By: Spencer Greenberg and Uri Bram
For a new project, how do you decide WHAT to do WHEN? We propose that there are two main types of projects: 'Jigsaw Puzzles' and 'Quests'. Let's explore each type and how to best prioritize the tasks that they involve.
Type 1: Jigsaw Puzzles
A 'Jigsaw Puzzle' has a finite scope; you know what the steps are, more or less. Each piece of the puzzle has to be included in the project, so the question is just what order to do them in. A good example of ...
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projects
Predicting Using the Past
When we try to predict how long a task will take, we are in danger of falling prey to the planning fallacy. This is the natural human tendency to underestimate how long your own projects will take and the costs involved.
To give one of many possible examples, when a group of students were asked to estimate how long their senior theses would take if everything went as poorly as it possibly could, the average estimate was about 49 days. In fact, the average time it took the students to complete t...
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