Ever feel overwhelmed? Too much coming at you? Too many people, too many tasks, too many emails and DMs? ahhhhh 😱

The Busy Trap 🪤

I feel like that a lot.

Sometimes I let it get to me and worst of all each thing I do suffers to degrees from a lot to a little; the 'too busy' syndrome 📉. It takes me concerted effort to remember that every task deserves my full attention and giving the time and attention each task, customer, and team is when I do my best work 📈.

Do What is right not what is easy ⚖️

It can be tempting to try to clear tasks as quickly as possible, knowing that other folks are waiting for your attention and to complete their tasks. Everyone has an urgent deadline and everyone's project is 'the most important'. That is not wrong, their project is the most important to them. But it is not worth doing a poor job on all projects just becuase they are 'the most important', because a poor job just makes everyone unhappy in the long run 🏃.

I do well to remind myslelf of what satisfies me personally and professionally. I want to do a good job. Usually that means to take the time to do it right.

Do one thing well 🐧

The UNIX Philosopy

At the end of the day, doing each task well is worth it for personal satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and career growth. When you do a good job everyone senses it. If it takes a day, a week, or a month longer usually everyone is happier with the result. You have to balance reality with perfection and read the room. Sometimes an extra month is not posssible. But usually you can find the right compromise to do the right thing well.

Satisfaction 🌈

If nothing else, I can't derive satisfaction from doing a poor job over and over. So, I strive to give the best inputs, opinions, best practices, to the teams I work with. From there we can come to decisions and compromises on what will produce the best reusults for the business owners, stake holders, customers, and project at hand.