Carpentry 101: Measure Twice but Cut Once

Sometimes when you write as often as I do, you feel like you are going to change the world with your words. And then as soon as you hit publish….CRICKETS. Other times, you think your words should have been trashed and somehow that gets more attention than you ever imagined.

Still other times, you get called out for one thing or another. This week I’ve been sloppy with my editing (I really hope I edited this well enough to talk about it) and the comments I’ve received brought me down a peg or two. Since Wednesday was a rushed morning, I decided to resist hitting “Publish” and wait another day until I could properly edit and proofread my work.

Grammatical Errors

Last week I received a comment from someone about some sloppy errors that I made while hurrying through a post I really wanted to get out there. It was important (to me) and I knew thought it had the potential to receive a lot of attention in the form of traffic to my site. As soon as I was called out, I went back and skimmed through my work. Sure enough, I found a number of simple errors.

Problem fixed, right?

Less than a week after that, I receive another message about sloppy mistakes. Again, I sheepishly went through and fixed the errors so my blog doesn’t look like an 8th grader penned it. The second time through is what it took for the error of my ways to really sink in.

When I first started, I used to thoroughly edit each post before I published it since I’ve been known to have simple, sloppy mistakes like these. But somehow I got too comfortable and I’ve reduced that editing process to a skim, thinking I’ve overcome my sloppiness.

Sometimes technology does that to us. We think that we’ve mastered a craft because we move faster on it. I can type way faster than I can write with pen and paper. But if I wrote long-hand instead of typed, I would make exponentially fewer mistakes.  But you wouldn’t be able to read my handwriting.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

A guy I worked with for years was a carpenter in his previous life. He had lots of odd sayings and a temper that was as short as a candle wick. When he was doing woodwork he would constantly bark, “Measure twice but cut once. We don’t have time to go back and redo all this.”

I obviously forgot that saying when I was rushing through my recent posts. In carpentry, once you make a cut you’re stuck with it. You can’t go back and “uncut” wood, you have to start with a fresh piece or shave something down to fit. A good carpenter needs fewer pieces of lumber because he makes precision cuts.

In other words, it takes more time and resources than it would have to just measure a second time. Although I can hit the “Update” button on my blog, I’ve already shown sloppy work and probably lost some credibility.

Lean Startup Methodology

I have talked at length about The Lean Startup and just starting something, which may seem contradictory to this subject.

But allow me to clarify. When we look at lean management, we are talking about intentional experiments. We are not talking about final products, such as blog posts. When using lean management, we know the process/product/service will evolve from it’s current state, that’s the point.

When I’m writing a blog post or typing an email, nothing is planned once I publish it: that’s the end of the process. Nothing changes after I hit “Publish” (unless I get called out for having sloppy grammar).

With lean methodology, there are experiments that have desired outcomes and unknown consequences. Meaning we do something to find out what happens next and we plan on making adjustments after that experiment is run. This is not the same thing as rushing through a task and doing it sloppily.

If you don’t have time for a second look…

Then when do you plan on finding time to fix it? Too often, we are more focused on crossing something off our to-do list than we are on doing it correctly. We have driven ourselves to be infinitely productive, yet we’re losing our effectiveness.

One of the biggest areas in which we see this is the health industry. Everyone wants shortcuts and nobody wants to put the time into being healthy. There is no magical formula. Being healthy takes time and takes a lot of work.

It is not uncommon for people to have double bypass surgeries and tell their doctor, “I don’t have time to take 6 months off of work.” Well, that’s double the time it would have taken for them to just walk 15 minutes a day and eat healthier.

Slow it down this week and focus on quality. See how your work changes and see how those around you respond to the quality over quantity approach. It will save you time, resources, and maybe even a double bypass surgery!

Thank you to the individuals that called me out the past two weeks, you’ve helped me take a step back and focus on the quality of my work. This may mean a fewer number of posts from me, but I can assure you that the quality will go up!