The trouble with tracking project time is that most people don’t know how quickly it passes. Unless you are a geek who studies where project time is spent, you probably have little idea how quickly it rushes by.
Does that sound a little absurd to you? After all, everyone from the day they are born, is conscious of time. We live under its shadow every day. So of course we all know how long things take to complete, right?
No… we don’t… It’s like we’re willingly ignorant. Nobody really wants to know how long a finished project will take. I suppose this stems from impatience and aversion to hard work. But there’s also a feeling that “the future” is infinite. We really can’t see past the next few weeks, and a month (in project terms) is an eternity.
I always laugh when people say, “we’ll have that finished by [September].” Supply your own month. They don’t really have a clue, and don’t care either. September is so far off, they can’t imagine it taking any longer. The decision is purely emotional. They can’t imagine is the key element in this scenario. It’s not based on experience or logic, but rather the feeling that “future time” is next to infinite. In other words, September will never come.
I’d like to know how you plan your projects… Feeling or past experience? Drop me a comment…
–ray