Recently, i got a new home. The construction had been going on for the last 15 months. We had earlier expected it to be over by February, 2009. Then i kept on asking the Engineer of the project every month about the probable date of completion. And he would always reply, "withing the next thirty days". This went on for six months unabated. The same questions and the same answers were repeated month after month.
When i lost my patience, i fixed the date of housewarming. I went to meet my astrological consultant ( the Pundit , of course!) on 20 September. He suggested 28 September. I took the risk and played the gamble. I told the engineer and every other work contractor involved that i wanted them out of site on or before 27 but not before completing the work. They looked at me in disbelief. Then i daily went to the site and would repeat the same thing on a regular basis. After 3 days, all of them suddenly came to action. Everybody began to work whole night and with a stronger work force. My home was ready on 27 evening!
I know that it's not a unique experience. Everyone of us comes across similar situations in our normal course of life. But can we derive some learning here? Let me try to present them one by one.
1. Always assign deadlines. Otherwise we never tend to complete any work at all. Deadlines give birth to a sense of urgency and target. But more importantly, they make the job at hand a game which everybody wants to win. And of course, achievement motivation also plays its role.
2. Nobody, absolutely NOBODY is an exception to this rule. I realised that each one of us, of whatever background or profession, falls in the same category. Without having a last date approaching fast, we just can't avoid the omnipresent and omnipotent habit of procrastination taking over us.
3. Reinforcing the target regularly is even more important than setting it. Do you remember the habitual process of preparing time tables for personal studies during school days and then discovering the soothing fact that following them is practically impossible? When anybody gives us something to do and never reinforces it, we tend to believe in medium to long term that he has also forgotten it and nothing more should be done now!
4. When you change your ways, people do not trust you initially. Your regular efforts are required to convince them of your sincerity. Your keenness to obtain the positive results alone is not sufficient. Your tenacity and regular follow up is a better management tool that works.
5. All of us are able to perform faster than how we normally do. Yes! It's a fact! We can and hence we should always try to work more and faster. It's not only more rewarding but satisfying too.
I have an idea to share here. I would love to have the feedback from the readers of this post on this. Try to find out any 5 events of your past life that you could have completed in less time, in case you were given a stricter deadline. And then, try to list out the possible implications of the same.
I understand that the world is becoming more and more challenging and demanding day by day. and I KNOW that we are ready for the same.
5 comments:
Varun ji, I must admit that I too am a slave to deadlines. I tend to work in the uncapacitated MRP mode, with resulting problems :-)
Respected Sir,
I would like to put forward a very common example. Our law has fixed deadlines for everything whether it be date for filing income tax or to file a case fighting for the right cause but most of us still pay penalties for not doing it on time. It has become our nature to delay the work and pass onus to some one else.
We need to understand the real value of time and resources we waste unknowingly saving few pennies for ourselves.
With Regards,
Proton Shreya Shrivastava
Fall '09 (Indore)
Respected Sir,
I agreed with your analysis that 'All of us are able to perform faster than how we normally do.'
I would like to share my personal experience with you. that when i was in graduation i just read books two or three days before exam. but, now in PROTON we must have to read books on daily bases otherwise, we are not allow to sit in the session. so, learning is that i have increased my work ability and responsibility to accomplish the given task in given time period or in deadline. so, i have setup new benchmark for me that i can do work till 14-16 hours a day
Respected Sir,
You have correctly analised the fact which most of the people follow. I admit this sir that even i follow the same, for example- the preterm assignment given to us by PROTON for which we had a time of more than 30 days in which one can easily complete his/her assignment but i ignored it for more than 25 days and when only 3 or 4 days left in opening of college i started doing my assignments, and completed it on last day evening.
Sir i want to say thanks to you for giving me a very new way of thinking, that how you can find learnings in our day to day activites. Things which you have poined out happens with most of us but we never used to think this way
Dear Sir,
This time the hit was on human tendency. There are very few of them who try to finish their work before time and i am not one of them as i also follow the principle of the last minute preparation.
Let it be college presentations or exams preparations or some other work. I always work more efficiently on deadlines and the results are also far better than those of well prepared ones. The case happens in Choupal as every now and then i prefer going to stage and share something. The ones given in a last moment preparation are far better than the ones well prepared and i love working on deadlines.
Thanks for sharing a real life experience.
Regards
Vidit Shah
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