Time Tips: Scope Creep Tip #1

Many of the things that suck down our time creep up on us. Project managers talk about "scope creep," which is referring to the way projects seem to get bigger as they progress.

• You borrow a movie from the library (or rent one), and then after several months you are watching 2 or 3 movies a week.
• You subscribe to a magazine, then another, then another.
• You join a non-profit organization (or trade group, professional society, or other affiliation), and volunteer for something. A year later, you are knee-deep in activities.
• You start a small landscaping project in the spring, and by the end of summer you are spending 10 hrs a week on landscaping projects.

There's nothing wrong with doing any of these kinds of things, and you should not let fear of "getting snowballed" prevent you from engaging in life and doing these kinds of things. But, how do you prevent yourself from "getting snowballed?"

The key is to plan your time. If you allow, say, one hour per week for supporting your non-profit, you can put the brakes on when you exceed your time. Or, you allow, say, four hours per week for reading magazines. As the backlog stack builds, pick the magazine that has the least value to you and unsubscribe.

If you can apply this principle of planning X amount of time per Y type of activity, you won't have the problem of "scope creep." It's also good to step back once in a while and just evaluate where you are spending your time. Don't forget, you have only so much time in a day. Wherever you spend it, you can't spend it elsewhere. So, plan wisely.