The 6 Biggest Benefits of Task Level Planning
Task Level Planning has the following benefits:
● Have more fun at work and stay motivated
● Be able to estimate your work
● Be more productive
As these are great benefits we will shortly explain what task level planning means, then look at examples of it and finally see the 6 main benefits of task level planning.
1. What is Task Level Planning?
It was another weekend in which our client Carter was reflecting on why he was not advancing on building the recruitment software his client had asked him to build. He had meant to get started for a long time, but somehow could not find the right way to start. Then we did one exercise that changed everything: we started to plan the project in detail and divide the whole project into subprojects and the subprojects into tasks and the tasks into subtasks. After 1 hour of splitting the top level goals into lower levels, Carter had finally gotten clarity on what needed to be accomplished. Now he could not wait to get started with the work.
The above was a case of task level planning, which is a kind of planning in which we split projects into tasks and tasks into subtasks.
This is quite different from high level planning, which is also called project level planning.
In project level planning we do not go into much detail. We would consider these questions:
● How many resources does the project need?
● What is the overall timeline?
● What does the overall Gantt chart look like?
● What team members are required?
Task level planning on the other hand is a low level planning that focuses on how specifically a project can be implemented by determining each task and subtask. Thus, for task level planning we need to:
● Split the big project into smaller milestones
○ Split the smaller milestones into tasks
■ Split the tasks into actionable subtasks
In other words, task level planning is continuously spitting up projects or big tasks into smaller tasks until we arrive at actionable tasks.
Therefore, task level planning is similar to the concept of mind maps, where you also draw a tree structure and go from the general concept to continuously more detailed branches.
For example, let’s say we have a large project to develop a software. This project needs to be split into tasks and subtasks. The different levels of splitting up the project could look as follows:
● Ultimate Goal: Software
○ Main Functions/Projects: Authentication
■ Subprojects: Social login
● Task: Develop Facebook authentication
○ Subtask: Research a new library on Facebook authentication
2. How I Got to Love Task Level Planning
Task level planning has great benefits. But before we look at them I will show you how I personally discovered the power of task level planning for myself.
2.1. Inspired by Mind Maps
I was doing my bachelor degree when I read a book on mind maps. I found it a useful concept and became a mind map power user. Mind maps helped me structure knowledge. This in turn enabled me to complete four bachelor degrees in only two years.
2.2. Discovering new method to take law exams
After finishing my four bachelors degrees, I entered law school, and was able to complete the degree in ¼ th of the regular time with top grades. My secret was using mind map structures to solve the tough five hour law exams. While other students would start to answer the question as soon as possible, I would use at least 50% of the allotted 5 hours to only plan my solution by making a mind map like structure. In building this structure I would go from general level to increasingly detailed levels so that in the end the structure contained every detail of the solution. Once I had the detailed structure I just wrote the solution without having to think.
2.3. Better and faster writing
I then applied this method to my writing in general, for example to write this article: Before I will write even one word of text I will make a mind map like structure; first, a general one and then an increasingly detailed one. And only once every idea is in the structure, will I start to actually write the article.
2.4. Better and faster programming
I later discovered that this detailed planning can increase the productivity of almost any work including software programming.
My programmers were not big fans of planning, and thus started working on a new software project with only a rough plan. Then they spent the next 4 months developing, only to arrive at a point when they wanted to redevelop the product from scratch. They justified this by saying that now that they understood the product 100% they would be able to provide better code and it would only take 2 weeks to finish the rewrite.
This made me realize that in fact the first development was nothing more than a detailed plan on how to build the software. Once that was clear it was easy to write the code for the final product.
So since then I have led many development teams to make detailed mind map like structures before starting to actually code and discovered that by making these task level plans we can increase the quality of code and reduce development time.
When I am using mind maps like structures to plan law exams, content writing or software programming I am in fact doing task level planning, because I am splitting the general objectives into projects, tasks and subtasks.
3. The 6 Biggest Benefits of Task Level Planning
Above we have already seen examples on how task level planning enables teams to be more productive and get things finished earlier. Here we will look at each of the biggest benefits of task level planning.
3.1. Avoid rework
Task level planning allows us to avoid waste from having to rework!
It is common for teams that do not do task level planning to start working only to discover later that they have to rework what they thought they already had completed. For example, I was working with a development team that worked for 4 months on a software, only to find out that they better redevelop the whole software.
Therefore, you should split your work in small pieces so that you know each task you need to do. This way you are less likely to do it in a wrong way, and thus can avoid rework.
3.2. Foresee bottlenecks
Task level planning also allows us to foresee bottlenecks!
Bottlenecks are things that can prevent other tasks from being accomplished and therefore delay the project if not recognized early.
Let’s imagine you are developing an online bank. While you are able to build the technology, in order to launch it to the public you need licenses from the regulator that take several months to obtain. So if you get the product ready for launch and only then start asking for the permission, your project might be delayed by several months.
With task level planning, you split the launch into all the subtasks already at the start of the project and realize that the bank license needs to be taken care of early on so that it does not become a bottleneck.
3.3. Work faster
Task level planning can save us time by working faster!
While the main argument against task level planning is that it takes too much time, in fact the opposite is true: task level planning saves time.
This is because task level planning needs to be done anyway. If you don’t do it before you start the implementation of a project then you will have to do this during the implementation of the project.
In addition, when you have a very clear idea of all the tasks and subtasks that are needed you can schedule tasks better and avoid delays.
3.4. Estimate time
Task level planning allows you to estimate the time of completion of a project!
Estimating the time to complete big projects is inherently difficult. The only way to do this is by splitting the big projects into subprojects, and those into tasks and subtasks, and then estimating the time of completion of each subtask. Each subtask is generally easy to estimate and summing up all subtasks we get to the total estimate for the project.
3.5. Work together
Task level planning enables teams to work together on the same project!
When you don´t split a project into tasks and subtasks it is hard to assign it to more than one person; everybody that is working on the project would have to be assigned the same project and their work would often overlap.
On the other hand, when you do split up a project into tasks and subtasks, you can assign different tasks and subtasks to different team members. This way they can complete the project without doing the same work twice.
3.6. Motivate
Task level planning gives you motivation as big projects appear to be more achievable when they are split into smaller tasks!
When you do not split into tasks and subtasks the overall project can often seem too far removed to be motivational. For example, when you are climbing Mt Everest, the top might seem too far away for you to believe that you can reach it. But if you divide the whole distance into daily milestones and then every day only focus on the next milestone the goal seems more achievable and therefore more motivational.
4. How To Do Task Level Planning
We have already seen above that task level planning is essentially done by creating a mind map, in which you split goals into projects and projects into tasks. So you go from the high level goals to continuously lower levels until you reach the level of action. This process is done by asking the question “how?”:
- How can I reach my ultimate goals? -> by accomplishing projects!
- How can I accomplish my projects? -> by accomplishing tasks!
- How can I accomplish my tasks -> by accomplishing subtasks!
Doing this planning from high level to low level using the traditional unorganized mind map structure can become cumbersome. Therefore, I recommend just using a structured list. Using a structured list you first want to write down the high level goals. Then you write down the required projects for each of the goals by indenting them. Then you want to write down the tasks for each project below the project by indenting it a level further. In the end you have a nicely structured list organized according to your life goals.
As the list will change over time, as your objectives change and you are completing tasks, you don’t want to create this list on paper but with a software that can automatically update the information. Unfortunately, creating such a goal structure needed for task level planning is not feasible in the most popular project management systems. For that reason we had to create our own software, called Workiamo.
Workiamo is a very simple tool that is ideal for anybody that wants to be less stressed and more productive. As you are reading this, we let you access it for lifetime for free! In order to do so, you have to register at www.workiamo.com by entering this code: ILOVEWORK.
We have seen above that task level planning has many advantages and virtually no disadvantages. Therefore, when you are working on a project or a big task you should always split this into small tasks and subtasks first, and only start working once you can see the full mind map like structure.
