Start now. You can take it easy later.
I was working on a the later stages of a bigger project. We knew that some steps would take longer. I started them early, hoping they would be done simply and easily. I was wrong. Things got in the way, and there were unexpected delays.
This always happens, even when you do things on your own, You get in your own way. You compare options, and mull things over. Then you go back to them again, just to see if you missed something. Then you make the decision. Some days later you discover that you didn’t calculate a variable, and the result is that something now arrives after you need it. Well, you have it for ‘next time’, but not ‘this time’. Ugh.
In teams you discuss with everyone the importance of doing things soon, and looking for email replies from different parties. Team members might be nervous about decisions, or misunderstand, which email account to watch for notices. Whatever. It all means delay. That’s ok. Help them to see the issue, and resolve the matter in a friendly way.
Be kind in all of this, and assume good intentions. You know you have lots on in your own life, which is why you take your time. Assume your colleague is facing their own challenges and hassles outside of the team. We all have issues that slow us down. This is normal.
This is why you need to start early. There will be delays. Even when you know this will happen.
This post is part of a project pulling together my materials and ideas about Teaching Team Collaboration: the Human-Side of Software Development for software development to students.
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The ideas above are from my book 101+ Ideas to Improve Team Collaboration, which covers all of these little things that students can do to improve their collaboration. Also available via Kindle.