Tom looked at the clock.

“Midnight,” he told himself as he took a sip of coffee. The milestone review for the second phase of the project was the next day. While updating the project plan, he came across organizational change management tasks that were supposed to be done in phase one that were moved to phase two. He saw that the tasks were still zero percent complete.

We’ll pick them up later, he told himself as he added the tasks to the work plan for phase three.

During the milestone review the next day, Tom’s manager, Gayle, asked about incomplete organizational change management tasks.

“Time’s up,” Tom said. “We’ll do them in phase three.”

“Isn’t that what you told me three months ago during our phase one review?” Gayle asked.

Tom looked down. “Um, yes,” he said.

“Phase three is even more intense than phase two, what makes you think you’ll do the OCM tasks in phase three if you didn’t do them in phase one or two?”

“Gayle, we’ll do them,” Tom said.

“Okay, I’m making you do it, Tom.”

Three months later, at the phase three milestone review, Tom reviewed the work plan and then came to the OCM tasks. Tom knew what was coming.

“I’m not done yet,” Gayle said as Tom avoided her gaze.

~~~~~

Before I go any further, I want to articulate a principle that I have not only seen in countless projects but also personally experienced:

The closer you get to the project delivery date, the less time you have to complete tasks started along the way in earlier phases of the project.

It is rare that availability to do work increases as the project approaches its final delivery date, and that tasks deferred throughout the project now have more time to complete. Typically, the project team is hard at work accomplishing the most crucial tasks to meet delivery, and other tasks are postponed until after launch or not done at all. The attitude is that those tasks can be completed later when there is more time. I have two problems with this:

1. If the task was important enough to be included in the original plan, then why is it so unimportant now that it should be left for tomorrow (or not done at all?)

2. Tomorrow (almost) never comes.

To avoid the temptation to leave tasks by the wayside only to have them die on the vine, take a look at these five takeaways:

1. Don’t underestimate planning – Choose your quote: Fail to plan, plan to miss; You don’t have time to do it right, but you always have time to do it again; Measure twice, cut once. The end result is to have a realistic and credible plan that focuses on deliverables, has an understandable critical path, specifically named task owners (not “the team”), and clear dates. Just make sure the plan supports the project and doesn’t become a project itself.
2. Resist the temptation to procrastinate – It’s okay, sometimes tough decisions have to be made and something may need to be postponed to a later date. This becomes a problem when it is more the rule than the exception. If you’re chronically procrastinating because time’s up, something in your schedule may need to change.
3. When you have to procrastinate, articulate the implications – Postponing something until later or cutting the task entirely means the project will incur incremental risk (assuming the task was value-added in the first place). Have mitigation measures in place to manage any incremental risk.
4. Adjust the plan when things hit the fan – I have seen it many times: a project starts very well, the plan is reviewed regularly, life is good. Then something goes wrong. More often than not, the plan is not updated to reflect reality or is abandoned entirely. Keep the plan up to date and prompt decisions on tough decisions when tasks need to be deferred. Just remember to articulate the implications (see #3) of the choice. Keep the plan current and realistic.
5. If it’s really not necessary, cut it out. – When planning your project, do a reality wash to make sure only the must-dos are included. Ask yourself, “What is the consequence if this task is not done?” If there is no clear consequence, then consider not doing it. Just make sure the project team is okay with chopping up the task before it goes to the shredder.

Remember, the closer you get to the project delivery date, the less time you have to complete tasks that come your way in the future. Resist the temptation to leave tasks for tomorrow, because tomorrow almost never comes.