There’s a lot to think about when you’re running a complex, chaotic, sometimes-dysfunctional team. It worried me, coming into this job, how I would keep my thoughts straight. I’ve always done better when I have a partner in crime. Someone to bounce ideas off of. That works well when you’re dealing with a single project, or a series of one-offs. But no one has time to talk to me about every aspect of my work, every little niggling concern and issue. People have their own jobs, after all, and if I tried to enlist someone else in helping me to think about every little thing I wouldn’t exactly be doing my job, would I?
What I’ve discovered, and what I recommend, is simple. Write about it. For me it works best to write longhand because it forces me to think a little more slowly about everything, but of course do as you will. I don’t always — in fact rarely do I — know exactly what issue I’m going to write about or even where to begin when I sit down. Usually I’ll have one thing that’s bugging me, or I try to find the one thing that is most bothering me at any given moment. (There’s never a shortage of candidates.) I write that down in a single sentence as clearly as I can phrase it, then I set a goal.
Write three pages about what to do about Jack.
Write two pages about how to handle the ridiculous traffic jam of email messages we’re supposed to send this week.
Write five pages about how to manage website updates.
And so on. Sometimes I have a vague idea of what the answer is, but haven’t come to any details. More often I’ll have no idea at all what to do. There’s a reason I’ve resorted to writing this stuff down, of course, and it’s usually desperation.
It’s important to set the page goal because it keeps you moving. Don’t wimp out on this. “Write two paragraphs about how to restructure my team” is wimping out. I’d never go with fewer than two pages for any subject that I thought was worth thinking deeply about. If half a page is sufficient don’t you already know what you think about the matter? My usual go-to is three pages because it’s possible to jam out in 30-45 minutes but just long enough to force you to really work to complete the task.
There’s a kind of magic in this. It’s not the same as talking to yourself in the shower or on your commute home. Putting ink on paper creates a matrix of your ideas and forces you to look at what story you’re telling. You won’t always come up with a perfect solution — very often there isn’t one. You may have to revisit subjects many times, but when you do you’ll have the record of what you were thinking the last time you sat down and wrote about it. Do it again and again and eventually you’ll find something you didn’t see before. And to me, that’s worth the price of the paper and ink and a little bit of your precious time.