Earlier I blogged about how to succeed at work or life you need to work just a little bit more than you want to. I mean that ‘little bit’ literally: not working yourself to death more, not a whole lot more, just that little bit more that can turn your day from one of frustration and failure into one with a concrete achievement.
Your mileage may vary, of course, but for me the point when I really want to give up is frequently just before I am about to reach one of my goals. All I need to do is hang on just a little bit longer, keep working just a little bit harder, and very frequently I’m rewarded by more than I could have expected.
Today this was once again confirmed. I got in late today and decided to work until 7, which was coincidentally what I felt was a good solid workday and about the time I would need to leave to make sure I can get some dinner and writing done.
But work was slow going: I’d recently switched to a new project but was stuck with some old tasks, and the mental gear switching, combined with some syrupy new software on my workstation, kept dragging me down. On top of that, one of my collaborators dropped in with a request for assistance putting together an evaluation, and since I owe him a few I worked on a scripting job for him while I was between compiles of the unit tests of my main task for the day.
7 rolls around, and I’m just about spent. I decide to call it a day, start to pack things up, and begin thinking of where I can go for dinner and what I need to be working on: my new novel, an illustration for my last novel, my web site.
And then I remember that blog post, and decide to push just a little bit harder.
In just 23 minutes, I got both the unit tests to pass on my main task AND finished a first trial run of the scripting job, complete with an automatically generated HTML page. With that, I was able to find a ‘problem’ with my script, spent about 20 more minutes debugging it, verified it wasn’t really my script’s problem, and fired off an email to my colleague telling him where to find the HTML for his evaluation, and asking him had he ever seen an error like that and did he happen to know how to fix it?
By 7:45, I’d closed up, walked out, and headed for Panera Bread. By the time I was done with my sandwich, I’d gotten an email back from my collaborator suggesting an easy workaround for the problem that I can implement with a one line change. I might even be able to start it up tonight to run overnight – meaning that, God willing, I will have completed by Tuesday morning a task I told my collaborator I couldn’t even start until maybe Wednesday.
YES! By working just a little bit harder, I turned a frustrating day into a complete success – and freed my mind this evening to work on more creative tasks. I recommend it to all of you.
-the Centaur
