I always thought that I was a good, if not great, project person. I have been quite proud that I always delivered customer projects in time, budget and quality. At the same time, I am quite good at slacking off from time to time and to get the rest and relaxation I need. And what can be better than having the freedom to lay a project aside for a couple of hours, or days, knowing that it will be ready on schedule?
Last night however, I got to know my limitations. I learned that there are projects that cannot be laid aside and I was first shocked, then amazed, that sometimes procrastination is not only undesirable but simply impossible.
Last night at about 3 am, my 13-day old son prompted me, with a cunning combination of scream and smell, to pick him up and change his diapers. Seconds later, I found myself standing at the dressing table, barely awake, barely asleep, with an adorable and rewarding, yet utterly smelly and screaming child an arm’s length away.
Can you remember a time during a project when you just wanted to slack off? To have a latte in your favorite coffee shop? To drive to the beach? Just leave the thing alone, sit back and relax? Procrastination can be sooo sweet sometimes, eh?
“Slacking off is for the mind and soul. It may not be a lot of people’s cup of tea, but it’s mine.” everything2.com
So as I stood there at 3 am, doing my best to console this beautiful thing with his flailing arms, I realized that this was a kind of, uhm, project that just cannot be laid aside. I couldn’t just say “Oh well, let’s finish this design spec tomorrow and have a coffee now. It needs some incubation anyway.” I could not just slack off and have a coffee. This task had to be dealt with now, and it had to be completely finished on schedule.
(Carrying the project management metaphor further, I could have escalated the issue to my wife, but the project was at a stage where adding more resources wouldn’t have helped.)
To be honest, this was a shock and awe situation for me: For the first time in my life, I was faced with something that had to be done, now. There was no back door, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and I was staggered. So I took a deep breath of fresh, warm air through the half-open window, looked at my little project and decided to hang on.
To my surprise, it was easier than I had thought. I knew what I was doing (having learnt the tools of the diaper-changing trade years before with my cousins), and the inevitable decision to hang on actually made the process – pun intended - much smoother.
The bottom line: Whenever you are faced with a – maybe already smelly – project that’s bugging you and flailing its arms, holding on to it may not be the most pleasant thing to do (especially when the coffee shop is just around the corner). But if it helps to get the job done, and if delegation is not possible, and if all other options would lead, predictably, to a failed project, an unhappy customer and a low paycheck, just hang in there and do it.
(And don’t you say this is a commonplace until you’ve been standing with me and my small, smelly, beautiful and adorable “project” at the dressing table at 3 am!)
