Done Means DONE — Please Think Binary

Communication is seriously overrated.

“help!” photo by Hugo Jehanne on Unsplash

It seems we are unable to be clear and accurate in our ability to use words and sentences to convey a particular description, status, or closure of an activity.

Please do not get caught in this sort of death spiral:

Person 1: Is ready for production? Person 2, are you done with and ready to turn it over to production?

Person 2: Oh yeah, that has been done and ready for three weeks.

Person 1: Did you communicate this to the production staff?

Person 2: Yeah.

…Later…

Person 1: Hey Production 1, has been ready for your use for three weeks. Was this communicated to you?

Production 1: No idea what you are talking about. No one said anything to us. We would love to use the new machine — is it ready?

Person 1: *!*

…A few more minutes later…confirming email to Person 2.

Person 1 Email: Person 2, it was reported that is done and ready for production. Production has no indication or notification that is ready. What needs to be done for to turn to production?

Person 2 Email response: Yes it is done, except* I need this, I need to do this, and need to have this done.

Person 1: *#*%&!!!

“more than once a day…” screaming by Gabriel Matula on Unsplash

This is not an effective communication or activity. It is wasteful and unproductive. We need to stop having discussions like this.

When someone asks you “is it done” or “is it complete” the response is expected to be a binary answer with no exclusions* or additions*. “Done” does not mean “yes…but”. “Complete” does not mean “it is but”. Either of these responses are wildly inaccurate.

When you are asked the question “is X done” and you still have activities related to that task, the response is BINARY. 0 (zero) means NO it is not done. 1 (one) means YES it is done. Think of the question like a light switch. Done means done. There are NO MORE ACTIVITIES required. Complete means complete. NO MORE WORK IS REQUIRED!

“done” by Johny vino on Unsplash

Done — to achieve or complete

Complete — finish making or doing. Whole or perfect.

“NOT done” by Rick Mason on Unsplash

*No caveats.

*No excuses.

It is either done or not done. Plain and simple.

So when someone asks you a question and the activity they are inquiring is incomplete, please do not say “Yes it is done, but I need to do this…” because that statement is like shaking your head side to side while your mouth vomits out the word “yes”.

Stop making unnecessary noise. The perfect response would be “No it is not done. I need to tighten the widget X on the Y. I will be DONE with it today at 4pm. I will let you know when I am complete”

Same goes for when someone asks you status.

Boss: Gary, what is the status of the work on X?

Tap Dancer: Hi Sue, it is going good.

Um, that response is NOT a status. Status would be “50% complete”. OR “It is behind/ahead of schedule” which indicates a status. Red, Yellow, or Green would be a status. COMPLETE or DONE would be a status. “It is going good” is not a status.

Also, when it is COMPLETE or DONE, it is still not complete or done until you have provided status to who gave the task or activity instruction to you or the parties that are waiting to use it. So when you are tasked to do something, you are complete when you say…

Hey Sue, is complete on

When you give a closing statement, you have completed the task. It is final.

Any questions?

Go forth and be brilliant.