When was the last time you finished a project early? It seems everywhere we look that we can find someone scrambling to finish a project. And those are the luck ones. More often, everything in our world is late. Most people don’t finish their work early. Want to stand out in a crowd? Want to reduce your stress level? Want to freak out your friends and colleagues? Finish your project early.
I’ve taken several flights recently that have left late. This is nothing new as it seems the airline industry is constantly running behind schedule.
However, I’ve started noticing something new. Even though we leave late, we arrive on time or early.
How is it possible to leave late and still arrive early?
The simple answer, of course, is that airlines are playing games with flight schedules. With new regulations and websites reporting on time arrivals, the airlines have an incentive to add a little extra time into the schedule to make sure they still arrive on time or even early.
This is exactly what you should do with your projects (no, not the leave late part).
Give yourself more time to finish your project than you think it will take. Nearly everyone underestimates the time it takes to get work completed. Studies have found that even acknowledging that a task took longer the last time you did it, we still assume we will do it faster this time.
Of course, we’re wrong and the project takes longer than anticipated. Then we scramble at the deadline or finish late.
What if instead of making this planning mistake, you did two things differently.
1. Allocate twice as much time as you think it will take to finish a project.
2. Start the project twice as early as you think you need to in order to complete it on time.
If I think it will take me 8 hours to put together my syllabus over two days, I’m probably wrong. What if I instead allocate 16 hours over four days?
There’s only two likely outcomes now. My original estimate will be correct and I’ll finish incredibly early. Or my estimate is wrong and I’ll finish a little early or on time.
I’m not likely going to miss my estimate by more than this so the worst case scenario is that I finish on time.
That’s a pretty awesome worst case scenario!
What’s the alternative? I only schedule the 8 hours that I think it will take. Only it ends up taking 12 hours and I’m rushing to finish my syllabus the day class starts. Then the copier breaks (because the copier knows I’m running late). Two other colleagues who also waited until the last minute are also jockeying to make their copies before class because they also waited until the last minute. We’re all elbowing each other to get finished before running off to class.
Just a little bit of planning and better estimating could have eliminated all this rushing and stress.
I didn’t spend any extra time, but instead better allocated the time I was going to spend anyway.
Now some people out there will tell you that they do better waiting. These “last minute” people will argue that the pressure helps them focus and achieve higher levels of productivity.
But look closely at these people. Are they working late because they’ve waited until just before the deadline? Are they constantly busy and stressed out? Do they complain about never having enough time to get everything done?
Do you really want to be like that?
There is a great sense of empowerment to be gained when you finish your project early.
There are only two options. You can be ahead or be behind. If you were hiring someone, who would you rather have? Someone who is always ahead or always late?
When you finish your project early, you improve your productivity, reduce your stress, and standout among your colleagues.
Normal today is overworked, overwhelmed, and sleep deprived.
Finish your project early and be weird. You’ll have your colleagues wondering how you’re so productive and so relaxed!
Question: When was the last time you finished a project early? How did it make you feel? Do you have a pending project you can finish early? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
