It occurred to me today how much I have accomplished this week on the road.  By ‘on the road’, I don’t mean work that occurs from a location remote from my primary residence in Boise.  I literally mean ‘on the road’.  I left Boise on Tuesday morning for the Tri Cities and have burned up the highway between Kennewick and Prosser all week.  I’ve had more things to accomplish this week than hours available and so I’ve maximized my road time with a little GTD tip that I learned from our own Brad Turpen.

Each morning, I have taken an inventory of the priorities on my @Calls list in Outlook.  That’s where I store the tasks that I am responsible for completing that require me to use a phone, but not necessarily a computer.  Brad taught me to put the telephone number in the subject line of the task so that as I pull it up, I need only click on the 10 digit number (which Outlook recognizes as a telephone number) and it automatically asks me to confirm that I want to call.  My Bluetooth allows me to keep my hands on the wheel while I conduct business from behind a windshield instead of a desk.

So this week I’ve initiated a special meeting of our Board, conducted a reference check on one of our recruitment candidates, done a screening interview with another potential candidate, negotiated details of the compensation package that our client is offering one of our candidates, and more.  As a matter of fact, I didn’t get in to my car one time this week without the name and number of my next call already prepared on my smart phone.  As I arrived at my hotel room each night, I could at least feel good that the work before me was work requiring me to use a computer – the person to person stuff was already out of the way.

Technology isn’t making my workload any lighter but it sure is helping me to get stuff done.

Sometimes you need someone from outside your circle to come in to your world and remind you how good you have it.  When I first ‘met’ MedMan I was working in an independent medical practice here in Boise.  We were one of the biggest games in town and the management team that had been formed to run this enterprise was smart and diverse.  Still, we had our share of challenges to face and obstacles to overcome and I distinctly remember not really having anyone outside of that group to reach out to.  As much as I hate to admit it, there were times when I felt like we were isolated (either by geography or competition) from a bigger world out there that had the knowledge and experience to deal with the issue at hand.

One of our newer MedMan colleagues visited Boise recently.  It was gratifying to hear him talk about how impressed he was with our business model and how excited he was to have instant access to over thirty years worth of resources, knowledge and experience.  I guess I took notice of this because his words sounded so familiar.  I remembered having that very same sense of amazement and wonder when I joined MedMan.  I’ve been with MedMan long enough now that I’ve grown accustomed to the power of our network, the accessibility of information, and the willingness of my colleagues to aggressively transfer information amongst the team.  It is quite amazing that almost 30 people in 4 different states can liberally share information with absolute confidentiality and trust.  So, it is no accident that Sharing made the short list of core values.  But seeing it through someone else’s eyes last week reminded me not to take it for granted.  I don’t want to ever step outside of this family to know what it’s like to go home.