Doing B Work
Today on Facebook, I saw someone post anonymously to ask for help. They are struggling with all that is coming at them, and they were hoping for some guidance. I shared a short version of my story leading to a priceless moment of mentoring earlier in my career.
It was somewhere in the 1992-93 academic year. I was TACUSPA (Texas Association of Colleges and Universities Student Personnel Administrators) president that year. I had been married about three years by then and was still learning how to be step-mom to two teenage daughters. I was a couple of years into my doctoral class work and I was also serving as Assistant Dean of Students at UT Austin for both Student Judicial Services and Services for Students with Disabilities. I don’t know exactly what was happening on campus at the time of this conversation, but whatever was happening was a lot. Walking and talking with a couple of friends who had quite literally done everything I was doing a few years before me I said something like I feel like I should drop something, but the only thing I could realistically drop is TACUSPA and that feels irresponsible. But I felt like I was doing poorly in all of them. My friend stopped and looked me straight in the eye and said, “You know, you could make a B in your courses and it would be okay.”
I suspect I merely gaped at her but I heard her. It was, to me, a radical concept. Not about making a B, I’d certainly made Bs in college courses and we won’t discuss my mediocre law record. No, the radical idea was that I could choose to do B work, to shoot for something less than top marks. And that it was okay to do less than A work in anything. Life didn’t magically become simpler, but I psychologically I managed it better.
I should have known this. One of the most freeing experiences I had had in law school was to realize I was a C student. When I realized I wanted a career in Student Affairs rather than law and my grades no longer really mattered, law school was much more manageable. I still wanted to do well, but all I needed to do was to pass.
During the height of COVID when people were returning to campus, but it was still really difficult, I worked with a number of coaching clients who were drowning. I returned to this lesson in a number of conversations saying, “You can do B work because I suspect your B work is already really good.” I also asked them what tasks or projects were taking the most of their time and then once they had identified that, I asked who cared about those projects? Because some times, we find ourselves stressing out to accomplish things that don’t matter to our supervisors, our team or the people we are serving. They are good ideas, but in the mix of things, are they critical?
It’s the concept of triage. Which things are urgent and critical, and which are merely important or fun? Even something useful may not be critical at certain times in a year. These are hard questions to ask and even more difficult to answer deep-down honestly, but when we’re struggling, when our team is struggling, we need to ask ourselves and each other. We need to triage. When we have limited resources – whether people, dollars, or our own energy, we need to make careful strategic decisions on how to use those resources. We know that about the first two, but I think we often forget that this analysis is just as important for the third.
If you’re feeling swamped, have you taken the time to wonder about the possibility of doing B work? Or put a more professional way, have you taken the time to strategically assess the best use of your time and energy? It’s important to each of us to understand what’s most important and needs our full attention and energy and what doesn’t really. Are there things you can spend a bit less time working on to give you time to spend on the most important things? Might that most important thing be your own self-care or having fun with family or friends? If you haven’t done that analysis recently, now might be a good time to give it a try.
Take care,
Gage