TOW#613 — TIL THE END!
Last weekend we talked with two friends about a project that is being implemented in Macedonia, and which is essentially a copy of a global initiative/campaign to raise awareness among young people. They emphasised that despite the fact that the idea and the concept are fantastic, nevertheless the organisers in our country didn’t implement and complete the idea properly. This led to a heated debate about whether or not this was indeed the case. The conversation with them, as well as many situations I’ve had at work and privately, inspired me to expand a bit, in this week’s tip, on the topic of getting things done properly — until the end!
Why don’t we do things to the very end!?
1. Perspective/expectations: in the case of my friends, it might’ve been that, if you were to ask the event organisers, they’d tell you that it went great and was organised by the book. But my friends wouldn’t agree with that. Herein is the reason for the disagreement between the two sides — another person would’ve done it differently.
- Solution: In this particular case, I wouldn’t say that the job wasn’t done properly. It’s just that the expectations of the two sides weren’t the same.
2. Time: often we don’t finish things due to a lack of time. What happens in those situations is that we’re detailed, dedicated and systematically working on the tasks at the beginning, but then we realise there’s no time left to actually complete them, and so we speed up and make a mess of everything.
- Solution: better organisation, division of tasks into phases or sections, better planning and time management.
3. Perfectionists: there are people who are great detailists and perfectionists, and they tend to over-tweak things and end up not having time to finish them correctly.
- Solution: look at the big picture. The big picture is always more important than a piece of the ‘puzzle’ looking perfect.
4. Laziness: there are also lazy people, or characters who are on fire at the start, full of initiative and the power to inspire everyone, but when the work has to be pushed until the end, they appear to get lost and don’t finish things.
- Solution: If you’re that type of character, it could be useful motivation if you promised yourself a nice reward for finishing the job. Another good technique is to practice completing small tasks, because that way you’ll get better at finishing the bigger ones.
5. Money/finances: sometimes things aren’t completed due to a lack of funds.
- Solution: this is usually a result of bad planning, or poor management during the implementation of the project, or simply an uneconomical way of operating. Of course, depending on the size of the investment to be made, I always look to see out the job to the end. Even if it takes more time, energy or my own personal resources to get there.
6. Interruptions: have you stopped writing that email in order to read this week’s tip!? It often happens to us, especially on small tasks, that we don’t have the time or energy to complete them, because we constantly get distracted and interrupted by other important, less important or unimportant things.
- Solution: turn off your phone and e-mail notification, put a ‘do not enter’ sign on your office door, put on headphones, give yourself the task of not letting anyone or anything distract you… do whatever, just try to stay focused.
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.”
Stephen Hawking
7. (Un)knowledge: this is the other side of rule #1. One is the perspective/ expectation about how something should be done, and the other is when we know a lot and think that we’ve done everything right. The worst factor that can affect our results may indeed not be ignorance (we can simply find someone who knows), but the thought that we know it all and that we’re the best. Whereas, in actual fact, that’s far from the truth.
- Solution: education!!! And awareness that we still have much to learn.
Brian Tracy says that “in life, all success comes from completing tasks, not just working on them.” Therefore, don’t just work hard, but work smart, properly and until the end.
Wishing you success with the changes to come,
Petar Lazarov
Member of the Team
If you would like to receive these texts by e-mail or you think that some of your colleagues, associates or friends might be interested in them, please get in touch at
