by Sam Brock

I am the kind of guy who likes to see things get done. I love to mark things off my task list. In fact, I have been known to add an item to a task list just to have the pleasure of crossing through another thing that is finished. Several years ago, I was given a crew during the summer to get “some things finished.” I blazed through the list and found myself asking my boss for more things to do. I was excited about our progress. My boss on the other hand, had a different perception of my work. He pulled me aside halfway through the summer and told me I had worked on lots of things but finished nothing. I was flabbergasted! I listed five projects that we had “finished” in just the last two weeks, and he proceeded to show me the mess and evidence of five projects unfinished. He told me that I needed to finish right. Over the next few years, I developed an understanding of what it means to finish right. Functional is not finished. At first, I believed that once a project that we were working on was in use I could mark it off my list. Today I have come to the conclusion that functional is about the halfway mark on a project. Think of functional as the rough draft of a paper. Functional is a great milestone in every project and is many times the biggest pressure that a project has. Keeping the pressure on to finish after a project is functional is still one of my greatest challenges.

What is finishing right?

Project area cleaned up—use the vacuum, rake, dumpster, etc., to clean up. It is easy for the crew that is working on the project to pass this off to somebody else.
Excess returned—extra supplies that should go back to storage or returned to the store are all part of putting everything away.
Tools put away—this always takes longer than you think but is extremely important to our ability to do the next project. Paint brushes should be used more than once.
Thank you’s—several people were probably involved in helping you with the project. Take the time to jot them a note.
Changes communicated—now that you have finished the project, who needs to know about it? Whom does it affect? Make sure all the necessary announcements and training are done.
God receives the glory! 1 Corinthians 10:31 clearly tells us that God should get the glory for allowing us to mark another task off our list.

Truths of Finishing Right

Finishing right is harder than doing something.
Finishing right is mainly noticed when it is not done as opposed to when it is done.
Finishing right is foundational to starting right the next time.