The frustration of bottlenecks

The bottleneck is always the top of the bottle.

Peter Drucker

I’ve come to realise that when I’m acting as a bottleneck, I frustrate those that I work with. Frustrate in both senses of the word:

Which raises the question, ‘What am I going to do about it?”

One way that I’m dealing with it is to annotate tasks where others need my input with a ! This is a simple way to draw my attention to a potential bottleneck.

The other way is to set aside one 30 minute slot each day to churn through these items. Like most tasks, they tend not to take too long, and getting them off my list removes pressure from me and frustration for others.