The Riskiest Thing You Do All Day Happens at Five to Six

#sergueyasaelshinder #focus #productivity #habits

Look at when you do
the things you cannot undo.

The merge to main.
The migration you run by hand.
The delete query,
with the where clause
you checked twice.
The difficult reply
to the person who is upset.
The approval
on somebody's large change.

For most people
they gather at the end of the day.

Not by choice.

They gather there
because that is where finishing is.

The work runs all afternoon,
and the last step
of any piece of work
is the step that commits it.

So the one act
that needs your full attention
lands in the hour
when you have the least of it.

You are tired.
You want to leave.
You have a train,
a child, a dinner,
and a strong feeling
that this bit
is only a formality.

The formality
is where it goes wrong.

The branch you merge
is not the one you tested.
The query runs against
the wrong connection.
The reply goes to everyone.
The approval is a scroll
and a green button.

Then you leave,
and the consequences
arrive to a team
that has also gone home.

None of it was ignorance.

It was an ordinary brain
at the bottom of its day
being handed the one task
with no second chance.

So split the work
along a different line.

Everything reversible
can happen whenever it happens.

Everything irreversible
gets an appointment,
in your freshest hours,
tomorrow morning
if it has to be.

Leave it ready.

Write the command
or the reply,
put it where you will see it first,
and stop.

The work is finished
when it is ready.

Pressing the button
can wait for a better version of you.

In the morning
you will read it
with the eyes you should have
brought to it,
and every so often
you will catch something
that would have cost you an evening,
or a weekend,
or a conversation
you did not want to have.

Tired hands
are perfectly good
for tidying, reading and planning.

Keep them away
from anything without an undo.

– Serguey Asael Shinder