Ask anyone that has ever tried going for a run farther than 10km, and they will tell you: The greatest obstacle that you have to overcome isn’t the physical exhaustion, but rather, the boredom, arising from what often appears to be a pointless run. Feeling the hot breath of a lion at your heels would probably alleviate a great deal of this boredom, but would also lead to you getting devoured by the feline. There has to be a better way.
This better way, I (and indeed, many others) have found out, is to “break” your run into smaller sections. Set some “waypoints” that you have to keep an eye out for. This can help you both with giving something to look out for and thus avoid the feeling of boredom, and with giving a sense of achievement, even if there is still some way to go.
The same technique can be used in many other aspects of your personal and professional life. I, for one, like applying it in all my projects. What’s interesting, is that although strictly speaking this step is not a necessary part of a project, and it adds an extra task that could easily be avoided, the truth is, that the larger the project, the more necessary, I find this step to be.
If the work is fairly simple and straightforward, (some projects, no matter how large, can feel this way after amassing a decade of experience under your belt) this step helps in alleviating the boredom. If it’s something more complicated, it helps in keeping track of everything.
Preparing a Gantt chart might seem a tedious task at first, but as the story goes, the most efficient lumberjack is the one who spends 9/10ths of their time sharpening their axe, not the one who starts cutting the tree right away.
In addition, this can help you identify potential bottlenecks in the project, as well as show you its critical path. This is the sequence of tasks that leads to the longest possible time for the project to end. As a result, any delay upon any of these tasks will lead to the delay of the whole project. That is because delays on tasks that are outside the critical path, can be “masked” by the critical path tasks that are yet unfinished.
I have worked with a lot of people over the years (both from client, as well as subcontractor/expert side), many among which, are completely oblivious to even the most basic principles of project management. This technique is not meant to be followed when dealing with this sort of people, who are unlikely to ever change. But if you are an up-and-coming professional, making such a preparatory step a habit of yours, will make you a better leader, save you time over the long run and minimize any chances of you running around like a headless chicken because of bad planning.