Reply to: Do you work better with a looming deadline?

[original PM]

Indeed - which is why in Agile especially it is important to always keep a backlog of work so the need to complete what you are doing and move onto the next thing is always visible and pressing.

I think also this idea that I will wait until the last minute before I start in case something changes is also flawed - mainly because often you will only need to change 10% of what you have done rather than try and squeeze the 100% into much less time.

[Pip in a Poke]

Parkinson's Law in action!

Redacted

[billybiro]

...it's not because my estimates are an accurate reflection of how long the work will take, it's that I speed up or slow down as appropriate to make the estimate look right. I don't think project managers understand that.

Parkinson's Law in action!

[billybiro]

Honestly? I'm lazy as a **** with a horrendous procrastination streak. It's literally the desire for money and the fear of getting sacked that has got me this far.

Of course - it never does me any good because I normally end up working like mad on something I could have taken my time over.

So, uh yeah.

Peter Gibbons, is that you?

[woohoo]

Deadlines are for wimps.

[TheBA]

A good Ted talk on the topic, worth a watch


Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator

[greenlake]

[MarillionFan]

Not really. I don't sit on my arse and then go hell for leather at the end.

I tend to produce a high level plan which has the key milestones and then have a second more detailed plan. This allows me to see dependencies and also to manage my time properly, especially when considering large projects that involve business testif and deployment.

As requirements change, or others don't deliver I can highlight the failed deliveries and move the deadline as required based on available resource or push back & ask for more resourcing ( or overtime).

Project I've just arrived on is greenfield. The program manager is chucking dates around based on when it's required from the business and other projects. Scope is also not agreed, so I worked back from those dates today, and then put in the milestones when stuff was needed including the program manager and then demonstrated to him he'd better not keep promising anything as he had more work then he could deliver in addition to a complex license negotiation that finishes a week before the first go live and would take 8 weeks to do the actual work once it was installed.

It's a Suity contract this one and making me chuckle.

[ladymuck]

I find a short deadline is great for focussing. I don't do well if it's too far ahead or non existent.

However, that said, if the work in question genuinely interests me I will just get on and do it. I'll then sit on it until closer to the delivery date and still have a mad rush to finish off from the point I left it at once the initial enthusiasm ran out.

I also work better if I have a little bit more to do than I can comfortably achieve. That helps stop the procrastination.

I am rubbish at estimating how long things will take to do, so most short deadlines are doubly my own fault.

[OwlHoot]

2013-09-06 Scarcity Is Not Always Bad

One scarcity they discuss is time (remaining until a deadline).

Moderately interesting article, but mostly stating the bleedin' obvious.

:::

Psychologists have studied the benefits of deadlines in more controlled experiments. In one study, undergraduates were paid to proofread three essays and were given a long deadline: they had three weeks to complete the task. Their pay depended on how many errors they found and on finishing on time; they had to turn in all the essays by the third week. In a nice twist, the researchers created a second group with more scarcity -- tighter deadlines. They had to turn in one proofread essay every week, for the same three weeks. The result? Just as in the thought experiment above, the group with tighter deadlines was more productive. They were late less often (although they had more deadlines to miss), they found more typos, and they earned more money.

:::

[Antman]

Wotcher Si,

You in Murcia again?

[MrMarkyMark]

Do you work better with a looming deadline?

Indeed I do, but remember "a stich in time saves nine"

[Willapp]

For me the most exciting parts of a project are the very beginning and very end. In the beginning there's the natural enthusiasm for something new, especially if it's greenfield work and you have the opportunity to introduce new technologies or just better ways of using existing tech. At the end there is pressure to deliver to a deadline that at one time seemed so far away (and may even have been moved one or more times anyway).

In the middle though, once the meat of the work is done or mapped out but the deadline isn't looming and testing is in early stages, most tasks can drag out and in current gig there is very little pressure to hit any deliveries in spite of being "agile" because everyone knows at the end of the sprint we still aren't expected to have a working system. At this point I am guilty of procrastinating but nowhere near as badly as everyone else on my team (mix of perm and contract) and I use initiative to tackle some tech debt or improve CI workflow so that I'm always adding value and this has definitely got me recognition and currently on my 4th renewal.

[vetran]

Definitely. Why do you think I posted three links about dealing with procrastination on Monday?

you did, I haven't got round to reading them

actually enjoying them waitbutwhy.com is great.

[OwlHoot]

An Englishman’s mind works best when it is almost too late.

-- Edgar Vincent, Lord D'Abernon

(Not sure when or in what context that quote was said, but I would guess it related to WW 1.)