Perpetually Almost Finished Projects
The previous article on multitasking relates so closely to this one by Tyner Blain that I was tempted to merge the two posts. But, Perpetually Almost Finished Projects deserves its own.
Your project is almost finished. Last week, it was almost finished. And you suspect that next week, it will still be almost finished. Why does this happen, and what can you do about it?
This references Zeno's Paradox where the over-analytical mind thinks about crossing a room by crossing half the remaining distance. Zeno can never make it all the way across because there is always that one little bit left.
Tyner's solution is to move from percent complete reports to a digital "complete" or "not complete" status on shorter task chunks (2 - 8 hours).
I am particularly fond of the approach of I've learned with Theory of Constraints: ask for time needed to complete the task, AND ask "what are you waiting for now." The second piece is not meant to be accusatory, but to collect data for continuous improvement. If you find the same "waiting for" item creates problems for projects over and over again, then do something about it!
The other element of a good solution is that these tasks need to be tied into an accurate project network, so that the project manager can see which of the incomplete tasks are impinging upon the success of the overall project. It is not the case that all tasks are equally important. The PM needs a mechanism for judging the impact of delays and early completions, so that resources can be redeployed in a sane fashion.
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Jack, this is so timely for me. For the past few days I've been struggling with an "almost finished" project -- and not making much progress. I realize that the biggest reason I'm having trouble with it is partly the nature of the project (it involves coordinating lots of details with lots of people, something which drives me batty) and the fact that I've handled this particular task for several years and I'm just burned out on it.
When I start to work on this project, I feel my brain go fuzzy in rebellion. Resentment comes up. I don't want to have to untangle all these details. The people I'm coordinating with insist on sending me their information through scattered disparate e-mails, they won't or can't use shared documents or a wiki, and I hate having to sort through all those messages.
I know I can finish this task. I need to get it over with. Then I need to refuse to do it again, no matter how they ask. I am no longer the right person for this particular job.
So partly what can get in the way of finishing the almost finished is one's own emotional responses to the nature of the task, including your own reaction to the tools you're have to use, whether or not they're suitable to the task. In fact, I'd bet that if it comes to procrastinating repeatedly on an almost-finished task, there's most likely some significant aspect of emotional resistance happening.
IMHO, of course
- Amy Gahran