I wake up, I start worrying about work, start stressing about my deadlines. Typically I lie there for an hour thinking and then, frustrated, just decide to get up. If I have my laptop, I start working. If I don't, I go organize baby clothes or clean out a closet in the basement. (Have done all three in the 4-5:30am timeframe recently.)
I'm not setting good boundaries at all.
I've been reading Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist blog for some time now. If you work and haven't checked out her site, go do it now. If you don't work, check it out anyway. Really. It's fascinating to read her opinions and perspective on work, interaction, personal drive.
Her recent post,
hit me square in the eyes on a day I needed to hear it. I am a kind person, and excellent, high-productivity worker, but I don't set great boundaries. So that's a focus for me today.
