A New year begins

My absence from this blog has mostly gone unnoticed. I would like to blame the no blogging bit on the global trend that blogging is on the decline, impacted by face book and twitter. I wish I could say the same things in my case. However, that would not be completely true.Truth be told, I think I have taken a really long time to adjust to change and I don't think I have fully adjusted. And I am still trying to figure out the balance. I don’t seem to have a routine.

One of the biggest sources of discomfort for me has been the change in the work profile. From working in a mostly India time zone with all colleagues in the same time zone, this role change has shifted me to a global role. I work in a global team where my team mates sit in Beijing, Singapore, Dubai, Panama and Cincinnati, i.e. basically all time zones. Earlier when I would shut my laptop in the evening and open it the next day, I would have a few e-mails from colleagues who I would call workaholics. However, when I open my laptop in the morning in Singapore, I have close to twenty emails at the least. I now feel that I am working 24*7. And somewhere this has been playing on my mind.

The ten plus years that I have been away from home, it has been in hostels and later in Mumbai where I have had flat mates etc. Since I moved to Singapore last May, I have been staying alone. Earlier, I would leave for work around 8.30ish and leave office around say 630ish. These timings were co-ordinated with flatmates to share ride back home. Now, I do not have to adjust to other people's timings anymore and hence everything is stretchable, there are no hard stops. This is terrible.

Finally, to me, progress or growth needs to be balanced on all fronts, professional, personal, emotional, spiritual. I am extremely uncomfortable with the fact that in the last few months the balance has been altered. I would now like to bring it back to a position that I feel more comfortable with. The fact that I have not read a new book in the past 4-5 months is appalling.

So, now that issues have been identified, what do I plan to do?

- First, I need a mental shift within myself. If I am to build a career in this company or any global company for that matter, I am going to be working with global teams sitting across time zones. So I first need to acknowledge this new reality and tell myself, to forget the good ol' days. They are at best ideal benchmarks when I could come in at 8.30 and leave at 6ish. In this new world, I need to figure out my own balance, which should not be defined only by in and out timings.

- Second, Emails are like death eaters, they feed on my mental consciousness and take up inordinate time. They can't be wished away and they can only be managed. I take my laptop home daily. Even though I need to answer only emails, if at all, I start working, simply because I have access to laptop. So I have decided to get smart and leverage technology (This is basically me justifying my own actions to myself J ) So as of yesterday, I have requested for a blackberry. So once I have my bb, I will leave my laptop at work and hopefully no working when am at home. Phew!

- Thirdly, I have this bad habit of keeping emails open after reading them and leaving replies half answered. Hence from now on, all emails if read, need to be action-ed - reply, forward, delete, archive etc. No keeping them open and pending.

- Fourthly, There are few things that were shared responsibilities earlier - cleaning, cooking, paying bills, ironing etc, which are now completely mine. Need to outsource some of them - standing instructions for bill payments, hire cook/maid to help clean/iron etc. so that more time can be freed. The second part is going to take some time.

- Finally, I need to get back to things that made me feel that I was making all round progress. Read more. Learn something new. I have started Spanish classes as of Jan 1, 2011. Yayy!

So, given that I consider myself better at identifying issues than necessarily solving them when it comes to myself, lets see how well I do on the above steps.

Now lastly, all the above makes it sound like doom and gloom in my life. It is not necessarily so. More on that later...