Planning the Working Day

Today, like most days, I check my email at about 7.00am.

The next two minutes, like most days, are probably the most important minutes of the working day. They will dictate how I plan my day and crucially, how I plan my evening.

In NZ, it is 7.00am. That makes it 8.00pm in the UK (previous day) and about midnight in Bangalore. If an immediate telephone response is required it is too late for India but OK for the UK, so long as the recipient is expecting a call.

When I speak to the UK, I either use Skype or Telecom's 0161 International prefix. This (the 0161 prefix) costs just 7 cents a minute compared to Telecom's normal 44 cents per minute 00 prefix. I can detect no real degradation of service and it works very well landline to landline.

Because most of my contacts and operations (offshore) work through the NZ night, the first email drop of the day is the most important. Today, the mix includes emails from the UK, Bangalore and Dubai - I was in the UAE last week discussing opportunities in the region with some interesting people. Most of the emails that came in this morning require an email response only, so it looks like Jacqui and I can plan the evening ahead.

Today, I only have one actual face-to-face meeting. This is to discuss some development work with a company in the Bay that might be outsourced to the HBI Software team in Bangalore.

The afternoon will be spent following up from last week's trip to UAE, chasing up some action points, as well as setting more specific goals for a second visit.

Of course, unexpected things might happen later in the day. Bangalore normally come online at about 5.00pm so I can expect a query/ response to my communication then. With the UK now having adopted daylight saving, they normally start work at about 8.00pm NZ-time. So the laptop will be set to receive incoming emails until about 10.00pm. That is when I normally turn the thing off, unless there is a pre-set conference call later in the night.

So today looks like being a pretty quiet day, though who knows what might happen after 5.00pm. The one thing about my working days generally speaking is that none could be classed as 'normal' working days. Tomorrow's 7.00am email drop can bring on unexpected opportunities and threats, so those first two minutes really are the key to planning the working day ahead.