The Body Does Not Read the Programme 🚧

A few days ago, somewhere between a construction site, a few phone calls and the usual pressure of getting things done, I was reminded of something rather inconvenient.

My body does not read the project programme.

It does not care about the handover date.

It has no interest in the client's deadline.

And it certainly does not attend progress meetings.

Yet, somehow, I keep expecting it to cooperate as though it were another subcontractor.

Construction teaches you very quickly that everything has a limit.

Concrete has a curing period.

Steel has a load capacity.

A crane has a lifting limit.

Even a contractor eventually reaches the point where you can no longer ask for "just one more thing."

But human beings are surprisingly good at pretending that we have no such limits.

We decide when we will sleep.

We decide when we will rest.

We tell ourselves that we can push a little harder because the project is almost finished.

Then another problem appears.

So we push a little more.

I have done it.

Most people working on difficult projects have.

There is always a reason to keep going.

The slab has to be cast.

The finishes have to be completed.

The materials have to arrive.

The client is coming tomorrow.

The handover is Friday.

And suddenly sleep becomes an unnecessary luxury.

The trouble is that the body keeps records.

You can tell yourself you are fine, but your body may have a different assessment.

You can survive on very little sleep for a few days. Perhaps even a few weeks.

Eventually, however, the bill arrives.

And biology is a particularly unforgiving creditor.

Construction has also taught me something else.

When a building develops a crack, you don't simply paint over it and declare the building complete.

You try to understand why the crack appeared.

Was there movement?

Was the foundation adequate?

Was the material right?

Was something overloaded?

People deserve the same level of attention.

Sometimes tiredness simply means you need sleep.

Sometimes irritability means you have worked too many hours and eaten too little.

Not every headache requires a philosophical investigation.

Sometimes the problem is simply that you need lunch.

But there are occasions when the body is telling us something we would rather not hear.

Stress.

Exhaustion.

Anxiety.

Things we have pushed aside because there was a project to finish.

We are particularly good at postponing ourselves.

"I'll rest after this project."

"I'll deal with it when things settle down."

"I just need to get through this week."

The problem is that there is always another week.

There is always another project.

There is always another deadline.

Construction sites are full of unfinished work.

So are our lives.

I have watched people listen carefully to the sound of a concrete mixer, a generator or a vehicle engine because something sounds different.

A machine makes an unfamiliar noise and everybody becomes an expert mechanic.

"Switch it off."

"Something is wrong."

"Don't run it like that."

Yet when the human equivalent starts making strange noises, we often say:

"I'll be fine."

Perhaps we should pay ourselves the same attention we give our equipment.

Machines have maintenance schedules for a reason.

They need servicing.

They need cooling.

They need downtime.

They occasionally need to be switched off completely.

Nobody considers a generator weak because it needs to stop running.

We simply understand how machines work.

Human beings are not machines, but sometimes we treat ourselves worse than machines.

The irony is that resting does not necessarily slow the project down.

Sometimes it prevents the project from slowing down.

A tired supervisor makes poor decisions.

A tired engineer misses details.

A tired worker makes mistakes.

A tired manager becomes unnecessarily difficult.

I know because I have been some of these people at different times.

The body is not always an obstacle to productivity.

Sometimes it is the safety system.

It tells us when the load is too heavy.

It tells us when the programme needs adjusting.

It tells us that the person running the project also needs to be part of the project.

We spend so much time trying to complete buildings on schedule that we sometimes forget that we are also constructing something much more complicated.

Ourselves.

And unlike a building, we don't get handed over to somebody else when the project is complete.

There will always be another project.

Another deadline.

Another problem waiting on the other side of Friday.

So perhaps the lesson is simple.

The programme matters.

The deadline matters.

The client matters.

But so does the person expected to get everyone there.

Because the body does not read the programme.

And when it finally decides to stop work, no amount of shouting at the site office is going to change the schedule.