NFIB

How to Get the Job Done Yesterday; Part II
04/ 03/ 2002


Last week's Workshop described steps to help you organize and begin a rush project -- something that needs to be finished "yesterday." In today's Workshop, Jeffrey Moses continues this topic.

When possible, base your work on something that has already been satisfactorily completed. If you're writing a report, and something similar to the one you're working on has already been prepared, try to use it as a guide for your present task. Adapting and inserting new information into an existing format is usually quicker and easier than creating from scratch. This can save an immense amount of time and energy.

Before you dive into the project, take your own human needs into consideration. If a project needs to be finished in a specific amount of time, organize your life to accommodate that schedule. For instance, make sure that your meals will be organized. You don't want to have to go out to a restaurant and wait an hour to be served. Inform family members of your timeline, and see if they can adjust their schedules to help support you with daily responsibilities. Arrange your other work so that it can be put off until the project is finished. Plan your schedule of rest. If you'll be working straight through the night to have a report on your CEO's desk at 8:00 a.m., you may be able to get by on quick catnaps. But if you're working toward a 48-hour deadline, you'll need to take a break for some solid sleep sometime along the way.

Begin work when all initial planning has been completed. But always try to keep a larger picture of the entire project in your mind. Don't get so caught up in the details that you get off on a tangent. This will cost you valuable time. Keeping the larger picture in mind will help maintain a continuity to the entire finished project, making it flow more smoothly and logically from beginning to end. Also, thinking of the big larger picture will help prevent errors, which saves time at the end of the project.

As work progresses, keep checking to see that you're on schedule. If you have to cut the length of certain sections of a report, always preserve the key points within each. It's better to have a short section that goes right to the heart of the matter than to pad a section with vague side issues just to make it look "long enough."

Keep planning and organizing as you go. Step back from your work once in a while, just like an artist steps back from the easel. This will help you keep perspective, avoid errors or overlooked points of information, and maintain your schedule.

Don't get so tired during the project that you lose clarity of mind. It maybe better to take a short nap (perhaps even for several hours) than to barrel ahead. Mental clarity and freshness can help you avoid many mistakes.

As you reach the last hour or so before deadline, start wrapping up the project by checking key data, letting other people proof your work, and finalizing your presentation.

When the time is up, let the project go. Don't hold onto it "just one more time" and, in the process, miss the FedEx deadline. There is an art to finishing a rush project, just as there is to beginning one. Every time you finish something that really needed to be done yesterday, you'll be more experienced for the next rush job.

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