If we're really customer facing business, we're a proactive business.
Last minute fires mean reactionary mindset. You can never be the best business possible when reactionary. Learning to anticipate things and have them ready in advance is doable in every business.
If we look at every last minute thing and apply this simple test to it, we'll know where we're at:
1) Is this something we've dealt with before?
2) Could it have been dealt with in advance?
If so, I'm not a fan of feeding the monster.
If not, guess what, you have a first time occurence that can use some immediate attention.
How to plan for surprises? I only schedule 5-6 hours of work a day. I leave 1-2 hours a day free. Either that time gets eaten up with true surprises, or I get ahead on my schedule. Responsible scheduling helps everyone.
If we're really customer facing business, we're a proactive business.
Last minute fires mean reactionary mindset. You can never be the best business possible when reactionary. Learning to anticipate things and have them ready in advance is doable in every business.
If we look at every last minute thing and apply this simple test to it, we'll know where we're at:
1) Is this something we've dealt with before? 2) Could it have been dealt with in advance?
If so, I'm not a fan of feeding the monster.
If not, guess what, you have a first time occurence that can use some immediate attention.
How to plan for surprises? I only schedule 5-6 hours of work a day. I leave 1-2 hours a day free. Either that time gets eaten up with true surprises, or I get ahead on my schedule. Responsible scheduling helps everyone.