Einstein’s Theory of DIY Crazy-Time

Have you heard of “Einstein’s Theory of DIY Crazy-Time”?

Really? Well let me explain – because I guarantee the phenomena has happened to you too…

Einstein stated that when preparing to do DIY around the home (for example – stripping the wallpaper in the kitchen and redecorating it with a new coat of paint) the bloody annoying pehnomena of crazy-time will occur…

“What’s ‘crazy-time’, Einstein?”…

Crazy time is the amount of time it actually takes to do something in relation to the time you could have sworn it would take you to do before starting.

So, when Einstein decided to re-plaster his bathroom after winning the Nobel prize in 1921, imagine his shock when the 3-and-a-half hours he prepared for became 3-and-a-half days in reality…

Einstein originally thought that a chemical in the plaster was adversely affecting the universe and speeding up time to beyond the speed of light (which led him towards developing E=MC-squared)…

…but no – it was just that the human ability to work out how long something will realistically take sucked big time. Einstein included. Besides, he also didn’t account for his wife having dysentry from eating the snacks at the Nobel party, and needing sole use of the bathroom 6 times a day.

As you may know, I suffered from this cripling phenomena during this week (not the dysentry!) when accepting Marlon’s product reation challenge…

My amazing brain decided that not 1, but 2 projects that had been pushed to the back burner could be completed inside the 7 days. BIG MISTAKE.

A crazy mistake too seeing that I’m fairly organized these days in terms of running our business ["is that a joke?" - Adam's wife]. Hell, I even mind-mapped out the list of things to do – but still ran out of time quicker than a “Guru’s” 2-grand super-hyped product launch.

You see, when you plan out a project it’s all too easy to forget about including the things you don’t even know are going to happen.

That’s why the word contingency was invented (and probably miscellaneous around the same time – though that may also refer to part of the dinosaur era – I forget.)

You have to allow for these non-existant things. And you have to allow for your brain making a complete pig’s ass of the time calculation. It will nearly always underestimate.

So the solution to this problem?…

…whatever time-based figure your brain tells you – DOUBLE IT!