Wrapping Up

… or the importance of finishing well.

Have there ever been times when you got to the end of a long project or activity and thought, “I’ll deal with the rest later”? Maybe it was a camping trip when it rained and you were so happy to get home that you left the wet gear in the car to deal with it in the morning. Or the painting project when you left the clean up and found that everything had dried into an unusable mass. Or the roasting pan that… you get the idea.

Sometimes it may feel like that at the end of a work project. There have been times when I was frustrated enough that I want to blow up the whole project and leave town. That wouldn’t have solved anything. Instead, I had to think about how can I do this well and leave it in good shape for the next person? How can I make it interesting enough to get through it? How can I divide it up into manageable chunks to get it done without being overwhelmed? How can I still make a contribution?

I do still leave some things for later. My casual, “I know where it is and what the status is, so no rush” sometimes catches up with me. As I get ready to transition to a new role, I’ve spent the last few days thinking about those things that wouldn’t be where someone else could find them. Hopefully I’ve wrapped them up enough that I’ve not left a mess behind me.