Last Friday, on my way home, I was wondering why did spend that long hours every day of the week. And the week before? I was getting work done, but somehow I was not seeing my work as good as a couple of weeks ago. I found myself counting 11–12 hours between when I left home and when I came back.
One thing that immediately popped out in my mind was that the tasks I worked on these last couple of weeks were particularly large ones: one would take a couple or more days to finish. And every one of those days, I was reticent to go home at 6. It was the feeling of accomplishment I was waiting for. When I have a short task I get that feeling after a few hours. I can then point out to my employer what I have accomplished, and I can take a well deserved break and enjoy it. I can go home in contentment.
When I don’t have that feeling for days, I accumulate pressure, I get tired and make mistakes more often. The quality of my work falls. And I then feel guilty. And then I’m having hard time thinking clearly and finding good solutions to the problem I’m trying to solve.
When I take the time to break larger tasks into smaller pieces, I also get a better understanding of what I have to do, discover potentially risky factors, and also let me do more precise plans. All of these makes my work better.
I will break large tasks into smaller ones.