The Importance Of Handling “Done”
Mondays are productivity days at SimpleProductivity blog.
So you’ve done a project, wrapped it all up, delivered it. Now what?
In July we are going to look at projects: how to pick what to do, how to get started, how to move forward consistently, how to fix stalled projects, and what to do after you finish a project.
Today we look at what you need to do after the project is done and the importance of handing “done”.
The Importance of Done
Far too often we finish something up, and without even drawing a breath move on to the next thing.
But without stopping to consider what we just accomplished, we are denying ourselves the acknowledgement that we completed something. We pass over the accomplishment as if it didn’t exist.
How could that possibly serve us well?
Recognizing Done
We have to allow ourselves to recognize that we have done something. We have to get closure on what we completed before moving on to the next item, or we will spend our days in a whirl of activity without really understanding what we finished.
In order to get closure, we need to take a moment and consider what we just accomplished. Make it real in your mind. See what you have created/completed and really look at it.
Lessons Learned
Another thing to do as part of the closure is to take a look at lessons learned.
Even if you are not ever going to do this set of actions again, nor anything like it, it is important to figure out what went well and what went not so well.
Why?
Because you can learn things about not only the project at hand, but also your general methodology.
For instance, you could notice that you had significant delays when you sent email to a particular person. Perhaps you only got answers after you called him. That might mean in the future you should skip the email, or follow up more quickly with a phone call.
Or you might notice that your shared calendar helped keep everyone on track. This would indicate that it is a useful tool going forward.
Or you might have just finished a project you know you will need to do in 3 months. You could write up an SOP to make sure that you don’t struggle with the same pain points again.
Conclusion
Finishing a project is great, but it is important to be able to acknowledge your completion for closure, as well as extract lessons learned.
Over To The Readers
When was the last time you took even a minute to think about something you just finished?
