Separate Doing from Managing
When you try to manage a project while doing the work at the same time, things often fall apart, and you do neither well. Get-It-Done Guy has tips on how to separate doing from managing.
It is a dark and stormy night. I am hunched over my computer writing furiously, working on my book Get-it-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More. The solitary candle flickers on my desk as lightning flashes illuminate the mantle, throwing my pet raven’s image into sharp relief as he recites once again passages from Fifty Shades of Grey into the cold, uncaring night.
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I type the final word of my chapter as a thunderclap fills the room. Laughing in triumph, I rip the final sheet from the typewriter, take one look at my masterpiece…and realize that I just finishing writing chapter 6. The problem is that I’m pretty sure I finished chapter 6 three weeks ago and sent it off to my editor. Oops. My raven stares at me expressionless, opens his beak, and says simply, “Nevermore.”
That was a few years ago. The book is done. Go buy 10 or 20 copies, I’ll wait.
But the lesson was key: I was so in the flow of writing that I lost track of the process of writing. Â
This is what happens when you try to manage a task and do it at the same time. Have you ever been asked to manage a project you’re working on? Sometimes, this works out really well. Other times, it’s a mind-boggling disaster. We assume, “If Melvin is good at programming, then surely he’ll be good as a programming manager.” Not true. I know, because in one of my early jobs, I was Melvin. I was supposed to manage the project I worked on. Let’s just say things didn’t work out so well. As those of you over 30 will remember, the Earth used to have two moons…
Doing and Managing Are Different Skills
When you’re doing, your brain is in full “doing stuff” mode. If you’re writing, your brain is full of what you’re writing about, it’s full of grammar and spelling and sentences. If you’re gathering market data, your brain is full of focus group comments, demographics, and observations. Stuff like that.Â
When you’re managing, your brain is in planning mode. You’re assigning deadlines and milestones, choosing how long your report or presentation will be, and figuring out how to delegate work that you can’t do yourself. Stuff like that.
Those are completely different! Your brain is full of different stuff depending on whether you’re doing or managing. You can’t do both at once. You’ll drive yourself nuts. Â
You Can’t Both Do and Manage Well
There you are, totally in flow, writing your marketing report. You suddenly realize there’s a chapter you can’t write yourself. You hop on the phone and start calling colleagues to persuade them to help out … and four hours later, after checking your email, reading a newsgroup, surfing the web, and browsing Tumblr, you remember your marketing report and try to get back to it.
When you manage and do at the same time, you either lose track of the deadlines and management big picture, or you lose track of the details needed to do. Either way, chaos.
Separate Managing and Doing
Separate managing and doing. Before leaping into a project, or even a focus task, do your managing up front. Then, leap into action with full commitment, putting your management decisions into action.Â
When grocery shopping, make your shopping list and order it by aisle, before entering the grocery store. Then just grab stuff and go.
When event planning, decide who buys materials, who makes decorations, who bakes the Oreo Ice cream cake, and who puts up the decorations. Figure out when each person needs to be there, and give everyone the info in advance so everything just happens perfectly. Oh, yeah: designate an event dominatrix. Then when someone doesn’t follow the plan, the dominatrix can whip them into shape.
When calling a meeting, decide the meeting’s purpose, decide the topics and order you’ll discuss them, and distribute an agenda. Also designate timekeeper, scribe, and facilitator before you begin the meeting.
When writing a report, identify your sources and submit requests for information up front. Have a home place to put your reference materials as they come in, so you can jump into writing and grab references as needed.
When starting a work project, define your deliverables, sketch out the tasks to be done, assign tasks, and ensure everyone knows who’s in charge of what. Nothing’s worse than a project where people don’t really know what they’re supposed to be doing.
Divide Long Projects into Phases
With big projects, you may not know enough to do all the management up front. For example, you won’t know your Doomsday Device lead time until your scientists have perfected the technology to vaporize the remaining moon. In that case, do the planning for your first phase in detail. Then schedule a second planning meeting to plan the next phase. In each phase, manage what can be managed, then jump in and do. At the predetermined time you chose during your previous round of managing, stop doing, step back, and manage some more.
Our minds are sensitive, delicate flowers. They can’t be expected to zip back and forth between the completely unrelated tasks of managing and doing. When things start to fly apart, stop and notice if you’re trying to do and manage at the same time. If so, separate them out. Start with time solely devoted to identifying tasks and resources, setting time and space limits, and delegating tasks. Then jump into the doing and do wholeheartedly until your pre-determined time limit. Then switch back into managing mode and see where you are. Use this for tasks as small as writing a memo or as large as a multi-year project. At any given minute, you can be a lone manager or a lone ranger, just don’t try to be both at once.
For more tips on how to work less and do more, check out Click here for more tips .
Project management images courtesy of Shutterstock.
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About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.Â
