Planning is not a Waste of Time
“I can’t afford to stop to plan. We have to start working if we want to meet the deadline”
How many times have you heard this? I still shiver every time I hear it, and I hear it much more often that I would like.
It must be something innate to think that you have to start doing something when you feel you don’t have enough time to finish a task or project. But hey, planning is actually doing something! But then someone argues that you can finish your project without planning, so if you don’t plan, you save some time and finish earlier. (Deep breath…) OK, you start working right away but, in which direction? Do you even know what you have to do? Have you defined the scope of your project?
I have seen (and I am afraid I will see) too many people rushing into action to save time, to discover later that they have worked in a wrong direction. And when you get to that point it is usually too late to get the project delivered on time. A lot of people don’t realise how important a good planning is. It helps you discover the dependencies between tasks and find out what the critical path is. And knowing that allows you to focus all your effort on the tasks that drive the delivery date.
So no matter how tempted you are to start working without a plan, please stop and plan your work. It will pay off!