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- Hey, thanks for checking out Coffee with Brett.
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All right, so let's jump in today.
Here in the US, the Memorial Day holiday just passed.
So that means for us, it's officially summer.
My kids will be done school in a week,
and then we're off on summer vacation.
I gotta say, I cannot wait to be hiking in Maine
with no projects, no deadlines, meetings,
nothing work-related on my mind at all.
Sounds pretty amazing, right?
Here's the thing.
When I start to think about vacation,
my heart starts to beat fast.
You know why?
When I was a project manager at a digital agency,
I went on a family vacation,
and we were in the middle of a few large projects at work.
You know, nobody had issues with me taking vacation
because we weren't necessarily expecting
any huge presentations or any big challenges
that we could foresee in the way.
And honestly, everyone needs time
to just kind of disconnect, right?
So it felt safe to step away.
And it was, for the most part, and the vacation was awesome.
It was actually my younger daughter's first trip
to Disney World.
So, my wife takes one of our daughters
to a ride at Disney World,
and I decide I'm just gonna sit on the bench
while the baby's sleeping.
Good.
So what do I do?
Of course, just like any other person does,
I pull out my phone and immediately I check my email.
That was my biggest mistake.
You know, I was checked out of work,
and I should've stayed checked out,
but I checked in and I got a couple of emails
from one team member that honestly ruined my day.
So I won't get into the details here,
but despite my best efforts to not work during vacation,
I had to intervene, all from that bench in Disney.
Let's just say I was not so happy
in the happiest place on Earth.
I mean, it took a good 20 minute phone call
to get this person back on track, but it was so ridiculous.
It could have been handled in about nine different ways
that didn't involve me, but hey, that's the life of a PM.
So that situation kind of made me think moving forward,
how should I prepare for my time away
and make sure that my projects are in good shape
so that I can actually enjoy my vacation moving forward?
So what did I do?
I created a personal process for how I set up my projects
just to make sure that I can step away
and actually relax on vacation.
So I thought I'd share
my top three tips with you in this video.
So the first thing that I do is open up all of my projects
in TeamGantt to see what activity will be happening
when I'm planning to be out.
So my wife, Emily, she's an amazing trip planner,
and she's always booking our vacations
months and months in advance,
so that gives me the opportunity to look at things
and even kind of shift our dates
or even shift project dates if needed
to make things fit for my time away.
Generally, I'll move my dates and not the project dates,
but either way, I want to have a firm grasp
of what's going to be happening during my time off
so that I can get everything into a place
where I can actually do the next two things in my list.
But before I'd move on to those next two things, you know,
while I'm checking out those project activities,
I'll typically open up the portfolio view in TeamGantt
so I can see all of my projects at once
and scan that vacation week.
While I'm there, I'll make a quick list
or even a custom board of all of the tasks
that will be happening in that week
and note who's responsible for each task
so that I can follow up with the appropriate team members.
So after I have a grasp on those things,
I'll let my team and my stakeholders know
that I'm going to be out for vacation
during whatever dates that might be.
First, I'll start with my team,
and I'll generally want to approach one person
and ask them if they'll fill in for me that week
with some light project management duties.
I've also done a thing
where I'll ask another project manager from my organization
to step in for me,
but I do want to mention that if you do that,
it might require a little more effort
to onboard that person, a little bit more effort
than it might be worth for you,
especially if your team is really on top of things
and you can trust them to kind of keep things going.
So use your judgment there.
Just know that actually vocalizing
and assigning specific responsibilities is a good idea here
because it'll make people accountable
to those specific tasks, and you want that, right?
You want to leave knowing that somebody's doing the thing
that you said needed to get done.
Generally, the things you'd likely need your stand-in to do
when you're out would be the following, right?
Facilitate any team or client meetings and take notes.
Make sure that you tell them to take notes
because you'll wanna review those notes
when you get back in the office.
Then, you want that person staying on top of action items
that come out of those meetings.
So just make sure that progress is happening
and that things that happen in meetings
aren't just staying in meetings,
but somebody is actually pushing things along.
You'll also want them to manage your plan
and stay on top of task communication
and progress during the time you're away.
If they're on your team and in your TeamGantt account,
that should be super simple.
You might just have to change their permissions in TeamGantt
to make sure that they have the proper access.
This is a tiny but really important detail
because if they don't have access,
you're gonna get that call,
and you don't want that call on vacation.
So, once my team's been notified
and I've sorted everything out,
I'll let my stakeholders know when I'm gonna be out,
and I'll also let them know what the plans are
for any meetings or deliverables
that might be happening while I'm away.
I'll typically just cancel the status meeting
if I'm gone for a week
because it's a little bit more effort
for someone who's not the project manager
to pull that together,
and generally stakeholders are okay
with missing one status report.
But you'll have to do what works for your projects,
for your stakeholders, and for your team
just to make sure that things are moving along
at the pace that you want them to do.
I also just wanna say here that this is your opportunity
to set expectations with everyone about your time off.
Generally, this is what I tell people.
I'll let them know the dates that I'll be away.
I'll let them know that I'm not gonna be on email,
I'm not gonna to be on Slack,
I'm not gonna to be checking in on TeamGantt.
I'm really stepping away from work.
Then I'll name my stand-in,
the person who's gonna take over for me,
and say that they are the first point of contact
for all project-related matters.
I'm of course gonna have my phone with me,
but it's gonna be in my backpack,
and I'm not on call unless it's an emergency.
And really, I can't imagine what an emergency might be
on the types of projects that I work on in my world.
But hey, you gotta let people know that.
So then I'll announce if any meetings
are being postponed or canceled,
or any important things that my stand-in
might have to address while I'm out.
And that's it.
After that, I'm gonna peace out,
but only after I do one more thing,
and that's to send an email to my stand-in
that fills that person in on any possible details
or risks on the project.
This is a kind of peace of mind step
that could take you a few minutes to pull together,
but I also look at this as an expensive insurance
that will be well worth it
because it could save you from disaster while you're away
or from that annoying phone call
while you're sitting on a bench with your kid
or by yourself enjoying a cocktail by the pool, you know?
So my email might contain the following things.
A brief recap on the expectations that we've set verbally,
then a quick recap of each project
and what's going on and what I need them to do
with those projects.
So I'll include things like links to my project plans,
links to our most recent status reports,
a mentioned of important deliverables, tasks, or meetings
that need to happen when I'm out,
and any relevant information related to those things
so that these people have all of the information
they need in one place.
And that's pretty much it.
Like I said, it's all about getting information
into one place, which is so simple
when you're using team TeamGantt,
and you can put everything in one plan,
and then you can set those expectations verbally
and double down on them by sending an email
right before you leave.
That way, you can actually step away.
You can toss your phone in your backpack
and enjoy your time away by yourself,
with your family, with your friends,
no matter who you're with.
You won't have to be bothered by work.
So tell me, are those good tips?
Are those things that you might do
when you leave the office?
Tell me what you do when you leave the office?
How do you make your projects and your teams
don't take a week off with you, right?
Share your tips in the comments.
I'd love to hear what you're doing.
Also, tell me where you're going,
and do they have good coffee?
I would love to hear your recommendations.
So please feel free to leave a comment
in the comments below.
That's it for this episode.
Thanks so much.
Enjoy your time off.
Hopefully you get some time off this summer.
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