Nine Ways To Finish A Task (Boffins Office 8)

In the office we commonly face...tasks. Think of things such as writing a report, responding to a complicated e-mail, developing a simple program or organising an event.

Now not all tasks are equal and different tasks are best done in different ways. Here I will present 9 different ways how one can do a particular task, based on my personal experience over the years.

To keep it generic and simple, I assume that any task you have will have a description (in other words, you have an idea what you need to do) and a deadline (date/time that the task needs to be completed).

Anyway, let's move on to the list :).

#1: By The Book

Aim: Finish a task as intended, by a reasonable deadline.

The simplest way to do a task is to do it as specified of course. You refer to the task description (or your manager's expectation) and do whatever effort is needed (within reason) to get the task done by the deadline.

If a task description is not clear, you try to clarify it, e.g. by improving the description or asking for clarifications from colleagues or your manager. And if the deadline is too tight, you ask for an extension. Simple as that.

#2: Deadline Rush

Aim: Finish a task as intended, by a not-so-reasonable deadline, dropping other priorities.

Of course, some deadlines cannot be moved (e.g. a deadline for a funding proposal), leading to tasks that need to be done quickly.

In Deadline Rush mode, you know that the deadline is too tight for practical purposes, and you temporarily drop other priorities to complete the task. So you dedicate all your working time on this main task, and even choose to work overtime.

Many employers expect their employees to do Deadline Rushes from time to time, but there are a few important things to keep in mind:

While a Deadline Rush can occasionally be good, I try to avoid it because of the risk for errors and the recovery period needed afterwards.

*Going The Extra Mile: when you don't want to show up with that pre-baked cake from the gas station... (Source)*

#3: Go The Extra Mile

Aim: Finish a task as well as you reasonably can.

Sometimes there are tasks where it can really help to do better than expected. In academia it can be things like flagship papers, large funding proposals, or even tutorials that are central for the learning of students. And sometimes you find yourself in a new collaboration and just want to do the best job you can.

If there is a clear benefit to do a little extra, and your workload is not too high otherwise, you can choose to Go The Extra Mile.

Going The Extra Mile usually means:

  1. Doing a task by the book (#1), but well before the deadline.
  2. Carefully examine what you produced, and think what you can do to improve it.
  3. Make the improvements you had in mind, given that they don't delay the task too much.
  4. Deliver the task, ideally a bit before the deadline.

But Going The Extra Mile isn't always the best option. When the workload is high, it can simply take too much effort, and doing work like could also give unreasonable expectations with new collaborators.

#4: (Person) Time-limited

Aim: Spend X hours of your time to finish a task.

Speaking of high workload, sometimes it's simply not feasible to finish all tasks to the standard you'd like, but the job still needs to be done.

One way to cope with such a situation, is too simply limit the amount of time you personally dedicate to each task, and then declare it finished once the time has been spent. For example, you decide to spend no more than 4 hours to compose a two-page abstract. This approach is common in contracting work, and it really helps to stay on top of your schedule.

In some cases, doing a job with a time limit may cause you to finish the task with the same quality in less time, because you end up working more efficiently. However, be mindful of the following downsides:

#5: Urgent Mode

Aim: finish a job to normal standard as soon as possible.

When Covid-19 first hit Britain, and I started to develop the Flu And Coronavirus Simulator, I worked a lot in Urgent Mode, because there were no hard deadlines, but it was blatantly obvious that getting tasks completed sooner would help me to get feedback earlier and progress faster.

In Urgent Mode, contrary to #4, it's a bit more important to deliver it fast than to make it exceptional, so you start the task straight away, and complete it as soon as possible, dropping other tasks that are not downright essential for your work, but not (necessarily) compromising on work-life balance.

That last bit is very important, because where a Deadline Rush has a set end time (the deadline), these kind of urgent situations often have an unknown duration. So if you use up too much slack early on in the urgent period, you may be too worn out to do a decent job later on the urgent period. So, in Urgent Mode I recommend to work hard, but not so hard that you exhaust yourself.

Nevertheless, getting that balance of work and rest right can be difficult when you work in Urgent Mode for a long time, so you should normally expect to be needing to recover at any rate at the end of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVlhMGQgDkY

Like robots, people working in Autonomous Mode are far from perfectly efficient, but are bound to learn a lot from the experience.

#6: Autonomous Mode

Aim: Finish a task as intended, by a reasonable deadline, without consulting your line manager/tutor.

Sometimes you're given a task where the task itself actually serves to either develop your skills (e.g. in education) or to assess your performance. In these cases, you can adopt what I call Autonomous Mode. Autonomous Mode can be combined with many of the other ways you can do a task, by the way.

In Autonomous Mode you try to finish a task by the book (#1), but you avoid consulting your line manager or tutor. In the case of self-education, you could also choose to avoid consulting other resources, such as existing code fragments on the web when you're learning how to code, although I am not entirely sure how helpful that is.

The good side of working in Autonomous Mode is that it helps you become a more independent worker, and that it fosters the development of new skills. It also makes it easier to assess how you perform as an individual.

However, in Autonomous Mode you are much more prone to get stuck on difficult tasks, trying to solve a particular problem for a long time without making any progress. When that happens you will face a dilemma: do you break the autonomy, or do you accept that your Autonomous Mode led to a substandard result (and wasted time because of getting stuck)?

As a Lecturer, I normally recommend students to work in Autonomous Mode, but to consult me after they get stuck for a certain period of time (e.g., 2 hours). I believe that helps them to develop skills without wasting too much time being stuck.

*Backfill mode: making the most of that interstitial (waiting) time... (Source)*

#7: Backfill Mode

Aim: Finish a task as intended, by a reasonable deadline, with a limited attention capacity.

Sometimes you end up with a short period of idle time because a colleague is late for an appointment with you, or you are participating in a teleconference where your attention is only required for small amounts of time. In these cases, you can choose to multitask a bit, and complete one of your task while waiting, or attending something else. But beware: in backfill mode you will usually be less attentive, and have less working memory at your disposal for the task.

Tasks that work well for backfill mode are normally ones that you can start and stop easily, such as checking a report for writing quality or debugging a simple script. Reading reference material (but not in-depth publications) also works rather well.

#8: In Iterations

Aim: Finish a task, then improve it, then improve it, and so on...

Sometimes the quality you need to deliver is beyond your zone of comfort, and even “simply” going the Extra Mile (#3) isn't going to be good enough. In such cases, it's best to just decline the task if there is time pressure, but if you do have loads of time to spare, then working In Iterations can be a good approach.

When working in iterations, you go through the same four steps described in #3, but you keep repeating steps 2 and 3 until the result is strong enough.

PhD students very often use this approach, as they will want to improve their skills, and a supervisor is (hopefully!) often on hand to give concise and targeted feedback.

A Token Effort if you're a pipe builder, but a masterpiece if you're an artist. Courtesy of René Magritte (1898–1967).

#9: With A Token Effort

Aim: Do enough to “keep the ball rolling” during a busy period.

Normally, it's best to just decline a task when you are too busy to get around to it. It reduces your workload, and keeps your brain free to focus on the others.

However, sometimes not doing a task can mean a missing opportunity or a withering collaboration. In these cases, people sometimes resort to doing a token effort. A token effort means that you're not aiming to immediately complete a task, but to put in just enough effort to “have something new”. It can consist of making a simple outline of something, to make 1 or 2 changes to a code to show some new results, or even to just find a few new literature sources.

Token efforts can be both good and bad: they can be good to help keep collaborations alive in difficult periods, but the approach is annoying when one side is putting in a token effort when another is putting in a full effort. So, when working in this mode it is essential that you let the others know about your work constraints.

Closing thoughts

So, in summary, there are nine ways I can think of how you can do tasks. The default is to do it by the book (#1). If you have limited amounts of time, then you can opt for the deadline rush (#2), the person time-limited (#4) approach or even the token effort (#9). If you want to hone the quality, perhaps consider going the extra mile (#3) or doing it in iterations (#8). If you wish to hone your skills over time, consider autonomous mode (#5), and if you have time to kill, consider using backfill mode (#7). And lastly, for tasks during a crisis situation it's often best to resort to urgent mode (#6).

Indeed, some modes give a better result than others, but for each of them there is an appropriate situation to use it :).

Next time, in what is probably a slightly less serious instalment, I will talk about different ways how you can choose NOT to do a task! ;)

If you feel I have overlooked anything important, or made a silly mistake, please do let me know on Twitter (@whydoitweet)!

Credits

Header image courtesy of the pikist.

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