Intellectual Mass Production

Last week I have learned the hard way how "unplanned expansion" of professional duties can be deteriorating to the quality of your work. Let me be simple and direct: try always to know when to say "no" to a task if you have a choice to make sure that you do not slip into a condition of bad delivery.

In the past few weeks and in starting my new job and finishing-off the freelance consultancies I had I was faced with the task of having two presentations and three focus group activities in 4 days. I just could not handle it properly and felt bad for myself.

I had managed to come up with nice presentations but while I was presenting I lost my rythm. I did not manage to link my mind with my tongue with the slides on the datashow, and in many cases I had to read from the slides which is not my usual style. I felt disconnected and not able to fully grasp the content of the presentations. I managed to respond to questions though which were not controversial but was very disappointed with the quality of presentation.

I had to prepare positions and arguments for two important group meetings and again I found that I was struggling with using a good flow of logical thinking for my argument and felt that I was not able to convince other participants with my position and had to end up with a semi-structured argument that can be taken to a further step. This was not good enough for me and felt again that the quality of my argument was eroded with the expansion of tasks.

I think it is just like opening a new shawerma place. In the begenning there is good focus and quality control but after you gain reputation the quality starts to decrease as mass production increases. In terms of professional and intellectual work it is dangerous to accept a lot of tasks without being able to find the time for a solid and comprehensive product that cannot be disputed or challenged.

This is for everyone out there struggling with the professional world: if you have the choice and you care about the quality try to resist the temptation of engaging in too many tasks at once and focus on quality.