Sustaining motivation in a demotivating environment
March 2, 2018 10:40 AM Subscribe
Due to an imbalance of resources, I keep running into a particular demoralizing/demotivating situation with my job and it's starting to affect my productivity. How can I short-circuit this bad cycle I've gotten into?
Generally speaking, I don't have a hard time motivating myself to work. I've been a freelancer for a long time, so I'm accustomed to self-starting and self-managing, and don't have procrastination issues beyond the occasional dicking-around-on-the-Internet. For some reason, though, I'm really struggling with one particular circumstance.
I am on a project in which the staffing is currently unbalanced. To use MeFi's popular "widget" analogy: if our assignment is to make and test widgets, the team making the widgets has 15 people, while the team testing the widgets has...me. The process of testing the widgets is only marginally less time-consuming than building them. So I am always the bottleneck in the schedule, and always have more work assigned than I can accomplish.
Management is aware of this, and I am only expected to do my best and try *in general* to keep the overall project on track. More help has been promised, but it's a ways off at best, simply due to the time it takes to hire and train people.
In the meantime, about twice a day, this happens:
1) complete the testing of a widget. Hooray! Send report, feel accomplished.
2) check email
3) see that 15 new widgets have been posted in the time it took me to test one, and can I please test them by the day after tomorrow, a thing which is physically impossible.
4) stare off into space, completely demotivated, and lose like a whole hour of productivity.
I need to find some way of training my brain so that 4) becomes "select next widget, keep moving." Up until now, I have used daily to-do lists that have ambitious-but-possible amounts of items on them, relying on the satisfaction of crossing things off. Lately, though, it just hasn't been enough, and I find myself actively ignoring the lists.
My direct manager is helpful and responsive, and she's the one who's pushing pushing pushing for more help, but she has limited control over our actual hiring and scheduling and work demands. Like, the obvious solution is to add time to the schedule but she is not actually able to do that -- she answers to higher powers on that and they are not receptive. She takes on some of my burden when she can, but that's not often.
Tips? Thoughts? Things I could be asking my manager for that I'm not thinking of?
Ultimately I just have to hold it together for about another month before there's more help, but a lot of widgets come through in a month. Plus, it seems like a good skill to have -- staying motivated when there's no payoff/finish line on the horizon.
Thanks, MeFi!
Generally speaking, I don't have a hard time motivating myself to work. I've been a freelancer for a long time, so I'm accustomed to self-starting and self-managing, and don't have procrastination issues beyond the occasional dicking-around-on-the-Internet. For some reason, though, I'm really struggling with one particular circumstance.
I am on a project in which the staffing is currently unbalanced. To use MeFi's popular "widget" analogy: if our assignment is to make and test widgets, the team making the widgets has 15 people, while the team testing the widgets has...me. The process of testing the widgets is only marginally less time-consuming than building them. So I am always the bottleneck in the schedule, and always have more work assigned than I can accomplish.
Management is aware of this, and I am only expected to do my best and try *in general* to keep the overall project on track. More help has been promised, but it's a ways off at best, simply due to the time it takes to hire and train people.
In the meantime, about twice a day, this happens:
1) complete the testing of a widget. Hooray! Send report, feel accomplished.
2) check email
3) see that 15 new widgets have been posted in the time it took me to test one, and can I please test them by the day after tomorrow, a thing which is physically impossible.
4) stare off into space, completely demotivated, and lose like a whole hour of productivity.
I need to find some way of training my brain so that 4) becomes "select next widget, keep moving." Up until now, I have used daily to-do lists that have ambitious-but-possible amounts of items on them, relying on the satisfaction of crossing things off. Lately, though, it just hasn't been enough, and I find myself actively ignoring the lists.
My direct manager is helpful and responsive, and she's the one who's pushing pushing pushing for more help, but she has limited control over our actual hiring and scheduling and work demands. Like, the obvious solution is to add time to the schedule but she is not actually able to do that -- she answers to higher powers on that and they are not receptive. She takes on some of my burden when she can, but that's not often.
Tips? Thoughts? Things I could be asking my manager for that I'm not thinking of?
Ultimately I just have to hold it together for about another month before there's more help, but a lot of widgets come through in a month. Plus, it seems like a good skill to have -- staying motivated when there's no payoff/finish line on the horizon.
Thanks, MeFi!
Best answer: I have this problem! This probably sounds stupid but I go outdoors and walk or run around the block, then back to work. For me it’s about spending the anxious/adrenal spike of The List and then get right back at it.
I am not actually zen about this, it works 2/3 times.
posted by warriorqueen at 10:43 AM on March 2, 2018 [5 favorites]
I am not actually zen about this, it works 2/3 times.
posted by warriorqueen at 10:43 AM on March 2, 2018 [5 favorites]
You are in luck! It is literally my job to improve test processes :) I was about to add "in impossible conditions" but that is in fact a prerequisite of any testing project (it's funny because it's true).
It sounds like you already know how long it takes to test a single widget. This is great! I imagine widgets have specifications etc. that you use to write tests that are saved somewhere, yes? A testing tool like QualityCenter? You may be running a test campaign/lab (or sub-campaign/lab depending on how releases & widgets are managed) per widget.
So what you've got is your audit trail that clearly shows that you are indeed spending X time to test Foobar widget.
When you get a delivery of several widgets, are they prioritized? If not, ask for their priority.
"Thank you for the delivery of [truckload of] widgets. Could you please provide the priorities for them? Here is the time I need to test each of them to help you prioritize:
- Widget Foobar version o.m.g.w.t.f. being a major new release will take 1.5 workdays
- Widget Barfoo version l.o.l. is a minor upgrade and will take me 0.5 workdays
- Widget Fluffy version p.a.w. is a minor release and will take me 1 workday"
You get the gist. And of course versions are usually numerical but hey when you get to seeing things like 2018.3.3.0.40.2 candidate release 49 (real life example, not kidding) you may as well name them o.m.g.w.t.f.
You're tracking releases in your testing tool of choice, yes? Do that. Audit trace. Proof it's taking you the time you say it's taking you, directly linked to the releases concerned.
Also a key management skill, and an excellent way to encourage your management to get you extra help. With enough emails and traced time spent, they'll be able to justify a budget for, say, hiring another tester, or taking a dev off dev to help you run some tests.
Be sure to distinguish between the time it takes you to write new tests, update existing tests, create campaigns, and execute campaigns, btw. That will also help.
Feel free to MeMail if you want, I'm happy to help.
posted by fraula at 11:12 AM on March 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
It sounds like you already know how long it takes to test a single widget. This is great! I imagine widgets have specifications etc. that you use to write tests that are saved somewhere, yes? A testing tool like QualityCenter? You may be running a test campaign/lab (or sub-campaign/lab depending on how releases & widgets are managed) per widget.
So what you've got is your audit trail that clearly shows that you are indeed spending X time to test Foobar widget.
When you get a delivery of several widgets, are they prioritized? If not, ask for their priority.
"Thank you for the delivery of [truckload of] widgets. Could you please provide the priorities for them? Here is the time I need to test each of them to help you prioritize:
- Widget Foobar version o.m.g.w.t.f. being a major new release will take 1.5 workdays
- Widget Barfoo version l.o.l. is a minor upgrade and will take me 0.5 workdays
- Widget Fluffy version p.a.w. is a minor release and will take me 1 workday"
You get the gist. And of course versions are usually numerical but hey when you get to seeing things like 2018.3.3.0.40.2 candidate release 49 (real life example, not kidding) you may as well name them o.m.g.w.t.f.
You're tracking releases in your testing tool of choice, yes? Do that. Audit trace. Proof it's taking you the time you say it's taking you, directly linked to the releases concerned.
Also a key management skill, and an excellent way to encourage your management to get you extra help. With enough emails and traced time spent, they'll be able to justify a budget for, say, hiring another tester, or taking a dev off dev to help you run some tests.
Be sure to distinguish between the time it takes you to write new tests, update existing tests, create campaigns, and execute campaigns, btw. That will also help.
Feel free to MeMail if you want, I'm happy to help.
posted by fraula at 11:12 AM on March 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Well OK so lest this go down a whole road... the widget thing is purely an analogy, and this is actually not a tech project in any way, and I am not doing any actual testing. Apologies for the confusion!
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:22 AM on March 2, 2018
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:22 AM on March 2, 2018
Do you know how many widgets you can test per day? Say it's 8. Tell your manager that until help arrives, you only have resources for 8. Then have it be up to your manger or the widget makers to decide which are important enough to be tested/worked on/fit into the time slot. Everyone knows not all of them will get tested, so let them choose which are high priority. Put the decision making on them, and allow them to be in this boat with you.
posted by Vaike at 11:34 AM on March 2, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by Vaike at 11:34 AM on March 2, 2018 [9 favorites]
Decouple your sense of self-worth from the idea that this is your problem. Every time you get to item #4 above, read this statement: "My job is [testing widgets], not managing this process. This situation is absurd, and there's nothing I can do to fix it. Productivity will continue to suffer until management does their job. I'm doing as much as I can, and I will continue to do exactly that. This is NOT MY PROBLEM."
There's a finite amount of time available to your company here. If you are confident that you're doing the tasks your management has given you in the most time-efficient manner, then believe yourself. Imagine someone you respect is telling you this story about their work, and they're having a hard time letting go of feeling like a failure. What would you say to support them? Say that to yourself.
Do talk with your boss about this, especially if you're wondering if there's any way to speed things up a bit. But once you've decided that you're doing everything you can, go back to the first paragraph, and make that your new #4. You can't do anything about failure of management, misallocation of resources, or general dumb shit, but you can certainly alter your reaction to those things.
posted by disconnect at 11:54 AM on March 2, 2018 [11 favorites]
There's a finite amount of time available to your company here. If you are confident that you're doing the tasks your management has given you in the most time-efficient manner, then believe yourself. Imagine someone you respect is telling you this story about their work, and they're having a hard time letting go of feeling like a failure. What would you say to support them? Say that to yourself.
Do talk with your boss about this, especially if you're wondering if there's any way to speed things up a bit. But once you've decided that you're doing everything you can, go back to the first paragraph, and make that your new #4. You can't do anything about failure of management, misallocation of resources, or general dumb shit, but you can certainly alter your reaction to those things.
posted by disconnect at 11:54 AM on March 2, 2018 [11 favorites]
I would create a "stack" of widgets. This could be physical (bins stacked on the floor) or virtual (a webpage constantly displayed on a second monitor) but something that you and your colleagues can look at and interpret at a glance. This way you can get a better sense that you are chipping away at a larger task, as well as giving your colleagues a visual concept of how backed up you are getting.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:59 AM on March 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Rock Steady at 11:59 AM on March 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Can you ask your boss to prioritize the widget stack for you? Alternatively, can you sort them so you can knock off a couple short projects first? That always makes me feel better.
Also, two contradictory suggestions, maybe one will work for you: either check your email periodically while you're testing one widget, so you don't get overwhelmed by encountering 15 new widgets all at once; or give yourself at least a small break between sending your report and looking at the new list, so you're looking at it with a little less burnout. Good luck!
posted by ferret branca at 12:54 PM on March 2, 2018
Also, two contradictory suggestions, maybe one will work for you: either check your email periodically while you're testing one widget, so you don't get overwhelmed by encountering 15 new widgets all at once; or give yourself at least a small break between sending your report and looking at the new list, so you're looking at it with a little less burnout. Good luck!
posted by ferret branca at 12:54 PM on March 2, 2018
Along the lines of Rock Steady’s suggestion, I would get the widget-makers to submit their request on, say, a Trello board they can see, adding to the bottom and you pick up your next widget from the top. Eliminate steps 2, 3 and 4, the fact that the queue keeps getting longer is Not Your Problem. If possible, have your manager be in charge of the queue order, so that can also be Not Your Problem.
posted by third word on a random page at 1:00 PM on March 2, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by third word on a random page at 1:00 PM on March 2, 2018 [7 favorites]
Is there someone you can high five or generally show off your work to? I find it helps defeat some of the monotony to have someone to brag to.
posted by Emmy Rae at 1:27 PM on March 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Emmy Rae at 1:27 PM on March 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
3) see that 15 new widgets have been posted in the time it took me to test one, and can I please test them by the day after tomorrow, a thing which is physically impossible.
I understand that you are not actually testing widgets. It is demoralising for people to ask you for things that you cannot possibly give them. I wonder if it would be helpful, for your own sanity/motivation, to do what other folks have recommended, which is to ask for the folks you work for to prioritise the work task for you given that you can't give them 15 in 48 hours.
As I understand it, no one at the moment can change any aspect of the situation. You have a month or so to deal with this until you get some help. So maybe just sending that message, "As you know, Boss, I cannot process all 15 widgets in 48 hours. I can process one, so which one should it be?" might be enough to help with your motivation.
Also, what someone else suggested above about making the workload physical or manifest in some way. Also, rewards really do work, along with exercise (mentioned above). One of the things that helps me get moving is the realisation that I can start at any time, and that it is fine if I only do 10 minutes. That is often enough to push me over the hump.
Your situation sounds tough as hell. Best of luck in getting through this!
posted by Bella Donna at 1:30 PM on March 2, 2018
I understand that you are not actually testing widgets. It is demoralising for people to ask you for things that you cannot possibly give them. I wonder if it would be helpful, for your own sanity/motivation, to do what other folks have recommended, which is to ask for the folks you work for to prioritise the work task for you given that you can't give them 15 in 48 hours.
As I understand it, no one at the moment can change any aspect of the situation. You have a month or so to deal with this until you get some help. So maybe just sending that message, "As you know, Boss, I cannot process all 15 widgets in 48 hours. I can process one, so which one should it be?" might be enough to help with your motivation.
Also, what someone else suggested above about making the workload physical or manifest in some way. Also, rewards really do work, along with exercise (mentioned above). One of the things that helps me get moving is the realisation that I can start at any time, and that it is fine if I only do 10 minutes. That is often enough to push me over the hump.
Your situation sounds tough as hell. Best of luck in getting through this!
posted by Bella Donna at 1:30 PM on March 2, 2018
Management is aware of this, and I am only expected to do my best and try *in general* to keep the overall project on track.
My direct manager is helpful and responsive, and she's the one who's pushing pushing pushing for more help, but she has limited control over our actual hiring and scheduling and work demands.
Things I could be asking my manager for that I'm not thinking of?
Your manager needs to manage - she needs to be the bottleneck and the "shit umbrella" protecting you from unreasonable work requirements. Your coworkers can't just dump more work on you directly by email willy-nilly and expect it to be done whenever they ask - there needs to be a process (which very much includes setting realistic time expectations) where the work requests go to your manager and she prioritizes them and them passes them on to you as you complete previous assignments. Right now there's a lot of lip service paid to "Oh, just do your best, no worries", but nobody's actually doing anything to reduce your workload, they're just letting you be the bad guy who's slowing everything down. Your manager needs to be the one putting the brakes on things so you can work efficiently without getting overwhelmed, and she should be doing it because, frankly, as a manager she's probably better paid and has more job security than you do. You're a freelancer and you're drowning and nobody gives a shit, not really; someone with some company clout has to be the one to take the heat for the whole procedure running behind schedule in order for anything to change.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:09 PM on March 2, 2018 [11 favorites]
My direct manager is helpful and responsive, and she's the one who's pushing pushing pushing for more help, but she has limited control over our actual hiring and scheduling and work demands.
Things I could be asking my manager for that I'm not thinking of?
Your manager needs to manage - she needs to be the bottleneck and the "shit umbrella" protecting you from unreasonable work requirements. Your coworkers can't just dump more work on you directly by email willy-nilly and expect it to be done whenever they ask - there needs to be a process (which very much includes setting realistic time expectations) where the work requests go to your manager and she prioritizes them and them passes them on to you as you complete previous assignments. Right now there's a lot of lip service paid to "Oh, just do your best, no worries", but nobody's actually doing anything to reduce your workload, they're just letting you be the bad guy who's slowing everything down. Your manager needs to be the one putting the brakes on things so you can work efficiently without getting overwhelmed, and she should be doing it because, frankly, as a manager she's probably better paid and has more job security than you do. You're a freelancer and you're drowning and nobody gives a shit, not really; someone with some company clout has to be the one to take the heat for the whole procedure running behind schedule in order for anything to change.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:09 PM on March 2, 2018 [11 favorites]
Best answer: Don't check your e-mail when you're full of beans like that. Look at it after, not during, the productive part of your day, so that you don't accidentally get demoralized at a time when you're functioning well. Afternoon, after you've finished all the coffee and had lunch and done ten great things and are pretty tapped out from working (not from worrying about working) is a perfect time to look and see that they've loaded on sixty more tasks. Then you can laugh resignedly and do as warriorqueen suggests and go for a walk. When you get back from the walk, thrash through e-mail and add the new crap to your to-do list and figure out what to tackle first, second, third to fill up your next productivity period so that you know what you're doing and don't have to check e-mail to find out. So spend your tired, demoralized, frayed time organizing to ease your road and prolong your next productive period. E-mail is a killer, for reals. The other day I got cc'd on a "let me know if there's anything I can do to help get these off your desk" e-mail that was for somebody else, but I saw the first line in the preview pane thing and thought it was for me? OH MY GOD THE RAGE, I can't even tell you. I realized two seconds later that I was merely cc'd, but it still took me a good minute to ramp down and get on with my life. It derails everything and eats the day. Don't open it 'til you're useless anyway.
posted by Don Pepino at 4:21 PM on March 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Don Pepino at 4:21 PM on March 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
Seconding the Trello board recommendation - let everyone who gives you work have at least viewing rights, and let them see how many assignments you're being given, all due within the same short timeframe.
Invite manager to help you assign priorities to them. Give her a nice solid list of "here are twelve things that all claim to be due by tomorrow. I, as an outsider, cannot decide which of these actually need to be done by tomorrow; all I can do is state that they will not get done if I'm the only person working on them."
If manager can't or won't assist in this, then you need to throw a bit more of your workday into administration: when an order comes in, take a few minutes to evaluate how long it will take to get done; compare to existing to-do list, and see if it can be done in the time given. If not, send back a polite reply: "I'm sorry, but my time for the next two days is already full of other aspects of the project. I should be able to get to this by Thursday, barring interruptions."
A round of those emails, sent to half of the current "I want it by tomorrow" list, should result in them pushing back on manager to figure out how to fix the delays.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 4:23 PM on March 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Invite manager to help you assign priorities to them. Give her a nice solid list of "here are twelve things that all claim to be due by tomorrow. I, as an outsider, cannot decide which of these actually need to be done by tomorrow; all I can do is state that they will not get done if I'm the only person working on them."
If manager can't or won't assist in this, then you need to throw a bit more of your workday into administration: when an order comes in, take a few minutes to evaluate how long it will take to get done; compare to existing to-do list, and see if it can be done in the time given. If not, send back a polite reply: "I'm sorry, but my time for the next two days is already full of other aspects of the project. I should be able to get to this by Thursday, barring interruptions."
A round of those emails, sent to half of the current "I want it by tomorrow" list, should result in them pushing back on manager to figure out how to fix the delays.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 4:23 PM on March 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
It would help to have a queue that is visible to the people filling it so they can see what's in line ahead of them. It could be a shared folder where you put a document that states the work requirements for every job request. A Word template can make it easy to generate requests that are standardized. Put completed requests in a subfolder. You, not the customer, put in the estimated completion time. or you set up a database, but that get more complicated. There are databases built for this, like Request Tracker and others.
posted by theora55 at 12:15 PM on March 3, 2018
posted by theora55 at 12:15 PM on March 3, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by terretu at 10:43 AM on March 2, 2018 [5 favorites]