Don't Start Work Until You Define "Done"

Don’t start work till you define what “Done” means.

Picture this, your boss walks in your office and says “Hey, can you improve our marketing? You’ve got 4 hours this week to do so”.

It’s a fair request, you may have even have had this task before.

If you’re like most knowledge workers, that goes on your to-do list, and you just start working on it.

What’s the problem?

The problem isn’t identifying a task like this. The problem is you will have ZERO IDEA when you are actually done. “Improve our marketing” has no scope to it, no edges, no definition of “Done”.

And like any story I tell about your “boss”, I’m talking about you, as your own Time Boss.

Again, like the average knowledge worker, entrepreneur or executive, this is the reality of most things on your calendar.

You can spend our whole day working on things, even top priorities, but you experience anxiety or stress when it’s time to do something else, whether it be a task, or just shutting your computer for the night. You have no clear indication if you were actually successful or not.

Here’s what to do instead: plan ahead and define “done” before it gets to your calendar. Let’s go back to our “Improve our marketing” task. As your Time Boss, spend 15 minutes getting clear on what “Done” means. “Done” defined could be “identify and launch three tests to improve leads by 10%”. That’s clarity. I now have a target to define my activities, and I will know clearly when I’m done.

A lot of people get tripped up on this. If you need help, please reach out. I’d love to connect with you and see if we can get you a quick win.