So I was trapped in a local selectman’s meeting recently.  If you’ve never done local or town politics, I can confidently say Dante would have reserved an inner ring of hell for what I experienced. 

I love efficiency. When I was taking French I often dreamt in French, but now I just dream efficient– probably because it has been beaten into me over time and sealed off when I had twins.  One can not be inefficient and have multiples.

So back to the meeting. I was there on a pretty serious matter– a stray bullet zippin’ across a neighbors’ yard, breaking a window and firmly entrenching itself in the bench the kids sit to take off their muddy boots.  Investigations, issues with the local gun club all found myself and my neighbors at the local selectman’s meeting.

Not the top of the agenda, I waited as the selectmen debated for an hour and half on boat hoists and a request for proposal for a new dock.  I was impressed with how thorough they were for the RFP, and was really not happy that I would, given the nature of my business, be there most likely for the long haul given the time and depth spent on boat storage (which I know now more than I ever hope to.)

So imagine my surprise when they spent a total of 20 mins on the matter and basically left it as a status update with no resolution. 

 What?

Yessir. 20 minutes and I was home before Ugly Betty was over.

The ridiculousness of the situation gnawed at me until I actually realized what was going on.  It’s only natural actually, I mean haven’t you found that the more important, more crucial the task, the more it gets put off until it reaches a “critical” level.  I’ve done it personally, because if I only had more information, waited until the price went down, or had more time to complete it, the best possible outcome would be achieved.  Right?  Wrong.  Usually I forget about it or postpone it (stressing all the while) until I realized I wasn’t ever going to get any more info or the price had going back up or it’s backordered, or I had so little time left that only “merely adequate” end product was derived.

Let’s give it a name: Inverse Proportion of Immediate Action to Importance of Task*  (*the exception being life-threatening instances where it is a direct proportion– we all seem to rise to the occasion when a tornado is a comin’.)

Do you suffer from IPIAIT?  Take a look at your day-to-day projects and I bet you’ll find at least three that are in a holding pattern while you’re waiting for some key piece of data that, given a second look-see, really might not be that key.  Waiting for the moons to align will leave one waiting longer than really necessary.  I know from personal experience that the times I’ve “just did it” were often my best work product.  So from an efficiency and a productivity perspective, when you know you have around 80+% of what you need* (*outside of something like the space shuttle or nanotechnology where this doesn’t work so well) just do the first draft.  Anything extra is gravy.

As for my fair Selectmen.  Seeing local politics in action I don’t envy the job one bit.  Of course there maybe other reasons at play so it might not be absolutely fair — but I will say it was my first impression… and, as far as I’m concerned… they count.

And just because, an inspirational little video for your viewing pleasure: