When I get distracted, I try to disrupt myself to pull out of the loop:
- Stuck on a hard problem at work? No doomscrolling or screwing around on the internet. Instead, I often go to TypingTest.com. Take a 2 minute typing test, see if I broke my record, and then get back to the original task. Feels slightly productive, and it’s time-boxed.
- Or maybe I need to change locations, but there’s a lot of “setup cost” with doing that.
Working with people can be frustrating. When that happens, I try to disrupt myself…maybe it’s passive-aggressive? But, I get nice. Overly nice, or weirdly creative. It’s hard to describe, but here’s an example.
In 2020, I took a job to work locally and be in the office. The day I started was the first day of COVID lockdown. Cool. Now I was just one of five people in the US working for a company with hundreds of engineers and project managers overseas. They were all on site together. It was COVID and I was in my house.
We were an engineering shop with split duties. The US team handled client relationships and project requirements; the overseas team executed. My overseas partner was our project manager. He would join the client calls. He then rallied the engineering team and helped get the work delivered. With eleven time zones between us, you could keep a non-stop delivery pace. Unless you got behind.
My days started at 7am and ended around 11pm to keep pace and keep things moving.
To make it a little better, I would write a handoff note in Slack at the end of every day. Stats, priorities, where things stood, where they needed to be by morning.
He rarely read them. Even more rarely responded. To top it off, we would sync up on calls first thing in the morning to check in on progress before client meetings. Time after time, the update he gave me would be contradicted a few moments later in front of the client. I would give the update, “I’m sorry, but the date of our milestone may need to be pushed.” Then my “partner” would unmute: “That’s not true, Anthony. We’ll get that out for you by the end of the day and beat the original deadline.”
WTF, man.
That lit a small, hot fire in me.
When I get that frustrated, I tend to go one of three ways. I get overly nice. I get obnoxiously nice. Or I let weird, frustrated creativity be the outlet.
This time, I decided to write the story of a horse race.
My daily updates on Slack now included a short saga of emojis and creative writing. I needed to get this punk to read the updates and give some kind of acknowledgement. Every one of those sat right under the day’s real work. Ticket numbers, client asks, blockers. The race was the dessert you only got if you scrolled past your vegetables.
🗞️ This Just In! 🗞️
It’s a close race! But wait….there’s an unmanned horse on the track that came out of nowhere. It’s so much bigger than the rest and is just getting faster with each stride. It’s just passed Naughty By Nature on the inside and has taken the middle of the pack, the final stretch is going to be wild!
🏇🏇🏇 🏇 🐎 🏇 🏇 🏇🏇🏇 🏇 🏃
Thank you for your hard work, @my-counterpart. I hope this entertains you…and leaves you in suspense of what happens next. Tune-in next priority list for more updates.
🗞️ This Just In! 🗞️
Due to ☔ and 😡 the horse race has been postponed until 🌤️ days are ahead.
🗞️ This Just In! 🗞️
…The 😎 has appeared and the race is back on! During the 🌨️ of 💩 earlier the week, the ponies and riders went back to their stables to take a rest and gear up for the showdown that was soon to continue. Hip to be Square and her rider Lorenzo had a lot to work on as Lorenzo had lost his horse mid-race. Hip to be Square is a big fan of taffy and popcorn. When she smelled that sweet and salty goodness in the air, she went wild and Lorenzo went flying. Let’s see how they do this week…
The horses are all lined up at the gates…just waiting for the starting gun to fire 🔫
🚧🐴 🚧🐴 🚧🐴 🚧🐴 🚧🐴 🚧🦄 🚧🐴 🚧🐴 🚧🐴 🚧🐴 🚧🐴
🗞️ This Just In! 🗞️
Well folks it’s another beautiful day out here in the Royal Calcutta Turf Club. Eleven of your favorite steeds are ready to trot their way to victory and show what true sportsmanship is all about.
Ok, it’s the race we’ve all been waiting for and the most exciting day for the fans.
👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦
And they’re off! for the 125th Calcutta stakes. Butter My Biscuits is the favored winner today who is getting a bit of a slow start. It could have been the nineteenth bag of oats this morning or maybe she’s saving her energy for back-half of the race.
Taking the lead on the inside of the track is Thunder Down Under alongside I Got the Trotts in second. Not too far behind in third is Peekaboo with I See You and Bless Her Heart battling for fourth.
The real battle that we’ll see shortly is Hip to be Square and Naughty by Nature as they start to pull from the middle of the pack as they come around the end of the first turn. After last race’s taffy/popcorn debacle with Hip to be Square they have a lot to prove to their fellow racers…
🗞️ This Just In! 🗞️
…going into the backside of the track we are seeing some new comers starting to make their way from the rear. Heavens to Betsy 🐴 is the newest edition to this race and she’s really holding her own out there. We’re excited to see her get out there as she starts to battle Sweet as Pie for the 5th place position.
As our four legged racing friends get closer to the third turn coming-up, it will be interesting to see how they handle the newly designed obstacle portion of the track. Stay tuned as we go to Lorraine to give us a full run down of what’s to come…
⛰️ 🏇🏇 🏇 🏇🎠 🏇. 🏇 🏇
🗞️ This Just In! 🗞️
And Oh MY GOODNESS…look at that!
Coming around the third turn the obstacles are getting wild….there is an elephant on the track! Peekaboo has taken the lead and is coming up on the runaway pachyderm. My producer has called ☎️ and informed us that the elephant is a runaway from the circus 🎪. It is a female named She-Ra and she is laying dung all over the track. This is going to end up being a very messy race. Oh no and it looks like Lorenzo has fallen off Hip to be Square again…just watch your step Lorenzo 💩
🐘 🏇 💩 🏇🏇🏇 🏇 🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇 🐎 🏃
And then, one night, a reply.
3:27 AM. Months of handoff notes, and the thing that finally got a response was a cartoon jockey lying in elephant dung.
I laughed. Sat with it for a while. Then started my new job a few months later.
Poor Lorenzo. He never did stay on that horse.
Gioachino Rossini - “William Tell Overture” (Finale)