The Reckoning
We’ve all had those moments. Yeah “those” moments. You’ve worked hard day in and day out and stuff still gets missed. You find small pockets of improvements here and there. It could be as simple as how you organize your files or code…or learning something like a whole new technology. Still, you get that urge every now and then to pull an all-nighter and improve things. It’s short bursts of potential energy. The more things pile up, the more you recognize and rationalize “if I just” you’ll save the world…or at least feel like it.
These little bursts tend to accumulate and eventually either you speak out about it more profusely to make sure it is a priority or you take it upon yourself to just do it. Maybe you jam out to some music and crank through it.
Clarity: Fighting Yourself
Usually I find during these times that the BS drains out. I find that decisions that used to include rare considerations turn into crystal clear Yes/No. To some extent, there is usually some backlash once it’s all done. Most of the time it is just “who moved my cheese” stuff. I also find that this stuff works best when a) I’m somewhat tired or b) when my back is against the wall. There is just a certain level of clarity because all the other non-sense is mentally tagged as trash.
Your Nemesis: Scope Creep-er
You feel empowered and energized. You now also feel like you can take on larger/stronger challenges. You feel like you will rain down productivity on the mortal souls of your project. You can’t let your desire to make a positive change end in disaster. Yes, disaster. Try having one of your reckonings where you take on multiple things at once. Sure you feel like you can,…and to be fair maybe you can. Each thing you take on though adds risk. I decided once that I was going to re-organize the kitchen pantry and the garage at the same time. I had hours, clarity, and energy. I ended up with a total mess (we’ll just blame it on the creeper…they always make a mess). Why? After your reckoning, you are no longer the hulk. At some point late at night your level of caring goes to zero. Even if you push yourself to try and put things back,…it sometimes still ends up pretty bad because you were in the middle of making it better. To make things worse, the next day you often aren’t in the same zone to finish what you started in case you were thinking of just leaving that “in progress” as is for the night. I tried again later with just the pantry and it was great…organized to a T.
Before you change into the hulk, fix your scope so that you will have a reasonable outcome. When you go into that mode, you wholeheartedly are trying to make things better. For some reason achieving the outcome feels more like exceeding expectations than just meeting them. You want to feel charged in the morning or on Monday if it’s a weekend thing.
Fix your scope. Mentally tag non-sense as trash. Jam to music, if that’s your style. And git stuff done.
Originally published: 7/14/2013
