Check before starting the work

Catch my breath \ Before I start off again

I learned a valuable lesson a couple of weeks ago, and this time I learned it the easy way — from a coworker. I’d asked them to review some SQL code I’d written. I have fairly high confidence in my R but not in my SQL, so I was glad for the review and shared that it didn’t need to be done for a couple of days.

As that project moved along it turned out that the analysis I’d written up wasn’t necessary after all, so I moved on and forgot about it. That is, until this coworker said they were about to review my code, and wanted to make sure nothing had changed in the meantime. I was really glad they asked — at that point, reviewing would have been a waste of time! Now I’m trying to check with people before I start on work if it’s been delayed a bit, to potentially give myself some time back in case things have changed.

Maybe the real lesson would be to make sure I tell people when I don’t need their help anymore, but I’m still working on that one.