In this busy, busy world, we tend to pack more in to our day than we should.  To get it all down, we sometimes take shortcuts doing just enough of something to get by.  All too often when doing this, we must, in the not too distant future, revisit it and put on another band aid.

Years ago, I had the responsibility for a maintenance department.  I began to notice that literally every day the machine repair folks would be repairing the same machine.  When I cornered one of them, I was told that they were only putting on a band aid because that was all they had time to do. It might take twice as long to do it right but there was not enough time.

The old industrial engineering mind in me said we are doing this every day and taking twice as long once would eliminate this, why are we just patching it.  We began spending more time the first time and doing it right thus eliminating the second, third, fourth times and so forth.

Some call it job security.  I call it a waste of time and talent.  If we do what needs to be done correctly the first time, think how much time we will have to do something more challenging or something we really want to do.

Do things right the first time even if it takes a little longer.

Jim