Revisiting How I Work - Is It Not Done Yet? The Last-In-First-Out Method

I'm struggling at work, I'm Taishi!
(A middle-aged man with ambition | 👉Self-introduction)

I've been getting pressured from many sides at work lately, with comments like "Isn't your performance low?" or "Are you busy? Are you overwhelmed?" It's not a good situation. Last time, I thought about what was going wrong.

After that, I had an idea of what I should do, so I'm recording it here.

Failure Case - First-In-First-Out (FIFO) Method

Up until now, I've been working using the FIFO method.

I take the work that comes in and do the first things first. Strictly speaking, I roughly sort them by importance and urgency, but since almost everything is important and the work that came in first usually has the earliest deadline, I output the first-in work first. I leave the later work alone until it's its turn. That's how I've been doing FIFO.

Because of this, people who submitted work later tend to ask, "What happened to that?" This leads to annoying comments like "Isn't your performance low?" or "Are you busy? Are you overwhelmed?"

Even if I try saying, "I decide the priority, I'm not just dealing with you, so wait your turn," it doesn't matter to the people who submitted work recently and want it done quickly. They keep asking if it's done yet.

And when work piles up, outputting the work that came in first also gets slower and slower.

I realized that with 5-6 jobs running in parallel at all times, working with different people for each, and outputting the first-come items first, this structure is inevitable.

Change of Perspective - Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) Method

So, I think I'll try changing to the LIFO method.

I'll finish the work that came in later first, setting aside the importance and urgency for a moment.

By doing this, the people who submitted work later will see it finished quickly and might say, "You're already done?" This might lead to people saying, "Isn't your performance high?"

If I take it too far, people might ask, "Are you free?" but then I can just say, "Your work is my top priority."

Development of the Shift - "Is It Not Done Yet?" First-Out Method

Then, conversely, the people who submitted work first might ask, "Is it not done yet?" If they ask, "Is it not done yet?" it might be good to change the order and finish theirs first. Then, only the work that nobody asks about will be left until the end, but that's probably work that doesn't need to be done, so it's okay to leave it alone. And if they do ask later, I can just finish it then.

In other words, the "Is It Not Done Yet?" First-Out Method.
I suspect this is the most cost-effective way. I'll give it a try.

...

Anyway, I'm not doing any interesting work...
I want to go back to the days when I did what I wanted to do, the way I wanted to do it. I have to create that.

(Bonus) By the way, the Last-In, First-Out (LIFO) method as an accounting standard was abolished quite a while ago (who benefits from that? lol)

To be continued