Dogs, time management, wellbeing, values… and the need for an accurate log
Hello world, I’ve got a puppy. I can confirm there is now one more spoilt dog roaming the streets of London. You may already be aware of this life-changing event if you’re an avid fan of the 50 Degrees twitter (a shameless plug here for @its50D). I have welcomed the delightful Lola – a now 8-month old golden retriever puppy – into my life and she has joined the 50 Degrees team (in that she comes to the London office, not that she’s writing bids – she barely gets out from under my desk because she’s such a scaredy-cat).
This announcement is relevant to 50 Degrees – because yes, I have found a way to bring my dog into every conversation – beyond there being a new face in the office. Raising a puppy has reminded me of the importance of time management – an incredibly important component in bid writing.
Time management is one of those skills that you put on your CV, but is quite hard to quantify (ironically). At university, I considered my time management skills to be superb because I never lost marks for a late submission – even though I was no stranger to cramming a few thousand words in the night before. Now at 50 Degrees – especially in the wake of Lola’s arrival in my life – time management has a whole new meaning. I was watching Will write the pipeline out on one of the fancy whiteboards in our new London office, and it struck me just how much 50 Degrees is juggling. We’ve got a lot of projects coming up in the next 12-months and I’m increasingly working on multiple projects at the same time. It’s essential in these situations to organise your workload – to know what you need to do and plan to ensure you have the capacity to do it. It’s more than keeping track of your deadlines and prioritising your workload, it’s also about leaving enough room spare for any last-minute tasks that might get dropped in your lap… and working flexibly to re-direct your attention at short notice. These ‘things you need to do’ are always more than just research, analysis, reading or writing – as the wonderful Matt Wells has been telling us all in the London office, you also need to make time for your wellbeing too.
Lola has presented a wonderful opportunity for me to do that. She’s added a lot more tasks to my roster – though she is thankfully now house/office-trained, so there’s no longer the need for an accurate log of her bowel movements(!). Now I just have a nice mid-morning break to let her out into the garden, which forces me to get up from my desk and look away from the laptop . It makes me realise what time it is, take a moment to reflect on what I’ve achieved so far and yes, sometimes realise that I haven’t achieved as much as I’d hoped (I’m only human) and adjust my schedule accordingly. I make myself a cup of tea, lure Lola back into the house and away from chasing pigeons in the garden – getting back to work with a fresh outlook that is especially valuable with some of the more creative tasks I’m given. I’m still learning to appreciate Lola’s 5am wakeup call, but I like to think I’m using the early start wisely to prepare for the day.
If you’ve reached this far and are wondering if you’ve just read 500 words loosely relating owning a puppy to time management in bid writing, then let me confirm - you most certainly have.
Raising a puppy is a challenge, something that is currently bringing quality results – Lola now knows to do her business in the garden, to settle on the tube and knuckle down for a hard day’s work when we’re in the office. It’s been a collegiate effort, with everyone pitching in to reinforce her sits, distract her from bad behaviour and give her the space to introduce herself because (as I say) she’s a big old scaredy-cat. I’ve had to be a bit creative to keep her attention – making use of a vast range of noises from an owl hoot to a high-pitched beep - and had fun devising new ways that keep her occupied when I leave the room. I consider it a success so far in that both Lola and I are still alive, and the house hasn’t burnt down.
If you aren’t keeping up with What we’re thinking here at 50 Degrees, you might have missed that I just related owning Lola to the company culture and values.
I’ve combined three tasks – my daily adoration of the lovely Lola (which really can’t be helped if you look at her beautiful little face); the creation of a business-related blog post on time management; and promoting the 50 Degrees values. Perhaps this is the secret to success when it comes to time management – you don’t have to do more work or work harder, you just have to work smarter?
Lucy Figini
Consultant