Tip of the Month
(Tips Archive)
Count the Cost
Count the cost. Your adherence to this important organizing principle will often determine the success of a project or commitment.
You have likely experienced the embarrassment and guilt of starting a project but not finishing it, or promising someone something but then failing to deliver. Counting the cost can help eliminate this area of stress that always seems to strike at just the wrong time.
Before you start another project or make another commitment, write down your answers to the following questions that are applicable to your task.
- Do you have enough time to complete it on time?
- Do you have enough space to store it?
- Do you have enough money to buy it?
- Do you have an energy and interest level commensurate with the task?
- Does your success depend on others? Can they answer yes to the questions you just answered yes for yourself?
If your answer to all of the above applicable questions are "yes", then you have the basic prerequisites needed to succeed!
A second principle of organization that follows Count the Cost is finish each project fully or finish a portion of each project fully
before starting another.
"Finish Fully!"
You and I both know that one of consistent problems to completing a project or making good with a commitment is distractions.
For example, just when we begin a project in our office or home, we get interrupted either by the phone or coworker or child. How do we deal with this?
- When you are working on a report, writing an email or drafting a memo, and you get interrupted, before you begin a new task, finish the sentence or paragraph in the report, email or memo.
- If you are vacuuming the carpet and you come across a dry plant that needs watering, finish the vacuuming before you water your plants.
When you finish a portion of a project before starting another, it gives you a feeling of having finished. When you return to the first project, you can begin afresh where you left off. It will be easier to start up again.
Count the cost and finish first! Two great principles that will help you succeed in finishing any task--on time, on budget and without stress!
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