Which action best supports timely completion of work?

• A. Require daily progress reports
• B. Schedule the work and keep track of its progress
• C. Impress subordinates with deadlines
• D. Hold weekly conferences

Answer: (B)

Planning and monitoring work are essential for finishing on time. Scheduling the work creates a concrete roadmap with tasks, owners, start and end dates, and interdependencies. This turns vague deadlines into a sequence of reachable milestones and helps identify the critical path—the tasks that must stay on track to prevent delays. Keeping track of progress provides ongoing visibility, so you can spot slippage early, reallocate resources, adjust timelines, or escalate issues before they push the project off schedule. Together, a clear schedule and regular progress checks turn plans into actionable control points and enable timely corrective actions.

Daily progress reports can surface status, but without a solid plan and a built-in way to act on that information, they don’t inherently prevent delays. Trying to impress subordinates with deadlines may motivate briefly but doesn’t ensure tasks are organized or monitored. Weekly conferences can help coordination, yet they’re often too infrequent to catch problems early enough to avoid late completions.