When covid pulls the Andon Cord // Prioritization // Building better systems
I live in a quiet mountain village of twenty people, above the fog and 9km from the nearest store or cafe. I never imagined I would leave city life behind, but this place seem to suit me.
Still, covid finds a way, and it ended up finding us here.
Which was initially pretty concerning, because I was already running at 150% capacity and couldn’t imagine what would happen once my energy levels collapsed.
But it’s ended up being great. (To clarify: it’s been great for work — I obviously feel physically terrible, and the scuttling of our pre-holiday plans was also non-ideal. Anyway.) The benefit was in being forced to slow down, take a deep breath, and re-evaluate what the fuck I was doing with my time.
As mentioned elsewhere, my last few months had degraded into an unrelenting, anxiety-fueled grind with no end in sight. I was so busy putting out fires that I had no surplus to invest into building better systems.
Everyone was telling me to slow down (because I was getting crazy), and I was willfully refusing to listen (because I was getting crazy).
The only way I was going to stop was if something made me stop. Oh hi, it’s covid🙋♂️.
With a hard limit on my energy and attention, prioritization simply happened. I had to do the most important thing first thing or it wouldn’t happen. So I did. And a bunch of other “urgent priorities” that I had been beating myself up over for weeks, seemed suddenly unimportant. Clarity.
With the fake priorities revealed for what they truly were, I suddenly had more time and attention to spend on what mattered.
So I started systematizing little leaks: Text Expander shortcuts for common customer support messages; clearer rules on what I do and don’t agree to do; asking for community volunteers to facilitate our regular weekly events instead of doing them all myself; shutting down a side project that was adding high stress and low revenue. Neat! I did a bit of root cause analysis on my stress and anxiety. I read a bunch of books.
For the first time in months, instead of fighting to catch up, I was getting in front of things.
Not because I had more time, but because I had less.
Because covid had pulled the Andon Cord and forced me to slow down enough to fix the system instead of just running around in a permanent panic.
And what’s funny is that if I’d seen this behavior in someone else, I would have said the same thing to them as my cofounder, my coach, and my girlfriend all said to me: slow down, this isn’t sustainable.
But as tends to happen, I couldn’t see it in myself. Luckily, something bigger and stronger than me came by, knocked me on my ass, and forced my hand.
And now, for the first time in months, I feel calm, collected, and keen to get back to into the thick of it. In fact, I’m pretty sure that catching covid has ended up saving me from burnout. So… Thanks? 🤷♂️