Productivity requires good planning
In my experience, the most productive people plan ahead. It is impossible to plan everything, but there is a certain degree of planning that is needed. One must first understand what they are getting themselves into.
These are the strategies that have helped me. I am absolutely sure that I have read these somewhere else and they are not my own creation. (I would post a link if I remembered.)
- Ensure that you clearly understand the goal of the project. Seek clarification if needed.
- Break the project into its major parts.
- Assign an importance level to each part.
- Roughly estimate the skills needed for each part and the time that it will take. Overestimate by 15-20%. No one is 100% efficient.
If this sounds an awful lot like common sense, that’s because it is. The problem is that it is easy to forget common sense when you are harried because of pressure from your superiors, internal pressure, or realize that your deadlines may be impossible to meet.
In analyzing what needs to be done, you may come to the realization that there is no way that you are going to be able to meet the deadline. This is something that needs to be determined at the beginning rather than the end of the project. It may be necessary to re-define the scope, get more time allotted, or temper the expectation of your superiors.
Regardless of the situation that you find yourself in, planning is vital. I have learned this the hard way. Poorly planned projects lead to lots of unnecessary “after-hours” work. There is nothing wrong with working hard and putting in extra time. The problem is when this is caused by poor planning whether it was your poor planning or that of another.