We’ve been on Spring Break, but given that we’re getting ready for the launch of online school (next Tuesday), I’ve been working steadily.

Over the past two weeks…

I’ve attended an average of 3 Google Meet calls per day. These are typically leadership meetings, some of which have a clear agenda and some of which are update/urgency driven.

I’m working in/on an average of 5 collaborative documents per day. Generally, this means someone is asking me for feedback or I’m asking someone else for feedback. This work can be frustrating, but then I revert to the tweet below from Bob Sutton. It reminds me that this work is hard because we’re insisting on being reciprocal, respectful, and coordinated. I wouldn’t trade those benefits, so I accept — and budget for — their cost.

This isn't original, but after doing meetings and teaching on Zoom, Teams, Hangout, and phone for 3 weeks now: one-way communication is efficient and endlessly scalable, deep reciprocal communication and coordination is harder– if you want it, you've got do inefficient things.

— Bob Sutton (@work_matters) March 25, 2020

I’ve been connecting with individuals either via phone calls, text messages, or email. These — usually about 3 – 10 communications — are by far the most important work of my day.

I’ve been working in Slack for about 30 minutes per day. I’m using Slack to organize the communications of a 10 person leadership team. I’ve liked the way this approach helps me to focus on a group without being interrupted by emails or texts — when I’m with them, I’m with them. I’ve also appreciated the way Slack helps me to maintain a pretty wide awareness of this team’s activities without the benefit of being in the same room or building with them. I have a sense of what everyone is working on, struggling with, and sharing — and I’m reminded of how helpful and interconnected these team members are.

I’ve been experimenting each day with something new — most recently, Twitter Live.

I’ve been problem solving via networking, like so:

Greetings @TulsaTerm. I've been thinking a lot about @MKAcademy's May Term and I'm wondering how you're planning to organize your own program for the foreseeable future. Happy to compare notes!

— Stephen J. Valentine (@sjvalentine) March 26, 2020

I’ve been writing down notes for next time!

Here’s another How I’m Working post written 13 days ago, when I was just starting to work FTO (full-time online). The difference in these two posts shows how quickly my work world is evolving.