Busy Days Make For Long Weeks

Published on Jul 26, 2012
Over the past few weeks it has started to feel that I've been living at work. Hours upon hours strung together on the same projects and despite my best intentions those projects never seem to finish. The frustration of work for me begins when tasks never get completed. Requirements and standards get thrown out the window in search for building a bigger and better version without a direct goal in sight. ## Feeling of Accomplishment You feel accomplished when you get to check off a task or delete a list of items that you have been working on. When I go grocery shopping I have my list in hand of items that I need to get before I leave. I scour the the aisles and shelves in search of my individual prizes and scratch them off the list once their found. By the time I'm done that same list looks almost indistinguishable from when I started. Why? It's complete. Projects work the same way and by the time you're finished a project won't look like it did when all you had was a list of requirements. Though unlike the feeling of seeing the final product I get most of my joy by seeing each of the accomplished tasks. That feeling is phenomenal, however, when it comes to working on the web you are neither satisfied, nor complete in the tasks you have to perform. ## Web Projects A web project may start out with one direction, but by the end that the same project has sprouted legs, wings and a tail. What do you do to alleviate the chaos? I started shaking my head "no" to most of the projects that were asked of me. Those "no's" eventually came down to the simple fact that the requester didn't know what they wanted and I didn't have the bandwidth to work out the details to make the project work. Finding solutions and fixing the problems is what I love to do. Though when it comes to making a money and getting projects I have to weigh the pros and cons of each project to see if I can even be successful for the client. I may put in massive hours but in the end I have to make sure that I'm not stepping in front of the proverbial bus. After nearly a decade of working on the web I would like to think that I've made it to the point of knowing everything. Sadly that's not the case. If anything you learn that you still have so much more to go before you rest. I will leave you with this little bit of inspiration for your next web project. Plan and prepare. If you look at the tasks before you and realize that there are issues that would be the good time to start thinking maybe you don't need this project. Pride always comes before the fall and in the past there have been several projects that I should have said no to based on timing, requirements, and a number of other factors. All I'm saying is that you should weigh your list and make sure that the next project you take will benefit both the client and you.
Justin Hough author picture
Justin Hough

Chief Development Officer at Hounder. He is a Christian, husband, father, writer, developer, designer, and a digital carpenter crafting amazing web experience. Also, created the Centurion Framework many moons ago.