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>> Jennifer Whitt: Hello, I’m Jennifer Whitt, Director of ProjectManager.com.
Well, welcome to our whiteboard session today on the top ten project time management tips
of all time.
So, have you found yourself at the end of the day sitting at your desk and everyone
else passes you by, waving, going home?
Are you the one that’s, on Friday afternoon, someone drops by an important report that
has to be completed by Monday morning and you’re left there working all weekend?
Well, if you’re one of those ones, then trust me, we’ve all been there.
I have too.
So what I’ve learned for myself and what I want to share with you today, one of the
keys is really establishing good habits.
So how do we do that?
Here, I think, are the top ten.
Number one is purging clutter.
So clutter can be anywhere from unnecessary documents to books to things that are stored.
Just throw it away.
Get rid of it.
Go through everything.
If it’s not needed now, just get rid of it.
Archive it.
Store it.
Get rid of it so that it’s not in your sight.
If you’re like me, I see my little stacks and if I’m trying to focus on one thing
I keep looking at my stacks thinking “There’s something over there I’ve got to do.”
So it diverts my attention and pulls me away from things that I need to get done by a certain
specific time.
The second one is avoid energy suckers and toxic people.
You know who they are.
They’re the people who come by your desk and just go on and on and on about some problem
or some drama they want you to either fix or change.
But it’s constantly sucking your energy, taking your focus away from things that have
to get done.
Guess what?
It’s eating at your time while your clock is ticking away.
Number three, establish systems.
So, it doesn’t matter if it’s paper systems or electronic system.
Pick one.
I actually use a blend.
I’ve gone from using a day-timer system to literal calendars on the wall to trying
to be all electronic.
So I’ve found for myself is I really need a blend of those.
So find what works for you and establish some form of system in place that you can track
your time.
Number four, block out working time.
Go ahead on your calendar throughout, if you know, if starting in January through the end
of the year, if you have set meetings, schedules, things that you know are going to occur, go
ahead and block that time out on your calendar, because you know you’ve already committed
to that.
So you need to make sure to protect it so that nothing else can come over or overlap
that time.
The other one is block non-working time.
So, it doesn’t matter if you get up in the mornings and you meditate or you work out,
whether you do it in the mornings or the afternoon or maybe even lunchtime.
Maybe you schedule a walk during lunch or maybe going to read a book or listen to music.
Block that time out and vacations.
Vacations – we find out that most people don’t even take vacations because they haven’t
planned for them.
They haven’t put them on the calendar.
So what we find is if we get things on the calendar we more likely get those things done.
Number six, sync your devices.
So have you ever found yourself in a meeting where someone’s trying to schedule a meeting
and you’re not real sure because maybe you have your iPhone but maybe you haven’t been
syncing it with your computer or your laptop?
So you over book yourself.
If you keep everything synced, nowadays there is specific software that can sync from your
smartphone to your computer to your laptop and now there are certain systems, project
management software that will sync with that as well.
Number seven, allow calendar access.
If you allow calendar access to those who need it, people who you authorize and trust,
maybe people on your teams or maybe family, they can have access to your calendar.
And see blocked out time so that they know not to plan or overbook or commit you to something
that you have already committed to.
Number eight, say “no”.
It’s a hard thing to practice and it’s a hard thing to say, and as project managers
we try to typically accommodate everyone.
But the best thing that we can do to work in our favor is set boundaries and practice
saying “no”.
A lot of times people think they have to justify why they’re saying “no”, and no, you
don’t.
“No” can be a complete sentence.
So if someone asks you something or wants you to commit to something just say “No…”
and just leave it at that.
A long pause.
You don’t have to explain, because if you explain then someone may try to find a solution,
how you cannot do that and accommodate them.
So they try to problem solve for you on your behalf.
You don’t want that.
So, set boundaries and just say no.
Number nine, stop drive-bys.
You know those people that come by and they drop the hot potato?
They’re the people who come by your desk on Friday afternoon, maybe they’ve held
something all week and they leave it for you Friday afternoon to get done by Monday morning
which leaves you working weekends.
So just avoid that.
Just put a stop to it.
Avoid people coming by, allowing them to drop the hot potato in your lap.
Number ten, change routines.
Routines do change and when your routines change then change everything.
If you are no longer working out in the morning, change your calendar.
If you no longer have certain meetings, change your calendar.
Things change over time.
I mean, depending upon what work or what projects that I have, the systems change, and all of
this has to change accordingly.
Keep it up to date.
The bonus is how to break bad habits.
Well, we usually lose track of our time and we find ourselves working overtime, weekends,
holidays because we’ve established bad habits.
Because sometimes we’re watching others who have bad habits too, so we’re modeling
or we’re copying what they do.
So other people don’t necessarily have good habits.
We don’t want to mimic or we don’t want to model those.
So if there’s intimidation in your work environment or there’s peer pressure to
work late…
You’ve seen it.
We’ve all been in those environments where the culture is to work through lunch, work
long hours, or work holidays and weekends.
That’s a bad habit.
We don’t have to do it.
So, break the habits.
If there’s intimidation or peer pressure in your environment, then get over it.
Protect yourself.
It’s up to you to protect yourself.
Establish good habits and then you can control your time management.
At ProjectManager.com we’ve tried to tie in these ten tips into our time management
system of our software.
So if you need any tips, tools, or techniques to help you better manage your time then visit
us at ProjectManager.com
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