Starting a job is often met with high focus and energy, but as the job, whether it is a repair or a project, nears the end, people tend to lose focus and momentum. A job that is 95% complete is a job that is not yet done, no matter how hard you work to convince yourself it is. The reasons for this are varied: fatigue, distraction by new tasks, or a lack of immediate reward. However, the solution remains the same… finish the f**king job (FTFJ).
The Importance of Completing Tasks
- Maintaining Professional Integrity: Completing tasks not only reflects on individual professionalism but also on the organisation’s reputation. When jobs are left unfinished, it undermines trust and reliability.
- Boosting Efficiency: An unfinished job can lead to wasted resources. Time, materials, and manpower are all utilised more efficiently when a task is seen through to its conclusion.
- Ensuring Quality: Incomplete work often results in sub-optimal outcomes. Quality control is maintained when tasks are completed methodically.
- Reducing Stress: Open-ended tasks can contribute to workplace stress and anxiety – whether that’s avoiding customer contacts, or last minute pressure. Completing jobs provides a sense of closure and accomplishment, reducing mental burdens.
Strategies to Finish the Job
- Set Clear Objectives: Begin with a clear understanding of the job’s goals. Ensure everyone involved knows what the end result should look like.
- Prioritise Tasks: Use prioritisation methods to focus on important and urgent tasks first. Avoid letting less critical tasks distract from completing the primary job.
- Break Down the Task: Large projects can be daunting. Break them down into manageable chunks, and tackle these smaller tasks one at a time.
- Maintain Focus: Avoid the temptation to multi-task excessively. While some level of multi-jobbing is inevitable, ensure that each job gets the attention it deserves until completion.
- Set Deadlines: Deadlines create a sense of urgency and can help maintain momentum. Be realistic but firm with these timelines. Put them in your calendar and hold yourself to them.
- Accountability: Hold yourself and your team accountable for finishing jobs. Regular check-ins and progress updates can help keep everyone on track. There is no need to have endless meetings to update on progress when there is none, but relevant and timely meetings can keep a team aligned and help all involved maintain focus on easily forgotten job
Example 1: Management Projects Gone Awry
Often, senior management teams will set projects to improve business functions throughout the organisation, only to start the projects and then see them drag on and on until they are finally dropped or run up against a wall where those involved lack the energy to find a solution.
Quite often, those managers who are most active in proposing and starting multiple projects are the ones who take a promotion on the back of the project implementation but never have to see it through. This leads to a cycle of unfinished projects, wasted resources, and demotivated teams left to pick up the pieces.
Before promoting managers who seam most active in the organization, it’s a good idea to confirm if their projects were successfully completed and to evaluate the impact these projects (finished or not) actually had on the business.
Example 2: Service Technicians Losing Focus
Service technicians often start a repair but then need to wait on parts or a customer response (there are solutions to these issues that I will deal with in another article). During this wait, they can lose attention on the repair, creating delays, customer dissatisfaction, and even losing the device. This not only impacts the customer experience but also reflects poorly on the organisation’s reliability and efficiency.
The Consequences of Incompletion
Failing to finish jobs can lead to a cascade of bad outcomes. Delays in one project can impact others, and these impact yet more. This can result in missed opportunities, financial losses, and a damaged reputation.
Perhaps worse, ever increasing incomplete tasks can demoralise a team. It’s hard to stay motivated when previous efforts have not yielded tangible results. This can lead to a cycle of procrastination and further unfinished work.
FTFJ
Finishing the f**king job is not just a mantra, but a critical skill that drives success and efficiency in any professional setting. I even had it up on the wall of my offices so my teams never forgot it.
Whether you’re managing a large-scale project or performing routine maintenance, always strive to complete your tasks. The rewards are massive: improved efficiency, enhanced quality, and a healthier, less stressed work environment. So, no matter what, remember….
FTFJ
