Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.

Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves. – Dale Carnegie

In what order do things happen? What needs to be done before the inspector visits? If you can get the tough stuff done first, the easy stuff all but takes care of itself.

What does that mean?
This quote reminds me of the 80/20 rule – 80 percent of the tasks just take 20 percent of the time, and the final 20 percent takes 80 percent of the time.  Start with the hardest stuff and get it done, then finishing will be easy.  If you do all the easy items first, then you may find the tough job(s) can be very intimidating, even de-motivating.

This can be even more crushing if you’ve been tracking your time in a linear manner, rather than by the 80/20 rule. If you start with the tough stuff, it may seem like you have almost no time and a ton of stuff to do, you will find most of it is just little stuff. However, if you do the easy stuff first, and mark time linearly, you will have 20% of your time left for the toughest 20%, and no hope of finishing. Not good planning, right?

Why is having a strategy important?
If you can plan a project such that all the tasks fit in the time alloted, you have a good start.  By selecting a proper order, you can make things easy on yourself.  Conversely, if you select a random order, you are asking for trouble and heartache.

The two things I have found to be most important in strategizing a project timeline are dependencies and deadlines.  Dependencies are time dependent items.  An example of dependency would be if you were building a deck, it would be prudent to get the lumber on site before you start cutting it.  You also would be well off to have the fasteners (nails, screws) before you start assembling the deck.

An example of a deadline would be if an inspector was going to show up on Wednesday to check the footings and ledger board, you need to have those items complete prior to Wednesday.  Hopefully, these concepts make sense, as they are the building blocks for the rest of this post.

Where can I apply this in my life?
I imaging you have a project or two going on in your life.  Losing weight is a project.  Grocery shopping is a project.  Cooking is a project.  Cleaning the house is a project.  What other hobby or chore constitutes a project?  Depending on how Anal-Retentive you are, anything can be treated as a project, although for the simpler tasks it may be some serious over-kill.

When you go grocery shopping, when do you buy the frozen items?  How about the refrigerated items?  There is a method to it, and you’ve probably never thought a lot about it.  Cooking is a project as well, with dependencies and deadlines.  The potatoes and steaks and veggies need to all be done within a few minutes of each other (deadlines) and each of the foods have a series of dependencies that have to be followed (when do you start the oven, when do you get items out of the freezer, etc).

As an example, let’s examine the art of cleaning house.  I’m no expert, and may do things a bit different from your method, but bear with me.  Let’s start with dependencies, do you dust first or vacuum first?  When dusting, do you start with the large furniture, book cases and windows or do you do the floor first?  Many actions are not dependent on others, but some are.  Group the tasks that are dependent together, and then order them according to what dependencies they have.

Here is where the quote comes in – within any group of tasks, put the toughest, least pleasant task first on the list.  This allows you to get the least pleasant or most challenging portions done and out of the way as early as possible.  The worst thing I can think of is to have everything done, except for the toughest, least pleasant task.  Then it’s gut-check time, and you can  fail so easily.  It’s a trap that you can easily avoid by getting those tasks done while you are still motivated and energetic.  Then all that is left is the easy tasks, knock them out and you’re done!

Now it’s time for a list (did you think I’d forgotten?).  Write down five projects you are working on, have given up on part way through, or have on your “to do” list, preferably at least one of each type.

Let’s start with one you are working on.  Put a quick list together of the steps necessary to finish the task.  Then group them based on dependency, and order them by dependency (where applicable).  Within a group that has no dependencies on the others in the group, put the biggest and/or least pleasant task first.

What are the deadlines?  Be sure to get things done on time.  Look at how your plan looks and how the new plan looks.  Does the new one look a little more pleasant to finish?  Hopefully you can get enough optimism and enthusiasm to get through the first few big or ugly tasks and into the easy stuff to finish the project.

Now, for the project that is stalled.  Hopefully it isn’t because all you have left are the big and nasty stuff.  If it isn’t, do the same thing you just did for the active project.  If all you have is the big and nasty stuff, look at how you can break each into smaller chunks.

Then follow the same steps as before and sort out dependencies and deadlines, then put the big & nasty chunks as far forward as possible.  As an added bonus, write down a paragraph or so about why you were stalled at the bottom (or on the back).  When you finish the project, re-read the paragraph and have a laugh.  Trust me on this one, it’s fun!

Now that you’ve has a little practice, let’s tackle a project that you haven’t yet started.  Clean sheet of paper, as it were.  The technique is the same, but none of the good jobs are done yet.  Write down all the tasks.  Find your dependencies & deadlines.  Group tasks, then sort them from biggest & nastiest to the small and easy.  Get the plan done yet?

One idea I like to add to this is to save a couple of easy tasks that can float through out the project to use to get a quick check-mark when your enthusiasm is falling, or when you are getting back into it after a brief time off.  It can really help boost your productivity if you can get that positive attitude going!

Now that you have roadmaps for at least three different projects, it’s time to get busy!  Take that first step and don’t look back!

From: Twitter, undocumented feed (my bad)
confirmed at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/dalecarneg132382.html
Photo by abarndweller