Can You Just

Reality / Can You Just interruptions

“Can you just…” still takes real time.

A Can You Just interruption records unplanned work against a resource. Once committed, it reserves productive capacity and the scheduler recalculates the planned work that uses the time left.

Understand the model ↓See the worked example →

The urgent request may be the right decision.

Fixing a customer export can matter more than the planned build. The problem is not that someone responded. It is that the time disappears while the old delivery date remains on the wall.

Record the description, timing and estimated duration. A self-created request uses the immediate interruption workflow. Work scheduled before a later interruption can still use the earlier free time.

Incoming requests wait for acceptance.

Work assigned to another person or agent enters their Incoming queue. It remains floating until accepted: no reserved time, split stages or changed forecasts. Priority does not bypass acceptance.

Start Now accepts it as an interruption. Show in Plan lets the recipient review it in a temporary What If proposal before applying changes. Discarding that proposal leaves the request floating.

The consequence can outlast the request.

A 45-minute interruption can move the current stage and a dependent review. If it loses a shared window or crosses the end of a working day, the calendar delay can be longer than 45 minutes.

The forecast records the consequence of committed work. Starting a plan does not fabricate actual effort; recorded actual intervals remain separate facts.

A FICTIONAL SCHEDULING STORY

The 45-minute interruption

Calculated with the CYJ scheduler

Before

Alice has seven hours of build work. Ben’s one-hour review waits for it. Friday’s 17:00 commitment fits.

The change

At 10:17, Alice commits a 45-minute request: ‘Can you just fix the customer export?’

Before

Project completion: Fri 17:00

Alice
  • BuildFri 09:00–Fri 16:00
Ben
  • ReviewFri 16:00–Fri 17:00

Hard deadline: Fri 17:00Tight headroom

After

Project completion: Fri 17:45

Alice
  • BuildFri 09:00–Fri 10:17
  • Interruption · Customer export fixFri 10:17–Fri 11:02
  • BuildFri 11:02–Fri 16:45
Ben
  • ReviewFri 16:45–Fri 17:45

Hard deadline: Fri 17:00Hard deadline threatened

Example assumptions. Friday 23 October 2026. Both people have a deliberately simple 09:00–18:00 calendar without breaks. The fix is committed work; actual effort has not been recorded.

THE CONSEQUENCE

The build now finishes at 16:45. Ben’s review moves with it, despite receiving no interruption.

THE REVISED PLAN

Completion is Friday 17:45. The 17:00 hard deadline stays fixed, so the forecast shows a threatened commitment.

Explore the model:Can You Just interruptions →The timeline →Targets & deadlines →

CONNECTED IDEAS

The rest of the story.

Priorities Priority controls how eligible planned work competes for limited resource time. Can You Just uses four levels: Critical, High, Normal and Low. Stages inherit their project’s priority.The timeline The Can You Just timeline displays scheduled work against resource availability. It shows the result of effort, priorities, dependencies, interruptions and calendars, rather than a collection of manually drawn dates.Targets & deadlines A target is a date you would like to achieve. A hard deadline records an external commitment. The forecast shows when the recorded work can finish under the current constraints.

Work, time and consequences.

Explore the connected product ↗
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