I started telling my crew 'we're done at 3' and it actually works
I mean, I manage a painting crew and for months we were always running late, finishing jobs at like 5:30 or 6. It was killing morale and making the next day's start rough. I read something online, maybe it was a joke, about setting a fake early deadline. So last Tuesday on a big interior job in Portland, I told the guys at the morning huddle, 'Alright, the goal is to wrap this whole first floor by 3 PM today.' Not the real deadline, which was more like 4:30. Idk, maybe it was the clear, specific time, but everyone just moved differently. We took a shorter lunch, nobody dragged their feet after breaks, and we actually finished the section at 2:50. We spent the last 40 minutes doing a killer clean-up and prepping for tomorrow. Has anyone else tried a trick like this with a team, or is it just a fluke that worked for my group?