Have you ever had a big project that felt like no matter how long or hard you worked you couldn’t seem to get it done as quickly as you expected to? Every time you think you see some light at the end of the tunnel there is a dip or turn or obstruction and the glimmer of light fades away. It’s a dark and lonely place, a place of low morale, frustration, burnout, hopelessness, and even despair.
It’s not uncommon to find ourselves in this predicament, in fact, I believe it is in our nature. We experience this on both short-term and long-term tasks. You may feel like this during moving, or pregnancy, or shoveling a mountain of snow in April, or with bays and a lot full of cars or on a remodel project or working on landing a big account or building and implementing something new at work. If you are a successful person, (and I know you are; you are reading Reman U aren’t you? 😉) you’re likely ambitious, take on a lot, and heap pressure on yourself to keep driving forward and making things happen. Those great qualities that help separate you from the heap are also the ones that can put you in the dark tunnel. Few among us can charge ahead undeterred and unaffected along the journey.
Good news! The tunnel is not real and neither is the light. Oh man, you thought I meant you were actually digging a tunnel? It’s a metaphor.😉 When we take a step or back or reach task completion and gain some perspective, the pitfalls are easy to see.
Taking those factors into mind there are a lot of ways to safeguard ourselves and keep enthusiasm and momentum going on projects. Some of my coworkers use project management methodologies like kanban boards (or Trello) and scrum which use simple organization tools to visualize work and progress and address estimating shortcomings. These systems can produce great results, but there are a few things that can be done simply with a “shift” (they pay me extra for these when I use Transmission words) of mindset, or perspective.
When you feel the tunnel taking shape try:
Bottom line is you don’t have a crystal ball and sometimes you don’t know what exactly you’re getting yourself into or what will happen next. Be reasonable with your expectations, deadlines, and assessments. This holds true for individuals, teams, and especially leadership. Keep going! whether you make it there today, tomorrow, or even never; you are making progress and that’s where your focus should be to stay productive and effective.
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