Sysborg BitsMonday. 9:12 a.m.
Junior thinks: …Rebuild. Photoshop.
Junior thinks: No requirements. No deadline. Cool. Cool cool cool.
Junior says: Canvas first. No — layers change the canvas. So blend modes. Which need color management. Which…
Slack pings: hey, quick one — can you look at the login bug?
Junior says: …sure.
23 minutes later.
Junior thinks: Why did I open these?
Three weeks later.
Manager says: So… how far along are we?
Junior whispers: …
The problem
Why the middle is where we get lost
Junior’s story isn’t a character flaw. It’s what usually happens when the work is big, vague and keeps getting interrupted, and the research is consistent about it.
61% vs 6%
Small projects succeed. Giant ones rarely do.
Success rate of small vs “grand” software projects. Failure rates: 7% vs 43%.
Standish Group, CHAOS 201545% over budget
Big projects drift.
Large IT projects (5,400+ studied) also ran 7% late and delivered 56% less value than predicted.
McKinsey & University of Oxford34 → 55.5 days
We are bad at estimating big things.
Students’ thesis estimate vs reality. Only about 30% finished by the date they predicted.
Buehler, Griffin & Ross, 199423 min 15 s
Every interruption costs more than it looks.
Average time to get back to the original task after an interruption, usually after two other tasks.
Gloria Mark, UC Irvine2½ min → 47 s
Attention keeps shrinking.
Average time on one screen before switching: 2004 vs recent years.
Gloria Mark, Attention Span (2023)Up to 40%
Switching is expensive.
Share of productive time that switching between tasks can cost.
American Psychological Association68%
Almost nobody has room to focus.
Workers who say they lack uninterrupted time for the job they are paid to do (≈31,000 people, 31 countries).
Microsoft Work Trend Index 202312,000 diaries
But small wins work.
What showed up most on people’s best workdays: progress on meaningful work, even a small step.
Amabile & Kramer, Harvard
A big goal is hard to finish because it is big. Size makes it vague. Vagueness makes estimates wrong, and interruptions do the rest. And the thing that keeps people motivated, the feeling of moving forward, is exactly what a giant task never gives you.