In Defense of Slack

Slack. "Extra". The root of "Slacker". In project management, it's the "non-productive" time between tasks (like waiting for cement to dry).

But I'm here to talk about it in a more general, universal sense. Forget the bad reputation it's forged and step back with me for a few minutes.

In this world, where we rush from one objective to the next, pack out time with meetings, slam email, phone calls and paperwork in between that, we find ourselves neglecting much in the name or productivity. Has any of these things happened to you?;

• Forgotten to eat?
• Gotten to appointments 3 minutes late because the last meeting you were in ran right up to the last minutes. 
• In those last minutes explaining to your phone call that you had to leave the room and subsequently the conversation was over?
• Realized that you have held your need to go to the restroom over multiple meetings?

The list can go on and on.

This is because there is no slack in your schedule. No lubrication. No time to be human. No time to listen to your body, be considerate of the next person that needs the room, running full out all the time.

It is insanity.

Slack is the lubrication in the day, in the schedule. In music it is the rest, where no music is being made - it's the chance for the flute or trumpet player to breath – and it's necessary.
We need little bits of slack between big events to allow that breath, nature break, hall time between meetings. And we need it in project plans.

When we commit to pushing a schedule, we're potentially pushing all of the breathing room out of the project or program and raising a lot of risk. What risk?

• Resources burn out.
• Any slight change – like a sick day – puts the schedule behind.
• We cannot fit anything else in, when we know, usually, there are other things that need to fit in (how about eating right and exercise?).

We preach  life balance. In order to live it, we need to allow for slack in the schedule. Taking it out occasionally, to make room for a priority is OK, but if you are doing that most of the time, you are over committed. You are not leaving time for maintenance, breathing,

If a schedule is a machine, slack is lubrication and maintenance time. We all know a machine freezes up if it isn't lubricated and tuned.

How does one enable slack? It needs to be scheduled.

• Schedule meetings from 5 after to 5 till. 
• Make exercise, cool down and any hygienic time part of your schedule.
• Build your schedules with the understanding that 8 hours of productivity in 8 hours of work is an unrealistic goal. Give your resources time to be human, rest, refuel and attend to themselves.
• Your major contingency time* and dollars should be based on risk (*budgets set aside in your plan for the unplanned), but don't schedule so that the project will fail if someone is sick or needs to deal with another emergency. The collapsing of your schedule will occur through talks with management and through the realization of risk anyway. Don’t compound it up front. Use realistic estimating.

Use these guides:

• In all things moderation
• Think effective and efficient, not expedient
• People first
• Reality will impose itself on every mistake, fantasy or lie you tell (intentional or unintentional) and destroy your schedule. Being realistic allows you to incorporate reality.

Does this mean I don't believe in achievement, in stretch goals, in improvement? No. It means those things we strive for and should be rewarded for, but we shouldn’t predicate our success on constant overachievement nor push people to constantly overachieve. Human beings are like batteries – they need to recharge, they need a down cycle. People will perform fantastically, if treated with planning and respect.