Levels of Scheduling

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Lately I've been coaching several people on being more organized – as well as working on putting together some of my future plans after a busy year.  I wanted to share an interesting insight that may help the readers since I know a lot of us are scrambling to plan for a future in a tough time.

What I noticed was many people have a particular "level" they're most aware of in scheduling – they may think ahead a week, a month, a year, etc. and that's where they plan best.  Though they may plan well on that level, they're often surprised or unprepared for things happening in a different timeframe.  Some examples:

  • A person who plans best on a yearly level may have a hard time focusing on specific tasks on a weekly or daily level.
  • A person who plans well week by week may lack the sense of the big picture.

For a few people, they may even operate well on more than one level – but these levels are not necessarily connected – one can be good at planning five years ahead and a week ahead, but miss, say, planning well on the level of one month.  Thus they grind to a halt caught between timeframes, trying to reconcile plans.

If you're trying to be more organized (and who isn't?), you need to be aware of you have a particular "level" or "levels" you like to schedule on, and work to ensure you plan well on all levels of your schedule.

– Steven Savage

Save us all from regional ignorance

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Recently, Bonnie posted a link to an article on the rather unsettling fact that only about 60% of employable Californians are working.  Yes, that doesn't necessarily mean they're looking for work – but it's a lower percentage than previously (the peak was 65% of the population working, which doesn't sound very excting either).  What I find most intriguing as this news rockets around the internet is that a lot of posters commenting on it don't really seem to know what they're talking about – which is a valuable lesson for relocation.

As I am a person that moved to California a few years ago, I quickly became aware that California is best understood as a country because of its level of complexity.  I also became painfully aware that, when it comes to California, most people don't know what they're talking about – this is a state with a huge constitution, complex politics, interesting issues in raising taxes on the state level (think it can be done with a simple majority vote?  Wrong, it takes 2/3), a prominent place in the US and world economy, and more.  Some Californians seemed clueless, but they were nothing compared to people I'd encounter in other states who assumed that, somehow, they were experts on where I'd relocated to.

And this is why all my past advice on using your fandom contacts and good research to understand targets of relocation is important.  California is on the high end of Incredibly Complex States, but it's not the only one.

And when you assess relocation, there's often a lot of misinformation.

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Rebelling your way into total failure

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Thinking outside of the box, thinking different, doing things your way, finding your own vision, etc.  A lot of business advice and career advice I hear – and indeed preach – is about not necessarily following everyone else.

This of course is a valid point – most people's successes are individual, and you have to find the proper balance in your career of doing what works, and what works for YOU.

Unfortunately some people take "rebellion against the norm" a wee bit too seriously and manage to rebel themselves into complete and utter failure.

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