Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done pdfdrive com

Easy Isn’t Easy but It Works
Instead of making things complicated and difficult, instead of giving in to noble
obstacles, finishers stack the odds before they even start.
That phrase, “stack the odds,” feels a little like cheating. Good. It should.
The things we do in this book are going to continue feeling that way.
The good news is they don’t have to be massive. We’re not talking about
shiny eureka moments. Sometimes stacking the odds is simply putting out your
workout clothes the night before because at 6
A.M.,
you are a jerk and you will
quit if you can’t find socks easily in the dark. Sometimes stacking the deck is
planning your important work in the morning when you’re fresh and your
busywork in the afternoon. Sometimes stacking the odds is buying two of your
toddler’s favorite stuffed animal so the world doesn’t end when she inevitably
leaves one at a rest stop outside of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Sometimes stacking
the odds is just having a radiator hose.
That’s what Jason Kanupp used. He made furniture in a factory in the
mountains of North Carolina. For eight hours a day, he sprinted about putting
couches together. He was good at it, able to complete eight couches an hour.
That was how he was paid, per couch, so he was always looking for a way to
stack the odds in his favor.
Over time, he noticed that the worst part of assembling a couch was twisting
the legs on. In other parts of the assembly he could use tools that sped things
along, but there didn’t seem to be a way around the manual labor that the legs
required. After some experimentation, he realized that if he attached a short

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required. After some experimentation, he realized that if he attached a short
piece of radiator hose, a drill bit, and a freeze plug from an engine block to a leg,
he could use a power drill to screw them on. With a few simple adjustments, he
cut the time it took to deal with the legs by 50 percent.
That might not seem like much, but in an average week, that trick allowed
him to increase his total production by ten couches. When the company saw his
innovation, they gave him a promotion and had him teach it to all the employees.
I’m just kidding. They said it wasn’t fair to the other employees and made him
stop. If you’re looking for a new definition of bureaucracy, there it is.
Frustrated, Jason didn’t quit, but instead built nineteen other radiator hose
contraptions so each of his coworkers could use one, too.
Jason is a finisher, and as such, he was striving for one thing: to make things
easier for himself. Starters tend to go in the opposite direction, throwing garage-
sale monkey wrenches into the process.
Perfectionism always makes things harder and more complicated.
Finishers make things easier and simpler.
The next time you work on a goal, I dare you to ask the following questions
during the middle of the project:
1. Could things be easier?
2. Could things be simpler?
If Bill had asked those questions, he could have come to a compromise with
his wife. If he really wanted to sell some of their stuff, he could identify five
items in the garage and then sell them on their neighborhood Web site.
Selling five things is a lot easier and simpler than selling an entire garage
full.
And having finished that goal, he might have been ready to sell ten or even
twenty next time.
If you want it done, aim for simple.