Scheduling work you can actually deliver

Greymill AcademyProcess, time and tools2 min read

The short answer

Overcommitting is the most common way a good business damages its reputation.

The takeaway. Build the schedule with slack in it. A plan with no slack is a plan that fails on the first bad day.

Play the interactive lesson

If you have committed to a date, tell JAMES the constraint rather than the wish. A schedule built on optimism breaks in week one.

Example conversation with Big Projects
You
Three installs booked in a fortnight, two engineers, and one customer has already moved their date once.
Big Projects
Three installs and two engineers over ten working days is achievable. It is not achievable with zero slack, and you currently have zero.

Week one: installs A and B in parallel, one engineer each. Four days each, one day buffer.
Week two: both on install C. Three days together, two days buffer.

The risk is C. It is the one that moved, so it will move again, and it is last, so it has nowhere to go.

Call them today and confirm the date in writing. If they cannot commit, swap C to week one and pull B back.

Want me to draft that confirmation?

It found the job most likely to slip and told you to act before it did.

Play this demo in the Academy

Paste this to JAMES

I have [list the jobs] booked over [period] with [how many people]. Build me a schedule, tell me where the risk is, and what I should tell customers now rather than later.

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