Friday 12 August 2011

Mañana Man

Mañana Man has a very relaxed approach to getting work done.  Often to be found feet up in a hammock, maybe working on some trivial and low priority tasks, he “knows” he has plenty of time to get things done and really hasn’t got enough fire in his belly to get on with some of the key stuff until the deadline is looming closer. Looming deadlines stoke the fire and create a rush of activity.  Worry?  No worries – it’ll get done, often with seconds to spare.  Worry?  The other members of the gang worry as it seems that no progress is being made!  Mañana Man has had a few sticky moments – sometimes deadlines for bandit activity get brought forward – then he knows what worry feels like!  If only he’d taken some activity on the task – even if it was a rough plan or a record of key thoughts – maybe the shifting deadline wouldn’t cause quite such a gut-wrenching feeling and fellow bandits, including the chief, would feel more confident.  Sometimes it’s about perception – just a bit of activity can reassure others that progress is being made and the deadline will be met.  Another tactic Mañana Man could try is to set self imposed deadlines or milestones, maybe breaking the task into chunks that can be tackled with short, sharp bursts of activity – the energy to carry them out created by the frequent or regular deadlines.