If you do a 100% desk job, how busy is your day? Tasks, reports etc.

[JMAngel1]

I’m just trying to get some perspective for my own working day.

I am 80% clinical and then if I’m lucky 20% “desk time” (which often gets eroded by departmental diversions). During this desk time, I feel completely overwhelmed by the volume of work and often feel frozen into inactivity just picking off the low hanging fruit instead of dealing with the larger more complex pieces of work. Partly this is due to having to grab snatches of time here and there throughout the day so I never feel like I can sit down and get my head around a project properly before I’m interrupted with patient work.

If your job is 100% desk time, could you let me know roughly how many tasks (and how big they are) you complete in a general 9-5pm day and vaguely what they involve. I just need to know if I’m setting myself up to fail and need to agree less clinical time with my line manager.

I think it too hard to compare. What are you expected to do in "desk time" - read and respond to emails? Write up notes? Mandatory training?

I think it varies too much to compare.

i am 100 per cent desk and am incredibly busy almost every day.

It sounds like your 20% is spread over the week in short snatches, so you never get the opportunity for 'deep work' on bigger tasks? (Google Deep Work if you don't know what it is).

My experience is you cannot tackle big tasks by simply chipping away at it in tiny random snatches of time. It just takes way too long to ramp up, do a little, do something else, and then get back into the right headspace, catch up from where you were and ramp up again.

Can you talk to your manager about blocking off say, two afternoons where you're unavailable for clinical work, so you have extended periods just for focusing on these bigger tasks?

I’m 100% desk. I am busy 3 weeks out of 4. May be 3.5. I’ll have downtime from Tuesday next week after month end is done on Monday. This last week has been super busy.

I do a 100% desk job (20% teams meetings).

I does not really matter about what tasks I can complete what should matter to your manager is that you are feeling completely overwhelmed and unable to get control due to other commitments.

I have had some colleague that have managed in high peak periods by telling their manager how they will manage their time and everything outside of that will not get covered. The manager then can give guidance and re align priorities as required. E.g my 8 hours I will do 1 hour of emails, 2 hours of mandatory training, 2 hours of strategy and 3 hours of clearing workflow.

I as a manager would want to know how you are feeling so that I can put things in place to support you.

It appears that your clinical work is the main purpose of your job, in which case don't beat yourself up about the desk work. My role (project management) is desk based and it's very common to feel overwhelmed. I've found Cal Newport Deep Work ideas very helpful in deciding what tasks are actually important to your job and which aren't. Discovered time blocking which is booking out your day, week,month, quarter to get the longer term important things done.

100% desk job. How much I complete totally depends on what comes in day to day.
Mostly I’m either composing reports, responding to emails, collating data, amending records. Some of my big projects can only be done in stages, some of the big projects I just put off because although they can be done in one go I find it easier to attack it in smaller stages.
I go through phases of being rushed off my feet and then a bit bored, people go on leave and I can’t complete my work without their contribution so things have to wait. August tends to be slow but then October is often manic. September has been unusually busy.

Well on my to do pile most mornings is to reply to fresh emails. Usually around 20 average requesting a variety of things such as responding to incidents/asking my opinion on a guideline/ operational management work flow issues/leave and rota requests etc.
Then there will be bigger pieces of work - e.g. prepare 2 hours of clinical teaching/ facilitate a 1 hour training session for colleagues. There’s an expectation that these things just “happen” with no time to actually prepare them.

Clinical guideline development - hours and hours required to pull a document like that together - ditto SOPs (the name of my life!).
Root cause analysis for a patient death - take hours to investigate, collect statements and write reports.
Attend Team meetings for numerous divisions/directorates to report any ongoing clinical issues.
Audit report writing/interpretation.
Business case development/research/shmoozing/ and then write report.

Mandatory training - hah! Yes I have hours and hours outstanding but NEVER get time at work to do it - always ends up own time at home.

If I’m lucky I would get 90 mins in a day to do/think about these pieces of work but broken up into 20-30 min fragments. It just doesn’t seem tenable.

My mornings are insanely busy. I manage absence in a secondary school and have to organise all the cover staff and cover work. I also lone manage the cover supervisors. I am in at 7 and extremely busy until about 9.30. Then it's not so bad, but still have enough to do as I have other work. I do have some periods where I don't have much to do or where I frankly just choose not to do anything. We are all quite overworked and not well paid in my school, so any respite I can get, I will take!

100% desk work. I'm usually busy 3 days per week. The other 2 days I've got work, but it tends to come in in dribs and drabs. I do feel guilty if I'm not busy though. I feel like I'm being paid for slacking, even though there isn't stuff to do.

I do 100% desk wfh and have done for over 10 years, I'm very busy and could easily do extra hours.

I spend the first half hour writing my 'to do' list and prioritise this - that helps hugely when I'm not feeling the love and need motivation

Just saw your update! That doesn't sound sustainable.

Consultant here with now mainly "desk job" although I do love my patient contact day.
In a day with no meetings ( usually once every 2 weeks) my day looks like this :
7:30-8am start up computer and write reports which need focused concentration ( usually clinic letters)
9:30-11am quick 10 minute break make coffee, send out reports which are finished and review emails.
11-12:30 Make any phone calls action emails which need response ( good time to catch GPs) adminy stuff :booking leave, checking staffing levels, mandatory training.
12:30-1 Lunch break
1-2:30/3 pm "Deep work" reading reports from NHSE, designing training, audits etc.
3-4:15Check emails again, possibly more deep work, usually a bit of admin, prioritise tasks for following 2 weeks.
4:15 Close down all systems except email
4:25 Final email check
4:30 Shut down computer.

Desk job but it isn't set tasks. Review and approve reports, strategy and policy planning, sector engagement, analyse arguments and prepare for escalation to boards, direct scheduling, guidance for sector, people management, prepare to defend decisions which have consequences for sector etc. Understand new laws and regulations. Engage with EU counterparts.

I manage my own schedule but I can't move slow.

I forgot to add this! One day a week I also have to manage absence for the department and move staff around to cover the whole service across numerous sites. On those days, 30 mins can disappear in a flash.

I often barely get a chance to wee, let alone eat. And that's with often working evenings and weekends. And probably prioritising ruthlessly/cutting corners

But people think we are lazy public sector workers ...

Our headcount gets cut. Our pay gets cut (in real terms). But we still have to deliver the same service. And even when I am allowed to recruit someone I can't because the pay is rubbish compared to the same role in the private sector (not helped by the unions only fighting for decent payrises for the lower grades)

I don't know what powers you have but we put in place a prioritisation mechanism. Each new piece of work is prioritised. We then offer out options. Do it. Do it at the expense of something else being deprioritised, request approval to submit business case for funding, delegate etc. It does mean working closely with other Heads and all of us pushing back.

Do you have MS Planner? We use it to track tasks and stick stuff on a backlog that won't get done.

It really depends. i have calm days when i get everything done and lunch/coffee breaks. And manic days when loo breaks are a luxury/not happening.

So in 8/9 hours will probably do :
3 clinic letters
Some mandatory training, book some leave and plan staffing for following 2 weeks or ideally 4-6 weeks
Send 6-10 emails
Read a goverment briefing and comment on it.
Liaise with 2- 3 colleagues
Either do some work on designing an audit or training package (approx produce 10-20 slides and notes)

Does that help ?

I'm 100% desk based on an average day, with maybe one day a month at an event or conference,

I'm swamped all the time, coping with regular small pieces of work or the immediate demands of my boss, or urgent stuff from the sales team.

Any longer pieces of work that require serious thought or a longer piece of written work, or anything strategic, I do between 7-9am, or after 5pm when I can get some peace.

I recently caught myself writing a proposal on a day's holiday because it's the only time they STFU. 🙁

This sounds like a great idea but everyone has their own work streams - although I’m sure it would help with avoiding duplication of work.
It does sound like another job in itself to manage though and I am IT’d out!

I 100% relate to the feeling of overwhelm. Which is why, for me, taking time out of the day to plan and prioritise is vital, even if you think it’s just taking up time to be “doing”. I usually have one, maybe two “must do today” tasks and a Number of smaller “should do” and then other “would be nice” stuff too.

I'm just admin. It literally never stops. There's always phone calls and emails coming in. There would never be an end to my work while the company exists.

We have our own workstreams too but work together to manage the department. We use flexible resourcing too to focus department on priorities We've been working late to get some analysis done but it's all of us helping out owner- in it together.

It's a pain getting stuff set up, but it's either find a way - even a scrappy list with quick wins and more thought tasks and block it in calender - or accept the situation.

Once you can see, you start to have data to help push back or get rid.

Really helpful. That’s the kind of volume I’m expecting myself to do with only 90 mins in broken chunks a day. I can see why I’m failing!