Monday, July 9, 2012

Snoozing Projects

Over on  Gantthead.comWai Mun Koo posted an interesting article. In Snoozing Projects:, Wai Mun talks about the "Snooze Button Effect". Most of us have fallen into that morning trap. How many times have we taken "just" another 9 minutes, fully knowing that we should have gotten up when we said we should and gotten on with our day.

Here's part of his article:


Snoozing Projects

“Beep! … Beep! … Beep! …”
The cacophonous sound of the dreaded alarm clock pierced through my tympanic membranes shattering another ‘millionaire dream’ that I was having a moment ago. I wished I could have a gigantic hammer nearby to plunge the final silencing blow to the cussed alarm clock. “Time to wake up”, a voice echoed inside me. Reluctantly, I dragged myself out of the cozy queen-size bed to reach for the ‘Snooze’ button on the clock. I was glad that I have this ingenious snooze function in the new alarm clock that I bought recently (the previous one failed to survive the assault of a flying pillow). “Another five minutes”, I told myself. Then another five minutes after another five minutes and it went on and on…






In controlled amounts, in the mornings, it might not seem so bad. But one snooze today so easily becomes two snoozes tomorrow. At its worst, Wai Mun reminds us of the people who set the clock to alarm an hour earlier than required just so they can snooze through that extra hour. Neither he nor I know what is contained in that hour of repeated 9-minute snoozes, but for some people, it is irresistible.

The biggest problem with the snooze effect is that it is not limited to just waking up in the morning. We become addicted to it in all facets of our lives if we are not careful. And project managers may be especially vulnerable to it. Wai Mun points not only at the habit of constantly pushing the deadline "just a few days" further out, but also the practice of building "pad" time into the schedule as examples of the "Snooze Button Effect" in project management.

If we want to be Hero Project Managers, then we need to learn to discipline ourselves to avoid the Snooze Button. Work to finish on schedule without relying on "creeping" the deadline date to make us more comfortable. You may miss more deadlines that way, but you'll gain the discipline to be better at meeting them.

And, design honest schedules. Do your best to understand how much effort it will take to complete a project, know what the probabilities are that you can meet that schedule and lay it all on the table in advance.

Let's all strive to be Hero Project Managers.