Imagine you come across a job post you’re interested in. You spend a week editing your resume and cover letter for the opportunity. When you go to apply, you don’t see the post anymore—in the time you were editing, the company took the listing down. Or, as you were submitting, you looked more closely and discovered that the geography didn’t apply to you. If you’d spent less time on it, you would have learned that sooner.

To scope a project so its schedule only contains what’s essential is a delicate practice. Rushing a project out the door is self-sabotage. (Imagine applying to a job with a cover letter that has typos.) 

It takes expertise and experience to define how essential (or acceptable) looks, to know when to simplify and when to remain precious, and to decide what can wait for the next release.

When you’re working on the schedule, remember you’re working on the most important feature of the project. If your project doesn’t have a schedule, it’s missing its most important feature.