Slack in project management is the time a task can be delayed without causing a delay to either subsequent tasks or project completion time. The amount of time before a constraint binds.
I think this is a nice short reference, but a lot lurks behind, because slack in project or process management has a long history and a lot of theory behind it. I think slack in this context can be equated with buffer capacity, at least mostly. Buffers can be good or bad. Toyota saw buffers as bad and invented Just in Time to deal with the consequences. If we follow their insights it is possible to go without much slack and still reap most benefits. But does this translate to private life? Maybe a better or at least more intermediate trade-off is Drum Buffer Rope. It may depend on personal style and situation. I know a few people who plan their life heavily and reap efficiency gains. Are there other insights from production that we could compare?
Note that the production analogy assumes a level of value-alignment (or easiness of value alignment) that’s not necessarily present in just living your life.
If I recall correctly, Toyota is the company that installed the pull-cord anyone on the assembly line could pull to halt the process, which seems like quite a lot of slack in some sense, without being a buffer in the sense I take you to mean.
There’s a sense in which buffer that’s not being used productively is more like clutter than slack. These seem worth distinguishing between, since they’re very different kinds of having more than enough.
[a] buffer that’s not being used productively is more like clutter than slack.
I like this specific observation and totally agree. Buffers can be slack, but there are definitely other ways. The key seems to be granting options—like with the pull-cord.
On management you write
I think this is a nice short reference, but a lot lurks behind, because slack in project or process management has a long history and a lot of theory behind it. I think slack in this context can be equated with buffer capacity, at least mostly. Buffers can be good or bad. Toyota saw buffers as bad and invented Just in Time to deal with the consequences. If we follow their insights it is possible to go without much slack and still reap most benefits. But does this translate to private life? Maybe a better or at least more intermediate trade-off is Drum Buffer Rope. It may depend on personal style and situation. I know a few people who plan their life heavily and reap efficiency gains. Are there other insights from production that we could compare?
Note that the production analogy assumes a level of value-alignment (or easiness of value alignment) that’s not necessarily present in just living your life.
If I recall correctly, Toyota is the company that installed the pull-cord anyone on the assembly line could pull to halt the process, which seems like quite a lot of slack in some sense, without being a buffer in the sense I take you to mean.
There’s a sense in which buffer that’s not being used productively is more like clutter than slack. These seem worth distinguishing between, since they’re very different kinds of having more than enough.
I like this specific observation and totally agree. Buffers can be slack, but there are definitely other ways. The key seems to be granting options—like with the pull-cord.