When Managing the Work Becomes More Work Than the Work
Sometimes the overhead becomes larger than the work. Computing has a word for a related condition: thrashing, when a system spends so much effort managing memory or process overhead that little useful work gets done. The metaphor transfers cleanly to human work if we keep it as a metaphor.
We check the plan. We re-check the plan. We switch tools. We reorganize the list. We monitor our progress so closely that progress slows. Soon the management of the work is consuming more attention than the work itself.
The answer is not always to do less. It may be to reduce overhead. Fewer handoffs. Fewer status loops. Less repeated deciding. Less self-monitoring of every small step.
A useful question is simple: how much of today's effort moved the work, and how much was spent managing the fact that work had to be done? When the second number grows larger than the first, the system may need simplification rather than more effort.