Time is of the essence. You only have so long to accomplish a goal. If new work, is critical to that goal, that contributes to the definition of the deadline is starting towards the end, when the project is almost done, when everything is completed – your deadline is unbelievable. It won’t happen. It doesn’t make sense. You won’t believe it. Believable deadlines start with action, “stop what you’re doing”, “let’s think this through”, and…
Plain and simple – but not the ones in real life. Code bugs, software bugs, questions that keep you up at night. They make you better, they make you work harder, and they keep you up at night as you swirl the issue around in your mind. They don’t hold you back, they make you work harder, and they push you forward to where you would have never gone. Don’t stop working on bugs, they…
There are a few ways to figure out the unknown; Research. Join a group that knows more than you. Ask questions. Try different approaches. Learn from failure. Approach the problem from a different angle. Think before doing anything else. And the list goes on but only if you want it to. If the unknown is too dark at 1., most will give up, that’s why only some figure out the unknown problems and are able…
No matter what you are working on, when you will complete it comes down to two definitions of duration. How long it will take to complete the work? How long will it take to deliver the work? The work itself might not take very long, but if you have to have x number of meetings, wait for testing, work through problems that are out of your control (but you know you’ll have to work with),…
Because when they are done, everything else becomes that much simpler. And if you aren’t sure what the Hard Things are, then do the work to identify what they are and start there because chances are you aren’t doing the hard thing.