What do you do when stuck on a task but you have a deadline?

Bassmansam

Bassmansam

Bassmansam

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Last week i was given a task to write a report which involved getting data from 3 different sources. Firstly i tried to write formulas referencing each file, this got messy but i had already spent half a day on it. I started again, dumped it all in power query and cleansed the data where need be to consolidate it in to one big table. Then i got stuck on a formula and i literally spent about 3 hrs that night ( out of work time, stupid i know) trying to figure out, it was like i became fixated on it. I got nowhere though and felt super frustrated.

The next day I gave in and asked on a forum and they were super helpful( what did people do before forums!?

I kept finding discrepancies in the data and i did tell the COO (not my line manager) why i couldn’t get it done in time.
He was ok about it,but because i wfh mostly i panic about what he was thinking about this.

I do think thats a disadvantage if wfh, not being able to read the room.

I’ve been there 8 months and this is by far the most complex report i’ve had to do. The COO isn’t techy so i’m not sure if he understands the difficulty.

Anyway today i finally finished it and i feel releived as its been on my mind a lot. This must be common for data analysts/ programmers. How do you deal with these situations?

On the plus side i learnt some excel functions i hadn’t used before - rows unique- filter.
 
I have always found if you communicate with your boss and explain the situation that most of the time (unless they are a complete arse! I have had some!) they will understand. If any of my team came to me and told me what the issue was I would communicate it up the chain to the non tech directors as plainly as possible. I wouldn't worry to much, you managed to complete it
 
I'm pretty inconsistent with this sort of thing, doing one or more of the below
  • Try lots of random stuff if the hope I get lucky
  • Researching online
  • Enquire if the difficult bit is really necessary
  • Highlight it as a risk
  • Plough a lot of hours into it like you did (about 10 years ago, I remember doing 14 hour days for a week to get something ready)
  • Keep quiet and wait for someone to bring up the deadline
  • Distract myself with other tasks that I'm not stuck on so I can get a feeling of making progress
  • Have a bath (I have a lot of epiphanies in the bath for some reason)
 
Try another method
Double check that the complex element is really necessary
Google ideas
Phone a friend for tech help
Phone a non tech friend and just talk it through
Have a break, couple of times I've gone back after tea etc and found a resolution. Means working late sometimes.

I generally find talking it through, often you find a resolution while explaining the issue.
I also sometimes come up with a solution when doing something mundane after a break.Doing the dishes, making the kids tea etc.

Ultimately with data/analysis it can sometimes be tough to estimate the time to complete. So sometimes I flag up if something has potentially iffy data or is at risk as early as possible. I find this helps.
 
I'm the same go do something else even a walk and it helps.

During the war...when working on the enigma codes. They allocated a certain % of resources to easy codes and a certain % to hard codes. So there was always progress and one thing didn't bottleneck the other.
 
This is where I find WFH a bit rubbish, on my office days I'd turn round to one of the other guys have a rant about it and we'd talk it through. Normally about 30 seconds into the conversation a lightbulb will go off and I'm away again. Talking over Teams doesn't trigger the same response for me.

Other than that I've always built a good relationship with my managers by being brutally honest about how something is going so it's never a surprise to them if I need to juggle a deadline a little.
 
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tom_e said:
This is where I find WFH a bit rubbish, on my office days I'd turn round to one of the other guys have a rant about it and we'd talk it through. Normally about 30 seconds into the conversation a lightbulb will go off and I'm away again. Talking over Teams doesn't trigger the same response for me.

Other than that I've always built a good relationship with my managers by being brutally honest about how something is going so it's never a surprise to them if I need to juggle a deadline a little.
Click to expand...
That's only true if you've a supportive team who share information willingly.
 
android-fan said:
As a software developer I find the rubber duck approach to getting through things I'm stuck on useful

blog.zenhub.com

Rubber Duck Debugging | ZenHub Blog

Rubber Duck Debugging is an effective method for describing and explaining each step of your code. Learn how to apply this strategy in this blog.
blog.zenhub.com blog.zenhub.com
Click to expand...
Rubber ducking is usually the solution if you're properly stuch on something in software development.

But generally, if you think you're going to struggle to hit a deadline, the answer is to let your manager/pm/producer know ASAP so they can do their job to mitigate/resolve/help the situation.
 
mid_gen said:
Rubber ducking is usually the solution if you're properly stuch on something in software development.

But generally, if you think you're going to struggle to hit a deadline, the answer is to let your manager/pm/producer know ASAP so they can do their job to mitigate/resolve/help the situation.
Click to expand...
Thanks, are data analysts worthy of the rubber duck?
 
android-fan said:
As a software developer I find the rubber duck approach to getting through things I'm stuck on useful

blog.zenhub.com

Rubber Duck Debugging | ZenHub Blog

Rubber Duck Debugging is an effective method for describing and explaining each step of your code. Learn how to apply this strategy in this blog.
blog.zenhub.com blog.zenhub.com
Click to expand...
Pretty much exactly what we're doing when we babble at each other in the office, it's rarely the other person coming up with the solution but as you're talking about it to them you realise the glaring error you've become code blind to.
 
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