Project managers keep their cool under high stress, all while keeping progress moving with several moving parts! These projects can be crucial pieces of new construction or cost thousands of dollars and be on tight deadlines. Keeping each day productive is a challenge requiring some fun technology and productivity tips/ techniques we can use for ourselves!
Productivity tip: The project charter.
Have you ever felt like you were working on a task without all the information you needed to get it right? Or have you tried to get something done with multiple bosses, each with their own idea of how it should look? The project charter was designed to help fix that problem. According to the Project Management Institute a good charter should include all the requirements or final outcomes that should be met, a current schedule of work, any assumptions that were used and what the business needs or expects to gain from the project. Once the charter is finalized, all the people who have any stake in the project or are critical to the outcome might physically sign the document.
Charters can be a massive help to us, although you might not have to be as precise and formal.
- Having a formal document describing the final product or goal, along with a proposed schedule, allows us to get clarity, especially if we have several people who have a say in the outcome.
- While we might not necessarily need to know the financial gain from every task, knowing the “why” of a major task can help us lead a team to success and provide better understanding of how our work impacts the business.
- Plus, having an easy-to-understand schedule gives us the ability to measure if we’re ahead or behind and by how much! If we do get behind it also helps determine if the whole project will shift or if there is an easy catch up plan.
Want to know one of the best tools for scheduling? Then tip two is for you!
Productivity tip: Scheduling
Keeping several different moving pieces going in the right direction, especially if there are multiple projects, can be a challenge. A handy scheduling tool used by project managers is Gantt charts, Gantt.com describes these charts as a tool that allows activities, resources, and people to be placed on a timeline. This ensures no one thing gets over-tasked and shows busier and lighter days.
Especially when working with teams, it’s important for us to have a clear timeline of when we expect to complete the task, and for more complex tasks, the milestones along the way. Providing clarity to everyone involved helps prevent frustration and keeps everyone moving in the right direction and on time! There are many different project management software types available for free online if you’re looking to implement this tip!
Productivity tip: Buffer management
Not everything is going to go perfectly according to plan all the time. A task might take longer than planned to complete, or a piece of equipment might break, leading to a delay. This can affect the overall schedule and timeline.
To help prevent these delays from derailing the project, the concept of buffer management is implemented. According to a conference paper published by Tukel & Rom, buffer management helps to protect the most crucial tasks that keep the project moving with extra time and resources.
Looking at your schedule, where are your busy times and when are you likely to get behind? Planning in some buffer time can provide two key advantages.
- The first being a chance to catch up as a task from prior that ran long can push the rest of the day back. Using some buffer time we can get back on track!
- The second is giving us a chance to take a minute and decompress during the day. If you’ve been keeping on track, using some buffer time to go for a quick walk can help break up the pace of the day and reduce stress.
