“A wizard is never late. Nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to.”

Gandalf in the Fellowship of the Ring film.

There is a balance between procrastination and burnout. Somewhere in the middle is the ‘happy medium’ we seek. The hard thing is that we are often the only ones who know if we procrastinated or delivered when we could. To the outsider or from the external, we may put all kinds of judgement on the other, but perhaps we don’t know the whole story.

Perhaps this is why co-designing, co-building is powerful. It is both relational and technical. It listens and shares, but should not seek to dominate. And maybe, when it is done well, we end with the ‘thing’ we were co-designing and with a better understanding of ourselves.

Photo by Elisabeth Pieringer