Now What
When I was in college, if I got a complicated project to complete, I always used to procrastinate. Not slightly, I used to be the god of procrastination. Until the very last minute, I didn’t pick it up. Only when my brain gets into steadfast tension is when I pick it up thinking why didn’t I even start it before. Almost all my college life, it was same. Bigger the project, longer the drag, higher the tension in the end, more messed up I would be in final hours. Though this worked out fine then, there is a silent drawback of it. I became unreliable.
No one said it on my face but I got less and less projects. People didn’t depend on me cause I won’t get the work done either on time or with quality. They don’t do it knowingly, they just do it subconsciously. Well, who am I to blame. Reliability gives predictability, and I wasn’t one.
In corporate though, it is easy; you feel it in your bank account. You might get a good manager giving you enough feedback, but most of the time, you are on your own. World talks with money and I fell behind. I did what any average employee does; blame the system. That is the correct choice, right? That is what every other person does, right?
The fact was, as I said, that is what every ‘average employee’ does. When I’m comparing myself to an overachiever, how come I am doing the average. Out of all, one characteristic of an overachiever is being reliable. However hard the problem is, there are never complaints, only interesting perspectives.
Now, my task is to become reliable. And to become reliable, I need to complain less. And if I want to complain less and take responsibility, I need to produce quality. Average doesn’t beat it. I want to be the best in the game, hence I need to play like one.
To gain that characteristic, one character I need to lose is procrastination. Me being the best in lagging all my life, changing myself was hard. I only know how to put a task aside until last date, not to start doing it two weeks before deadline. And one question which helped me start the change is “Now what”.
I am lazy, but I want to complete the project on time. Now what? Whatever happened shouldn’t affect my action right now. This moment is what I have. I have to plan it forward, not fear it backward.
“Now what” clears me of the past burden. Project had 4 weeks of timeline. I am already 2 weeks in. “Now what”. If I want to complete it, I can’t think how I’ve wasted past 2 weeks, but to plan how I can give my 200% in next 2 weeks.
As Cyril Northcote Parkinson quoted
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion
Any work can be completed within time. Could be a month, could be two weeks. It depends on believing, and I started believing in myself.