A lot gets said about how important planning out your work is. Yes, it’s critical to have a clear picture of what you need to do, and have the appropriate preparatory work in place. However, an element of the project cycle that doesn’t getting nearly as much attention, and which is just as important, is being clear on what you need to do to declare a project as complete, done, finished.
At what point have you crossed the finishing line? If you are not clear about where the finishing line is, you will end up floating around, putting in more effort than is necessary, focusing too much on a task or even just doing completely pointless work. Completion of a project might seem obvious. If it’s done it’s done right? Well, unfortunately, most of the time it’s just not that simple. If I need to ring Jack to get the sales figures, that task isn’t complete until the full sales figures are in my hands, regardless of how many calls it takes. Once it’s done I can move on mentally and physically.
A next action or task can have its completion point defined in two ways. Firstly, you can set a simple time limit. For instance, you could say you will work on a website for thirty minutes. If you don’t set a time, how long will you be fiddling with the design before you call it a day? Alternatively, and most commonly, you can set a physical step. If you are writing a report, the finishing point could be when you have written three pages. If you don’t define that, how long would you be dithering on the report before you decide to stop?
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June 7, 2008 at 12:12AM
Great topic! “Done” to procrastinators usually means when you run out of time. But, once you’ve successfully stopped procrastinating, deciding when to stop working on a project and say it’s good enough so you can start on another project, even if you still have more time for the first project, is a critical skill for success. Perfectionism is not a good thing when it makes us obsess over details that don’t make that much difference to the big picture and desired end result.
All we have is our best judgment about these things, but it helps to develop and hone this ability by comparing notes with colleagues. For example, how to know when a blog post is polished enough for publication? You can ask a trusted friend to help you decide for the first few ones until you get a good feel for it. Or you can peruse the posts of other bloggers that you like and strive for similar completeness.
Of course, everything is relative. Depending on the particular circumstances, I would probably spend much more time and effort on a piece for hard copy publication than for a blog post because blog posts can always be edited.
Thanks for the thought provoking post!
June 8, 2008 at 06:51AM
In audio production we have a saying, “When the mix feels good, it’s done”. That’s when you like the sound and can’t find anything wrong with what you’re hearing.
I apply a similar principle when writing – the work is done when it feels good to me. This prevents me from stopping just because I’m bored or want to procrastinate, and forces me to get it to an acceptable level without obsessing like a perfectionist.
June 11, 2008 at 04:06PM
Thanks for the comment. I don’t know if it’s something I’ve developed or not, but I usually get to a point when I write a blog where I just can’t think of anything else to do to it. That’s when I publish. Of course, several days later I usually come up with a whole bunch of new ideas. However I realize if I always went back to edit posts I’d never get anything else done!