The Positive Influence of Slack Time

Slack time is a term loved by many, dreaded by others. Usually, the ‘others’ are project managers who ‘don’t want anyone sitting idle’. And of course, we can’t plan slack time because we don’t know exactly when it’s going to happen. But it happens when our flow becomes unbalanced, which sometimes means all the time.

But how can something like this have a positive influence on the overall process flow? Are we actually losing value during this time or creating value? Well, that depends on how we use our slack time. Read on.

The Emergent Nature of Slack Time

First, let’s try to define slack time. In project management, it is the time a task can be delayed without causing another task to be delayed, or without impacting the overall project completion. Usually, it happens when the process flow is unbalanced.  And that can cause a team member being restrained to do the task they’d typically do because there aren’t enough tasks to keep them busy. It can be because another team member is taking longer to finish their tasks, a team member is absent (and can’t pass on new work), team members are pulled away for another project, tasks are completed quicker than expected, and so on.

Slack time is emergent and can’t be predicted. Project managers and team members should prepare ideas of what to do during this time.  A good use of slack time is to do other tasks that are considered “important, but not urgent”, but may ultimately lead to all sorts of improvements. But as a project manager, you need to consider two primary factors when determining the best use of slack time. First, the project goals and how leveraging slack time can help you complete the project on schedule. And second, the team’s ideas and suggestions on how they want to utilize the time.

A Self-Balancing Mechanism

The curious thing about slack time is that even though it happens when there’s imbalance in the flow, it seems to be to function as a self-balancing mechanism. By creating ‘holes’ in the value stream, it allows team members to find the imperfections in the process and spot obstacles and bottlenecks. Notice whether the speed of delivery needs to be changed – thus, the WIP limits corrected. Finish tasks that linger too long in ‘In Progress” column. Do menial work that is normally avoided, like regular system maintenance. Or simply get spend the time thinking and produce some creative solutions and ideas.

But even though the flow is signaling you to improve the balance, you can’t keep the equilibrium forever. Continuous improvement, remember? So slack time will occur again, and it might be the best thing that can happen to your flow.

Why do We Need Slack Time?

Even of you want every spare moment to be filled with work I strongly advise you against it. Slack time is not only the flow’s self-balancing mechanism but in order for us, humans to work effectively and efficiently, we need to loosen up sometimes.  Otherwise, we’ll end up super-stressed and burned out.

Being productive and “in the zone” can be great. But all productivity methods advise taking breaks. We need those breaks, like slack time, to do a couple of things. For one, take mental breaks and allow our brains to rest and process information – write important information from short to mid-term memory, and regenerate so we’d be able to focus on the (new) tasks at hand. And two, take a step back, look at the bigger picture and make sure we have the capacity to deal with planned and unexpected events.

What to Do During Slack Time?

If having slack time and no predefined tasks to work on is freaking you out, you can try and add a slack time card to your board and fill it with a defined activity. Like actually taking a break, or spending the time learning and perfecting a new skill. But if you ask me, planning for slack time is not slack time, per se.

Truth is, without incorporating some time to cool off and recharge, we end up taking on too much work and too much stress. These factors kill our happiness and lead to burnout. And can lead to decreased longevity. And that’s not good.

That’s why we need to recognize the importance of slack time. When leveraged to the team’s advantage, it can be a very good thing. It can be used to take on tasks we’d normally try to dodge, or spent brainstorming new innovative ideas that we wouldn’t think of because we’re too busy working on the same old tried-and-tested ways. Most importantly, because you can use this valuable time as a tool to increase the efficiency of your team and your process.