Thursday, February 28, 2008
If you do not procrastinate at work, you are are inefficient and waste a lot of time. Procrastination, if you think about it, is really a manifestation of the Japanese Just-in-time production methods, which they used to crush our auto industry.
"But I don't build cars. I work in a knowledge profession so you don't know what you're talking about, dick."
If someone gives you a task that will take 2 hours to do, and they don't need it for a few days, you could either start now, or wait until a few hours before they need it.
If you do the task right now, several things could happen.
1) The requirements might change
"But I don't build cars. I work in a knowledge profession so you don't know what you're talking about, dick."
If someone gives you a task that will take 2 hours to do, and they don't need it for a few days, you could either start now, or wait until a few hours before they need it.
If you do the task right now, several things could happen.
1) The requirements might change
Unless you work for the government, situations are fluid and in the next few days you will find out more information about what you were supposed to do. If you've done it already, you either have to change it and do extra work, or hand it over the old, poor quality work that doesn't include the new information.2) The task is no longer required at all
The project gets changed or canceled. The person requesting it gets fired or promoted. The software that automates the task is finally purchased. If you've done it already, it's completely wasted time.3) The task gets delayed
Other people screw up and they don't need your piece for a few more days. If this happens, it creates even more time for #1 or #2 to happen.4) The task is required on time and as specified
Then you do it before it's needed and no harm no foul.
