We’ve all had them. Those epically bad days at work. The days that can’t end soon enough. Not that the end of the day will bring you any relief. It’s likely you’ll just go home and keep thinking about your no good very bad day.
The thing is – and you’re going to have to be really honest with yourself here – in most cases that day and situation was avoidable. Ninety percent of ugliness at work involves a situation you’re avoiding. Whether it’s a problematic employee, an unappreciative client or even something as small as the fact you need to update your virus software; putting off dealing with stuff can come back to haunt you in big ways. Procrastination is costly both to your business and your psyche.
Trust me. I had a client tell me early in my career that we’d both feel better once I delivered a project that I was behind on. He was right. Dealing with stuff will make you and everyone around you feel better.
What’s on your list that you’re avoiding? Write every little thing down that you know you need to deal with but haven’t. Which item has the biggest potential to blow up on you?
Your list might look something like this:
- Talk to Jane about poor sales performance last quarter
- Figure out why widget sales are down this month
- Verify network server backup is adequate and working
- Fire Acme as client since we’re losing money on account
No fun conversations or tasks on that list, but all costly to you and your organization if the situation isn’t addressed. Any one of those items has the potential to go from a storm cloud to an F5 disaster in one afternoon.
In most cases, you’ve already thought about what you need to address or do to diffuse the ticking time bomb. It’s already sucking up a lot of your energy so why not just get it over with? You will feel better once you and do likely avoid a no good very bad day.
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