Overcooking the work - Overworking the cook
Thursday, August 22, 2019 at 8:00AM 
It was a reality cooking show and a competitor ruined the protein for all of the meals by overcooking it. In the bin! What a waste!
This can happen in our everyday life. When we have a task to complete we can keep cooking and cooking it, trying to make it better. Then at some point it’s overdone, overcooked. What a waste!
It isn’t only the waste of effort; also the waste of energy, time, resources, power, space, people ...
Even though time is our most precious resource, we often act as if we - and others - have plenty of it. We still get distracted everyday, overcooking, overthinking and overworking, getting dragged deep deep deep into the work of our ‘cook’ - whatever the 'cook' is for you.
The kitchen's 'rare/medium/well done' scale is a useful analogy to work out how much your task needs to be cooked.
It’s best to scope out the minimum amount of work required (so you can then test or validate) before proceeding any further. You don’t need to go for well done, initially ... ever.
Where might you be overcooking something at the moment? Have you checked with others, validated your thinking or tested out your progress? Pause and give it a taste test.
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