Perhaps it’s an age thing but I’m sure that I have blogged about this before. I’ve looked but can’t find any reference to a golden hour anywhere in my blog. It’s me then or the search engine. Who would you put your money on?
Anyway, way back when I had a proper job and had some responsibility for the service desk we talked about a golden hour. In the case of the IT service, this came about half an hour after the service desk opened. By then, the users would be coming to their desks, switching on their computers and finding problems they hadn’t expected. This would result in a flurry of calls.
The thinking behind the golden hour was that we needed to throw as much resource as we could at any problems that arose. If we could not keep on top of them we would, in effect, lose the rest of the day to sorting them out.
It’s a bit like air or train travel. If there is a problem early in the day it will be compounded by backlog after backlog and will only recover once calmness ensues at the end of the rush.
The golden hour is the most important in any business and we all have one.
The reason that this has come back to mind is that I find myself in the same predicament, even though I work for myself. Every (working) day I have a host of things to do, several email inboxes, social media feeds and a long list of tasks to get my teeth into. Add to this the inevitable meetings and I find it, as most of us do, a difficult juggling act.
The hour starting around 7:30 has become golden to me. It is then that I have the time to sort as much out as possible before the meetings kick off which inevitably produce more work. If I lose this hour, I lose the day. I guess I could move it to later on in the evening but by that time I am usually too tired for anything.
Now that is an age thing.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 