The Last Poster Wins [v34]

[Neo Emolga]

9 MONTHS!?

That's a really long time, wow. There's no way I could do that, though, I've got my job and many other things I need to tend to that just couldn't be put off for that long. And it would feel really weird to be away from home for that long and then come back. Even a one-month cruise would be really tricky to work around.

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

9 MONTHS!?

That's a really long time, wow. There's no way I could do that, though, I've got my job and many other things I need to tend to that just couldn't be put off for that long. And it would feel really weird to be away from home for that long and then come back. Even a one-month cruise would be really tricky to work around.

Yeah it's pretty crazy! I'm pretty sure it was mostly for retirees. I find it hard to go back to work even after a long weekend, so not sure how I'd go after 9 months haha! I guess it would be okay if you could work remotely!

[Neo Emolga]

I usually don't have too many issues getting back to work even after long vacations and Christmas breaks. Sometimes just keeping a small list of things that you had to leave unfinished before leaving on vacation helps a lot in terms of figuring out where to pick back up again.

For emails, I mark the important ones with a categorization tag and just "mark as read" all the non-important ones. That filters out a lot of junk and makes it easy to not miss or forget about emails that need to be replied to or tasks that need to be address. During meetings with screen sharing, I see a lot of people with hundreds, if not thousands of unread, unorganized emails in their inbox. That would drive me crazy!

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

I usually don't have too many issues getting back to work even after long vacations and Christmas breaks. Sometimes just keeping a small list of things that you had to leave unfinished before leaving on vacation helps a lot in terms of figuring out where to pick back up again.

For emails, I mark the important ones with a categorization tag and just "mark as read" all the non-important ones. That filters out a lot of junk and makes it easy to not miss or forget about emails that need to be replied to or tasks that need to be address. During meetings with screen sharing, I see a lot of people with hundreds, if not thousands of unread, unorganized emails in their inbox. That would drive me crazy!

Oh, that's good! It sounds like you must quite like your job! While I'm working, I really enjoy it, but if I stop for a bit, I kind of realise how stressful it is and how nice it would be to not have to worry so much about it xD That's why I think I would find it difficult to go back after a while.

That's a good idea with emails. I also hate having any unread emails!! But my Outlook app on my work computer has been doing this weird thing where there is ALWAYS 1 unread email notification on the app icon even when I don't actually have any, and it is driving me crazy not being able to get rid of it xD I have to careful though because if I click an email and don't respond right away I will totally forget to go back to it D:

[Neo Emolga]

Oh, that's good! It sounds like you must quite like your job! While I'm working, I really enjoy it, but if I stop for a bit, I kind of realise how stressful it is and how nice it would be to not have to worry so much about it xD That's why I think I would find it difficult to go back after a while.

That's a good idea with emails. I also hate having any unread emails!! But my Outlook app on my work computer has been doing this weird thing where there is ALWAYS 1 unread email notification on the app icon even when I don't actually have any, and it is driving me crazy not being able to get rid of it xD I have to careful though because if I click an email and don't respond right away I will totally forget to go back to it D:

I've had a lot of people comment on how I'm a really organized guy. I feel like I need to be or things will just get forgotten or things will get misplaced. I used to be a bit sloppy when it came to these kinds of things but I’ve learned it’s a whole lot less headache if you take notes (either written or typed digital notes) and give your brain a break by not trying to remember all the things you need to do. At least write some of the things down so it’s retained and you don’t need to keep consciously thinking about these things until you need to.

My job is one where I probably won’t ever have a plate that’s not completely empty and there’s absolutely nothing pending. The best possible situation my job has is one where for all the tasks and change orders I need to handle, all of them involve me waiting on someone else to complete a task and I can’t progress any further until they do (and part of my job includes reminding them they need to do such things!). And some people are very sloooooow when it comes to doing their stuff. So as an analogy, it’s like I’m playing three-dozen tennis matches, but they’re all in very slow motion and I keep returning the ball back to the sender (as in “hey, you’re up and need to do your thing!”).

But yeah, I’m definitely the kind of guy that likes to see 0 unread messages, 0 new notifications, 0 alerts and that kind of thing. Otherwise they just stare at you with their big, red “1s” or “2s” and I jump in immediately to make sure they’re taken care of!

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

I've had a lot of people comment on how I'm a really organized guy. I feel like I need to be or things will just get forgotten or things will get misplaced. I used to be a bit sloppy when it came to these kinds of things but I’ve learned it’s a whole lot less headache if you take notes (either written or typed digital notes) and give your brain a break by not trying to remember all the things you need to do. At least write some of the things down so it’s retained and you don’t need to keep consciously thinking about these things until you need to.

My job is one where I probably won’t ever have a plate that’s not completely empty and there’s absolutely nothing pending. The best possible situation my job has is one where for all the tasks and change orders I need to handle, all of them involve me waiting on someone else to complete a task and I can’t progress any further until they do (and part of my job includes reminding them they need to do such things!). And some people are very sloooooow when it comes to doing their stuff. So as an analogy, it’s like I’m playing three-dozen tennis matches, but they’re all in very slow motion and I keep returning the ball back to the sender (as in “hey, you’re up and need to do your thing!”).

But yeah, I’m definitely the kind of guy that likes to see 0 unread messages, 0 new notifications, 0 alerts and that kind of thing. Otherwise they just stare at you with their big, red “1s” or “2s” and I jump in immediately to make sure they’re taken care of!

I can definitely see that you're organised. Just keeping track of all the Stalkers stuff is hugely impressive!! That's great you have a system that works for you! I am pretty busy running around during the day so I probably don't put enough effort into keeping notes as I should... Actually just now your post reminded me of 2 things I forgot to do today xDD I'm gonna add them to my work calendar for Monday or I will forget again haha. Sounds like your job involves a lot of team work. It's probably a good thing that you don't often run out of things to do. I feel like the worst thing would be being bored at work and the whole day dragging on. xD

Next week will be a bit interesting as we have some high school work experience students coming. It's a bit difficult trying to juggle them while also getting actual work done but they are usually pretty enthusiastic so hopefully it will be fun.

[Neo Emolga]

I can definitely see that you're organised. Just keeping track of all the Stalkers stuff is hugely impressive!! That's great you have a system that works for you! I am pretty busy running around during the day so I probably don't put enough effort into keeping notes as I should... Actually just now your post reminded me of 2 things I forgot to do today xDD I'm gonna add them to my work calendar for Monday or I will forget again haha. Sounds like your job involves a lot of team work. It's probably a good thing that you don't often run out of things to do. I feel like the worst thing would be being bored at work and the whole day dragging on. xD

Next week will be a bit interesting as we have some high school work experience students coming. It's a bit difficult trying to juggle them while also getting actual work done but they are usually pretty enthusiastic so hopefully it will be fun.

Yeah, I miss Stalkers. The problem I had with it wasn't keeping things organized, it was burnout from the campaigns just going on for a bit too long and longer than I thought they would. I got carried away during the content creation phase and didn't stop to think and calculate how long it would take if the players checked every location and interviewed every character on the roster. The whole "this has to be bigger and better than the last one" was not the best approach. The first and third campaigns were just the right amount of length and complexity. The others were just way too ambitious and they sapped both my players and myself before the finish line. But dang, they were fun when we had the energy and I loved springing all kinds of dark surprises at my players.

And yep, my job involves many projects with many people from many different functions like regulatory, quality, R&D, marketing, project managers, and many others. I'd say the vast majority of them are pretty good people, but it does make work complicated with a lot of moving parts and a lot of watch-outs along the way. Still, it's good work. The company makes a lot of great, life-saving medical devices and I'm happy to support the effort that goes into making those.