So, I’ve been thinking about this word, “demasiado”. It’s Spanish, means “too much”. It really hit home thinking about a time back in my early days.
You know how it is when you’re starting out, right? Eager. Maybe a bit naive. I jumped into this project, a real small team effort. Felt like I had to prove myself, show ’em what I was made of. So, I started grabbing tasks. Said yes to everything.
The Pile-Up
It started small. Fix this bug. Write that piece of documentation. Then it grew.
- Taking Lead: Suddenly I was kinda leading the testing phase because nobody else wanted to.
- Extra Features: Then I suggested a “small” feature. Famous last words. Ended up coding it late nights.
- Client Calls: Started joining client calls to “just listen”. Ended up taking notes and answering questions.
- Server Stuff: Even got pulled into figuring out why the staging server kept crashing. Not really my area, but hey, someone had to do it.
I kept telling myself, “I got this.” Pushed harder. Worked weekends. Skipped lunches. My desk was just buried in notes and half-finished coffee cups. My brain felt like scrambled eggs. That was the “demasiado” point. Just way, way too much.
The Snap
The breaking point wasn’t dramatic. It was just a simple code review. My manager pointed out a really dumb mistake I’d made. Something I would never normally miss. But I was so fried, so stretched thin, I just hadn’t seen it. Stared at the screen, and couldn’t even figure out how to fix it right away. That scared me. Realized I wasn’t being productive anymore; I was just busy. Busy making mistakes.
Had a chat with my manager. Laid it all out. Expected a lecture, maybe. But he just listened. Told me I needed to learn to set boundaries. To push back, or at least ask for help before drowning. It wasn’t about not working hard, it was about working smart. He helped me offload a couple of things, forced me to actually prioritize.
What Stuck With Me
It sounds simple, right? Don’t take on too much. But feeling it, actually living through that “demasiado” phase, hammered it home. Took me a while to get comfortable saying “No,” or “I can do that, but something else will have to wait.”
Funny thing is, years later, I was managing a small team myself. Saw this young kid, brilliant, but doing the exact same thing I did. Burning the candle at both ends, trying to juggle fifteen balls at once. Pulled him aside. Didn’t give him the corporate speech. Just told him about my own mess-up, that time I felt completely overwhelmed. Told him it’s a marathon, not a sprint. You gotta protect your energy, your focus. It’s the only way to actually get good stuff done in the long run. He seemed to get it. Hope he did, anyway. Avoided his own “demasiado” moment, maybe.
