Thursday, February 13, 2014

The Last 10 % = 90 % of the Task

That headline above - have you heard about that concept? It's widely known in IT project management.

You have a defined task. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. When you start you naively always believe that the project is smaller or more easily done than what is actually possible.
Some of this is due to scope-creep*. That's always an unpleasant fellow to run into. But most of it is due to the fact that you don't know what you're doing until you've done it.

But writing that down as a project goal isn't really the accepted business practice.

I'd like to think you get better at knowing you're own limits and identifying the potential areas of complexity before they hit you on the head like a freaking cement-block and delay the completion of your project. But maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I like to finish things. But a lot of things will never get finished.

It's not just IT projects that work this way. Right now I'm staring at piles of clean, neatly folded laundry. I need to put it on hangers and actually finish this measly task of doing the laundry. You'd think the hard part is over. I dragged bags of filthy clothes across town in order to wash it. I hung it up to dry. Folded it. And dragged it back across town. All I need is to finish the job. The last 10%. But I feel like it takes 90% of my energy to do it.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm lazy by nature.

By the way, this post is my attempt to motivate myself to actually put my damn clothes away. It also functions as a perfectly valid excuse to procrastinate the task - at least for a few more minutes. A win-win situation.

I've managed to have 16-hours workdays for months, juggling working a job and writing a thesis. I'll be damned if I let myself get beat by a little pile** of laundry.

So yeah. Let's all try to finish our projects, hmm? Even the small ones. They all matter in the end.

* I'm not going to explain to you what the fuck scope-creep is. Do something useful with your time and google it yourself.
** I lied. It's huge. I've been avoiding doing laundry for ages. I actually ran out of socks. Yup. I am that adamant about avoiding doing stuff.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Update and Zombie-Snails?

So. If you haven’t figured out yet, I update this blog when I’m trying to avoid dealing with my life. 

But my life right now? It’s pretty decent. 

I’m done with school. Got my master’s degree. Yup. I am now a Master of IT. Got an A too on my thesis. Booyah.
I got a freaking awesome job at a huge company. I’ll actually be travelling abroad. Hotels and airports here I come!

And while that’s nice and well, I don’t walk around feeling grateful everyday. Maybe I should? But I’m actually annoyed at all the menial crap I still have to do, like doing the dishes and the laundry. And getting up every morning. So annoying. 

I feel like I don’t quite know how to relax. It’s like I only have two settings: Super awesome ninja-woman, doing everything at once and doing it to perfection. Or Zombie-snail. There is not middle ground. I’ve been sliding into zombie snail territory. Next weekend I’ll binge watch House of Cards. That’s going to be fun. I need to catch up on Game of Thrones, too.

Me as a zombie-snail. This would be as I was watching the latest Sherlock episode - source

Fuck it. I’m just going to chill for a few weeks until my new job starts and then I’m sure I’ll be back to my old busy self. And if not, I’ll find something to fill my nights with. Possible Sons of Anarchy or The Wire.