A while ago, I was sitting in a meeting where we were discussing a request that had come in to amend something on the website.
“When do they want it to be done by?” someone said.
“All they said was ‘ASAP’.”
Ah, the classic “as soon as possible” – the Schrödinger’s deadline of project management.
Here’s a handy ‘guide’ of possible meanings and timescales of “as soon as possible”:
“I don’t control deadlines, but I do control guilt.”
Today, ideally before lunch
“My boss just walked past my desk and asked about it.”
1–3 hours
“I’ll start emailing you hourly if it’s not done.”
24 hours
“I want to look reasonable, but I also mean yesterday.”
1 day
“Before I forget I asked you.”
2–3 days
“Whenever you have a quiet moment … which I know you never do.”
3–5 days
“I have absolutely no idea when I actually need this.”
1–2 weeks
ASAP vs SLA
A better approach is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) – agree upfront what ‘urgent’ actually means by combining impact (who’s affected) with urgency (is there a workaround, is there a real deadline).
Then the priority is set by the rules, not by whoever types ‘ASAP’ in all caps. Because ‘ASAP’ isn’t a deadline. It’s a feeling.