Just In Time

“Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute.”

“If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.”

–     A couple unattributed business sayings

Sometimes I am really good when I am right down to the last minute.  No, I mean really good.  Until, that is, I consider how much better I could have been if “just in time,” meant “well before I had to have it done.”

Our pace makes this last minute syndrome seem heroic.  “Holy cow, team, I didn’t think we were going to make that deadline!  Great job!”  Or, “You’re awesome, ________, you always come through in the nick of time!”

Our pace is both something that gets imposed upon us and something that we impose upon ourselves.  If we’re not careful, our pace rewards detrimental behaviors – procrastination, poor communication, crappy listening – because we’re always working on whatever needed to be done fifteen minutes ago.

Our pace is also fully within our control.  What we do and don’t do are decisions we can make early in the game, and that will determine how much energy and focus we have left if we get in to situations where the clock is winding down on us.

Experiment:  Take something you know isn’t due for a week or so.  Do it today.  Then, spend thirty seconds evaluating how it feels.

“In time” doesn’t have to mean “just in time,” and we buy back large hunks of our life when we get comfortable with that concept; further, we reap even greater benefit when we start to live it!