Are you doing too much, too soon?
Ever noticed marathon runners? The pace, the agility and the slow build-up of momentum until they reach the end of the line — well, that’s a lot like working in the corporate teams of today. Strain yourself to accomplish too much in the beginning, you end up burning yourself out too early, or take a pace too slow, and you never get to win. Like a marathon runner, if you find the right balance, you’d nail it.
Let’s draw comparisons
Marathon runners have great distances to cover with just about the same level of stamina as every other guy. If they run too fast too soon, they risk burning out their energy reserves. They need to keep a steady pace and expert only as much energy as it takes to keep moving relatively ahead of the crowd. In the last mile or so, runners strain every sinew to pick up speed and get to the finish line first.
If you look at things this way, working in today’s corporate teams is a like running a long distance marathon. Accomplish your goals too soon, and you risk burning yourselves out; and like the runner, you might not have the necessary drive to finish up first during the last mile of your project.
Run too fast…
When you accomplish too much too soon in a new project or team, you end bypassing the warm up phase where you ease into the project, get to understand your goals, your teammates and understand the client requirements — all of which will help you complete the project successfully. Skip this phase and regardless of your meticulous planning and regardless of your specific skill set, you end up getting too far ahead in the project, a place from where you might not be able to get back or make changes to your work.
The initial phase is when you rope in the best ideas and you need to take the time to test your theories for faults and errors. Simply put, the initial phase is the one where you weed out bugs!
Benchmarking
Another side effect, so to say, of doing too much early on is that you set unrealistic expectations for your own creativity, level of work, deliverables or targets. And for expectations are concerned, it’s never a good idea to set your very best as a benchmark. What happens in the long run, you’re expected to produce even better than your very best. This leads to impossible standard settings, stress, extended work hours… and things just go south from then on.
Healthy balance
We know that a long distance runner runs a steady pace for most the long distance and only really picks up on speed in the last mile. So, how can you ensure you build your energy reserve for work without expending too much in the early phase itself? The right question is: What can you do to determine the right pace that works for you?
Work in a pace that keeps you from going back to review and improve your work periodically. Work in a pace that eliminates the need for you to chart in bug fixing into your regular schedule. Work in a pace that, although tiring, still leaves energy for you to get back home and play with your kids.
