Ramblings no one should be interested in...really

I mean, seriously, ask yourself why are you here.
Visualizzazione post con etichetta deadlines. Mostra tutti i post
Visualizzazione post con etichetta deadlines. Mostra tutti i post

domenica 19 ottobre 2014

A quick pit-stop, on an Indian summer day



This is not my best blog post. It is just a little blurb to keep the blog alive. It is a page where I would love to write more, but lack the confidence (and often the time) to do so.

I am writing from a room where the temperature is well above 25 Celsius (77 F), while outside Berlin is blessed by a gorgeous day of sun, a cool breeze, and the flaming colours of the fall.

It is the end of a long week, with meetings and work pretty much back to back from 8 am to 10 pm. Wednesday to Sunday, spent between coffee in unhealthy amounts, sweets and other treats, stress, and very little movement, mostly because I am sharing a room with 350 people, and some 50 laptops and mixers (they give off heat too). It's like I am asking to get sick, but so far so good.

I am writing mostly to commit this to memory. The annual membership meeting 2014 is almost over. It was interesting, but as usual fraught with lengthy conversation taking place inside my head, amongst the various facets of my personality. On the one hand, the huge motivator which was to watch and listen to the former Commissioner of the New York DOI (Department of Investigations). A true anti-corruption champion. Efficient, effective, prepared, competent, experienced, to the point. On the other hand there is the wish to do more of my own, to manage, to direct, to craft, to shape. I am witnessing a lot, but it is hard to convince myself that I am influencing anything. I could influence myself, but by training and education, my preferred venues are a bit far from what is within reach now. A gym, perhaps. A book. But other key items are missing. Time, mostly, but also the mental discipline to set my day in a way that protect the space I need to devote to personal growth.

There will be a closing dinner tonight, and the next two weekends are pretty much taken already, so that will be my time frame to set the plan in motion, to go at it again, and try to become, every day, the better version of myself, and not just a bystander observing life zooming past.

M.

giovedì 1 luglio 2010

Deadline

It is baking hot in the office. A bloody heat-wave which makes thinking straight almost impossible. Still and stale air, nowhere to hide from it.

We have been running against the clock for the past 2 or 3 weeks. Two (important) hands left the deck and workload is increasing, not always with maximum efficiency in mind. Something like "while you save the Future of Mankind, could you pick all the green smarties from the tube and stack them neatly to the side? Then you can move to the red smarties...". And it is not like we had a good idea in the first place of how to complete our task. Plus, the "target" is so into paper pushing and filling forms that I do not know where to start describing it!

So far we have experienced: drop outs, a diplomatic struggle, a VISA nightmare, meetings after meetings, a financial revision, the preparations for an audit, too many / too few contributions from partners, one team member M.I.A. due to the living hell which is organizing a conference in a certain country south of Turkey (just go due south along the meridian...).

To make things easier (sarcasm here) the World Cup is going strong and we hear the cheers coming from all around the office. Neat. This hell is supposed to give us a break in less than eight days.

More updates after the final of the Cup.

Over and out.