Newsletter Archive

NOVEMBER 2009

Executive Function at Work, Part Three:
Project Planning

This is the third in a series of articles about managing executive function challenges at work. Executive function relates to a person's ability to plan, prioritize, manage time, comprehend the big picture, change course and make good decisions.  

Planning is a critical executive function skill in virtually every kind of job. It ensures that assignments are done on time and employer expectations are met.

Individuals with Asperger's Syndrome and Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NLD) frequently have trouble creating plans that organize time and action steps effectively. As a result, individuals may: not know how to get started, become stuck midway through a project, vastly underestimate how long something will take, omit important items, or loose sight of the original goal.

Good planning involves four basic steps. First, establish a clear goal or task. Second, create specific, manageable action steps to reach the goal. Third, organize the time needed to accomplish the steps, and fourth, gather the resources needed to complete the project.

The following planning template has been used by several of my coaching clients for both long-term projects and daily tasks. It outlines specific action steps and provides a comparison of estimated versus actual time to complete each step. The latter is a useful tool for improving time management skills.

Here is the template and an abbreviated example of how it works. The italics illustrate how Jack, one of my clients, created a plan for writing a process manual for his company's engineering group.

Planning Template

1. Describe the goal or task: Produce an internal process manual

2. Due date: One month

3. Steps and estimated time to complete

• Step 1: Outline each step in new product launch
  Estimated time: 2 hours
• Step 2: Identify team(s) responsible for each step
  Estimated time: 1 hour
• Step 3: Write a draft of process manual
  Estimated time: 8 hours
• Step 4: Send draft to team leaders, marketing director and supervisor for feedback
  Estimated time: 30 minutes to send / 1 week for feedback
• Step 5: Incorporate feedback into final document
  Estimated time: 2 hours

4. What do I need to complete the task (materials, information, environment, etc.): Sample process documents from other departments, organizational chart, list of colleagues who will review document, time with supervisor to review initial outline

5. I will work on this project from: 2:00 to 4:00 pm on Mondays and 9:00 to 11:30 am on Thursdays

6: At the half-way point, my goal is to have the following amount of work completed: 60% of the first draft written

7: Actual time to complete:

• Step 1: 2.5 hours
• Step 2: 45 minutes
• Step 3: 10 hours
• Step 4: 15 minutes / 2 weeks for feedback
• Step 5: 3.5 hours

Total actual time: 17 hours and 1 extra week for comments

8. If the actual time to complete a step/task took longer than the estimated time, then:

1. What obstacles, if any, were not anticipated?
   Draft took longer due to unfamiliarity with part of the product development process; team leaders had more changes than I expected--third section needed major rewrite; two managers were traveling which delayed feedback by one week

1. How can the task be handled differently next time? Allow 20% more time to write the document than I expect; check managers' travel schedules in advance; make sure I am familiar with all aspects of the development process before beginning project

The planning template can be used for a variety of situations, and individual action steps can be as detailed as needed. Save your work sheets and review your progress over time. If after using the template for several similar tasks your efficiency doesn't improve, consider getting assistance from a colleague, supervisor or a coach.

For some individuals, estimating the time needed for a task is extremely difficult. Next month in the Asperger's & NLD Career Letter we will discuss ways to guage the passage of time, more accurately predict how long something will take and meet deadlines.

© 2009 by Barbara Bissonnette, Forward Motion Coaching