The 40-minute rule

My first project for an external customer he had a single rule. The 40-Minute Rule. The rule was essentially any task should not take longer than 40 minutes. Now what did that mean to me and the team I was working with at the time.

Well I took it literally, being tasks could not take longer than 40 minutes, and in essence all the work I did, broke this rule. I mean, developing a xyz function was going to take longer, its the nature of development. What I did not understand was, the rule was not meant to be taken literally BUT rather if you had not made any progress on a task in the last 40 minutes STOP and get advice from someone else on how you could possibly solve the issue.

The strength of this is you will never be stuck on a single issue for longer than 40 minutes before you go and seek help from a mentor, peer or a friend. The main goal of this is to make sure you never go around in circles trying to solve a tough problem.

DON’T forget, the rule applies, even after you have gotten help.