I’m so bad about this you guys.
This is not really reading or writing related, but it’s changed my life and I wanted to share with you.
I’ll plan a project (say building a table or organizing my office or even just vacuuming a carpet) and I’ll only think as far as getting it done.
Does this happen to you?
I’ll build the table, varnish, seal, sand, seal again. Table is done. Table goes in the house. Garage looks like a beaver exploded. Sawdust everywhere, rags waiting to combust and burn the house down.
Or I’ll pull out all these piles of things in my office. Books, paperwork, shipping supplies, whatever. I sort a bunch. Put things in a box to donate. Toss. All the things you’re supposed to do. Then I’ll squeeze things back in a container and never (okay, eventually…far in the future) take that box of donations in.
Or I’ll vacuum the carpet upstairs, then shove the vacuum in a corner so I don’t have to carry it back downstairs where it actually has a spot in a closet.
It’s bad you guys.
I always loved that line in Gattacca where Ethan Hunt tells his brother that he left nothing for the way back. For those of you not initiated, see the movie. It’s excellent.
The point is, when you don’t cleanup after yourself, you haven’t really finished the project. The final polish is missing. And for me, it’s a niggly feeling that drives me crazy. In the case of the exploding beaver (don’t worry, no beavers were harmed) the workshop was in disarray for months. Months! 🙁
Anyway. I have a new rule when it comes to projects. I build in clean up time in the process. All it takes is thinking about it before hand.
The brain is a powerful thing.
If I think to myself ‘okay, vacuuming is going to take me ten minutes, then another two to bring the vacuum back downstairs’ it sets up the expectation in my mind that I’m going to finish the job and make sure everything is put away.
With things like yard work, saving enough energy to put my tools away is so important. For those of you who already do this, you’re probably scratching your head. But for years, I’d work in the yard, work more, do a little bit more, always trying to get more tasks finished. And then I’d drop from exhaustion. Now days, I do less tasks, but I do them better and completely and my tools are put away and I feel so much better.
Building that “polish” time into your project may be the difference between a good project and a great project. It may be the difference in truly enjoying the work you put in. Because isn’t it nice when you go out into the garage and it doesn’t look like a beaver blew up?
