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- Task Planning
A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.
Confucius BC 551-479, Chinese Ethical Teacher, Philosopher
Essay Term-assignment Task Planning: Example
Step-by-Step Procedure
Principle: I determine the basic steps of my assignment and estimate the time required to complete each.
- Exploratory reading and topic choice: 1-2 weeks
- Documentary research (identifying sources and obtaining documents): 1-2 weeks
- Documentation exploitation (reading, selecting, summarizing): 3-4 weeks
- Assignment writing (basic ideas, planning, drafting, writing the introduction and conclusion): 2-3 weeks
- Proofreading the text and making corrections: 1 week
- Submitting the assignment (formatting, printing, making copies and final corrections): 1 week
Timeframe
Principle: I schedule time to complete each step of my assignment according to my other assignments and tasks.
I determine the final deadline (second Monday in December).
I determine a deadline for each intermediary step in the reverse order. For example, if I have to hand in my assignment on the second Monday in December and if I need one week to make sure that I am satisfied with its quality, I must finish writing it on the first Monday in December. In order to meet that deadline, I must finish reading my reference material near the second week in November or, by the third week at the latest, and so on. This is how I determine when I need to start and complete every step so that I feel comfortable with the deadlines.
The creation of a synoptic overview allows me to spread out the deadlines for this specific assignment according to my other assignments, thus preventing work overload and bottlenecks.