Are The "While We're At Its" Killing Your Day?

The Four Hour Christmas Tree and Train

Have you ever had one of those days where you felt like you didn’t get anything done?  One of those days where you are sitting at dinner an hour late and can’t seem to remember actually doing anything?

Have you ever had a project take several times longer than expected?  Something you thought would take a day and it took a week or maybe even longer.  

Does this happen to you on a regular basis?  It used to happen to me all the time.  When I ran a custom home electronics company, something most people would call a “Home Theater” business, it plagued us regularly,  The builders we worked with called it the “While we are at its”.  During construction the homeowner would see something they missed or didn’t like and decide to change it mid stream and poof, two days are added to the project.  

Even starting a project can be slowed by a similar problem called “analysis paralysis”.  So much time is spent analyzing that the job never really gets started.

For my day job, I now run an SEO business, and I see analysis paralysis hit my customers regularly.  I will give them a worksheet asking for 10-20 keyword phrases they think their customers would use to find them online.  They will come up with hundreds and take weeks to narrow the list.  This is how I ended up adding business coaching to the programs my company offers.   My friends in the print advertising or “offline” world tell me they see a similar problem.  When that happened I knew that the "While We're At It's" were about to take over.

In the military we called the problem of the "While We're At Its', “mission creep”.  You would start off with an idea and get a small mission approved.  One day General Hasanidea stops by and adds a few notes to the plan, and the plan grows to accommodate him.  A short time later Colonel Nee Danothermedal steps in to make sure he is included.   The simple three day mission turns into a four month planning process and a 3 week event that doesn’t do what you set out to do from the beginning.  The original mission was lost or forgotten.  Mission Creep.

It is why the government can’t get anything done.  In business it will eventually bankrupt you.

Is any of this sounding familiar?  Would you like to know a couple of little secrets to stop the problem of the "While We're At Its"?  

The very first step is always to identify the goal or mission clearly and get everyones buy in.  For instance this week my wife wanted a Christmas Tree with a Train around the bottom and a maximum budget for things we didn’t have of $X.  I agreed to help her and support this goal.  You would think this was pretty simple.  Did your holiday decorations get out of hand?  Do you know anyone that took days to get it done when it should have been hours?  Some years ago we started the same mission only to end up with a train sitting on half a track around a really big tree.  It looked good, went way over budget and didn't actually work.

With the mission set and agreed on, we followed the advice Napolean Hill claimed to give Charles Schwab in his timeless book “Think and Grow Rich”. We created a task list of what needed to be done and agreed to it before opening the first box from the attic.

1. Measure area
2. Take inventory of what we have
3. Test trains we already have
4. Repair/Replace needed parts
5. Build train set
6. Get Tree
7. Finish decorating

While this doesn’t look like much, step three turned out to be a major slowdown.  The transformer was dead, and we had lost one piece of track so we couldn’t build a test loop.  

Looking at number four, I grabbed all three of my engines and made a list of what track parts and transformer we needed.  Using my smart phone I found a train store not far from my home.  When we arrived they were already closed.  Again using my phone I found another, this one was open and very helpful.

Within 20 minutes we knew two things. First, all of my engines still worked which was great news and second, that we could buy an entire kit for less than the transformer and track I needed.  We ended up buying an entire kit and decided to sell one of my engines, it’s caboose and all the track that we had online.  Making the decision was easy because the budget was part of the mission to begin with.

With numbers three and four now complete we proceeded to number five.  One of the things I should point out is that while at the train shop, we could have easily spent an hour or two just admiring the trains they had of all different sizes.  Instead we stayed focused and were in and out quickly.  No “While we are at its” or “Mission Creep” was allowed.

Numbers five and six involved a trip to the local home store for a tree and a piece of plywood to place the model railroad track on.  We also stopped at the local craft store for some felt to cover the board.  The opportunity to shop and get side tracked here was again staring us in the face.  Instead we stuck to our plans and headed home with only the required items.  

I can hear some of you saying things like “But if I am at the home store and need light bulbs, why not get light bulbs?, it will save time in the long run and save gas.”  

The bottom line is this line of thinking just isn’t true.  When you set out to do one thing at a time and get it done, it will get done.  If we has stopped to enjoy the trains at the train store, and shopped for light bulbs at the home store and shop for more decorations at the craft store, the tree would still be at the home store.  We have all done it and know it is true.  It just feels “better” many times to lose focus and “get other things done too”.   From experience working with some great leaders and very successful people, I learned that unless your house is really on fire, everything else can wait until it makes it to a list.  If it never makes a list, it isn’t that important.  This method keeps the "While We're At Its" from jumping on the priority list out of turn.

If light bulbs were that important, they would have made a list some time ago, and there is the key to success.  Over time, as you focus on one major goal or task at a time, things start getting done.  One day you will be one of “Those people” who make everything look easy.  The trick is getting started with a task list every day and sticking to it.  And yes, the propeller is still hanging on the wall behind the tree, taking it down didn't make the list.

Happy Holidays,