Why is this so hard?

I'll just grab a cup of coffee before my next meeting.

Oh, the pot is empty. I top up the water and put in a new filter.

Oh, there are no fresh grounds. I reach for the grinder.

Oh, the hopper is empty. I open the cabinet for the bin of fresh beans.

Oh, we have no beans. I go into my meeting frustrated and poorly caffeinated. Not sure which is worse.

There's got to be a better way.

What if there were one person who’s responsible for making the coffee?

What even if that person was me, and I at least expected to make it part of my day?

What if we just switched to K-Cups?

Any of those would probably be better.

Here's the thing:

Sometimes the problem isn't the tool, or the materials, or the end product. Not the report, or the feature, or the demand.

It's just the frustration … and unpredictability … and stress that comes from a lack of standard procedures, or of healthy expectation management.

We don't have to have everything done for us.

But it does help when the things we do often are not often harder than we thought they would be.

All the best,
A.