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I’m glad someone finally put a name to this. I’ve done this probably a dozen times across a few different projects and jobs. Not the big death spiral that results in flaming out of a job. The smaller version where you overcommit, overpromise, double down, give vague updates, panic, and cannot seem to dig yourself out.

and what happens is they start disappearing for longer periods of time. like, for two, three weeks, you won’t hear anything from them. occasionally, during the standup, they’ll give what I call the positive update. “yeah, things are going well, you guys. I’ll have something to show you quite soon. if you have any questions, reach out.” and no one usually reaches out, but they won’t really have anything to show.

I can tell you from experience this is an awful place to be. And the worst thing you can do is continue to try to discreetly dig yourself out. No one is fooled, they just want to know what to expect without being strung along.

If this sounds familiar and it’s happening right now, I’d recommend going to the person you report to and just tell them. “I overpromised on this project. I’ve been trying to dig myself out, but it’s not getting better. Can we reevaluate next steps on this and reset expectations?” Unless your job feels quite precarious or you don’t trust your boss, having this convo sooner rather than later is the best remedy here.

you want to move away from an outcome-based mindset to momentum-based. like, you want to build a routine, because momentum is everything in this, and relationships are an even bigger thing in this. and by getting momentum going and fixing your relationships with other people, the thing you get is stamina.

The times I feel best about the work I’m doing and feel like I’m flying is when I build up a bunch of momentum by shipping quickly, being vocal about what I’m delivering, and setting myself up for lots of quick wins.