I’m about eight weeks into my current project and while I’m certain I don’t know it all, I’m finally at the point where I understand most of the work, know who most of the people are, and have a good idea on how to navigate to the finish line. It’s not as if there was a magic boundary at 8 weeks, every week I learn more, find gaps in what I thought I knew, but I’ve hit the point where I can reassess how and where I spend my time, a good place to be.
It’s been quite a while since I walked into something so different than what I was doing before, and it takes a lot of effort to get up to speed. There’s no “coffee work” for me at this point, I have to concentrate fully all day long and at the of the day I’m done. I’ll admit to looking forward to the point where I don’t have to be at 100% focus all day.
Even though I knew patience was needed it’s been tough, every day the deadline looms closer, hard to spend days at less than full speed when you know you need every day. As is often the case a lot is getting done regardless, because most of the ‘real work’ isn’t done by me.
Should it have taken 8 weeks? The problem is that there are about a hundred variables. In hindsight I see places where I could have moved faster, understood sooner, but…it’s hindsight. That said, I feel like it should have been a couple weeks sooner. No way to know, but the part I hope you get is that in new situations you’re on a steep learning curve – you know that part – what you don’t know is far it is to the top of the hill!
