I became a technical writer for many reasons. Some of those reasons are that it is a generally low-stress, don't have to work much overtime, never get paged in the wee-hours of the morning type of job.
So here I am, at work on a Saturday, wondering where I went wrong. Now, I don't mind the occasional overtime; it comes with the job (any job, for that matter). But this is already the third time this year I have felt the need to work on a weekend to stay caught up. Frustrating.
The good thing about it is that you can get so much more done without the constant bustle and distraction of the other people with whom you work. In only a couple of hours today I have managed to do about the same amount as I can on a work day. My email hasn't twitched once since coming in this morning. My phone has only sounded once, and that is my friend with whom I arranged to have lunch today. The rest has been music-turned-loud, nose-to-the-grind-stone get stuff DONE time.
And, I think I have done enough that I do not need to come back after lunch or tomorrow. I feel good about my Friday deadline and that I can get everything else ready by then-- and maybe earlier. Think I will shoot for Wednesday. ;-)
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I will get more done after hours than a whole day in my office. Part of my job is taking phone calls so it can't be avoided, but I do marvel at how much you can get done without distraction. I also find late at night to be a very productive time... darkness tends to help keep focus, there's nothing to see looking out the window, etc.
ReplyDeleteOT truly is a part of every job. Until the mice hit my office I'd usually show up at some point every weekend to do something. Unfortunately now I find myself avoiding it on the weekend so I don't run into any unwanted visitors.
I went in to the office last Saturday too. And I'm also a technical writer (at another organization). I don't like feeling like I'm behind in my work, so it was by my choice to come in on that day. No one else was there, so my time spent was extremely productive. I thought about coming in this weekend too, but was too tired. It's definitely worth it to spend the additional time off-hours so you don't have to feel under stress on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteI usually avoid working on Saturday's, which is good considering that I am a programmer, unfortunately I haven't been able to avoid the midnight pages. There is no good way to be paged in the middle of the night and I would trade a few Saturdays to avoid it.
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