[Music Intro]
>>>Hello.
I'm Jennifer Whitt, Director of ProjectManager.com.
Welcome today to our whiteboard session on Task Management Tips.
So even though we're project managers, can you relate to having trouble managing your
own task with all the chaos going on projects, all the things that are constantly changing?
Well, there are six things that we want to bring to you today that maybe you may find
helpful as well.
So number one is establishing systems.
We feel like it's very important to establish a system.
Who, what, when, where, how, and being able to access that online.
So establishing who is going to be responsible for identifying the tasks, estimating the
task, how is it going to be done, where is it going to be done?
So that information can get based on in the project plan.
Number two is performing sanity checks.
A lot of times, I don't know about you but I look on my list and some of the things that
have gotten on my task list don't even have anything to do with the project.
So people calling me, emailing me, giving me things to do that can get me off track
if I'm not watching closely.
So I get to where I perform a sanity check and say, "Is this on my project or related?
If it is then great.
If it isn't I need to evaluate should it go on the project plan and if it does I need
to get it incorporated and re-baseline if appropriate.
Number three, estimate realistically and baseline promptly.
Again, evaluating with the sanity check are tasks that are on my list are they really
on the project plan?
Seeing if I estimated those, a lot of times I get tasks that maybe I've never done before,
maybe someone else had done this task in the past and I just don't have the experience
or maybe even the training, so I found myself having estimated that task incorrectly.
So if later I find out it's going to need more time, then again it's raising that issue,
estimating things realistically but re-baselining promptly so I myself don't get off track in
the project.
Number four, escalating timely and that's really calling out for help.
So a lot of times there are things that we get involved in, maybe we're waiting on information
from someone else so that we can finish our task and if we don't get it in time, then
we find ourselves the one on the critical path holding up the project.
So we need to escalate timely.
Number five is requesting support.
Again, we can find ourselves working on things that maybe we need help on or support on,
getting issues addressed, issues handled.
So it's important to request support when we need it.
Then number six, very important is identifying resources that we may need.
A lot of the projects we do are new so they've never been done before.
Maybe some of the things that we're engaged in doing we've never done before.
So it's important to identify who, what, when, where, what do I need, what do you need to
succeed?
Identifying whether it's training, whether it's someone else maybe with a certain skills
set that's required for the project maybe that you don't have that you need, someone
you need to delegate to.
Bringing an outside contractor or someone from a different group to assist.
So these are six things that I found for myself to be helpful in helping me manage my own
tasks for the project so I can help keep the main project on track.
At ProjectManager.com, we've incorporated these best practices for task management into
our system.
So if you need any tips, tools, or techniques to help you manage your task more effectively,
then visit us at ProjectManager.com.