Project Managers: Your Health trumps Project Health

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Last week I realized something important.

I take better care of my car than I do of my body.

I was sitting in the dealership, answering questions about the state of my car and whether I needed the 15,000 service tune up when I realized:

  1. My car Genevieve gets an oil change every 3 months or every 5,000 miles
  2. I hadn’t exercised in months

This along with the nagging headache that I’d been wrestling to the mat with Tylenol was finally loud enough to make me see that I needed to do something about my health.

I wonder whether that’s the case with a lot of PMs?  We seem to be very focused on meeting deadlines and delivering projects.

How many of us are actually checking up on what we’re eating and how we’re taking care of ourselves?

If you feel this is a lecture, please click on, it really is a lecture to myself.

Project Managers have a lot thrown at them.  Your success is sometimes measured by your ability to adjust to the changes that are thrown at you.  Having to cope with a change in direction or a change in resources can be difficult to manage if you’re also struggling with poor health.  When you don’t feel good it can be difficult if not impossible to give your best.

If you don’t hear from anyone else, please read it here.

  • Keep an eye on the time
    Eight – Ten hour days may be the norm, but try to leave the office at 5 when you can.  And don’t forget PDO – even taking a day off here an there can give you more of a boost than you think.  I’m bad at this.  I start working and forget what time it is.
  • Yearly checkups – Enough said.  I hate going to the doctor, but if you take your car, you should take yourself.
  • Exercise
    I absolutely hate exercise.  No matter what it is: aerobics, bicycling, walking, lifting weights.  If I can last one minute, I will get past the ugh I hate exercise phase of the workout.  If I can last for 10 minutes, I’ll catch my second wind.  So this is the part that will be challenging for me. Exercise

Let me know how you’ve managed to keep self-care as part of your priorities.  Leave me a comment or send me a tweet.  My id is jgodfrey.

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