Following Edge

My work has always had the problem of growing in a never-ending way. Since there has been (usually) only one of me to do my work and since it's much easier for people to come up with new technical projects than it is for me to actually complete the projects, my project list is always growing without end.

The fortunate reality is that I prioritize the projects by importance to the company. New projects go in at the appropriate place and not at the end of the list. Therefore, it's almost certain that things at the very end of the list will never make it to the top as new projects always get placed ahead of them. In fact, there's probably a "line of death" just a short way down the list marking the beginning of the projects that will never see the light of day. It's very good for cost efficiency for labor, but dooms ideas that are good, but just not highly important.

My problem these days is that the list of projects at the top of the list that are critical, urgent, time-sensitive, and overdue are overwhelming. First, getting my project with Keith pushed out to the whole company requires as much effort as I can afford. Then, spam is overrunning our mail servers and I need another day or two to get the new system in place to bring our mail back under control. Then, I need to get an internal chat server installed for Mac OS X Tiger's new chat client, before we end up with separate and disconnected chat servers running at each location. And on and on...

As a technical worker, I should be able to do all I can each day, then relax and enjoy a couple of hours off. But, as a technical manager, I have to worry about whether projects are being prioritized properly and whether I should recommend that the company hire someone to take on some portion of my work (which, as a very thrifty company, might be a stretch). I guess it comes down to the fact that, whether I'm a manager or worker, I am doing the best I can each day, so I should stop fretting.

But, it's hard to do.