One of the most significant challenges for project managers is outlining time management strategies. Managing time effectively is an important part of task management. It helps in breaking down tasks into smaller more manageable jobs and completing the project on time. As a project manager, you need to plan and track all your team’s work, meetings, estimations, and communication with clients and want to achieve all this during your 9-5 work day.
Seems impossible, right? With poor planning, it may seem impossible to fit everything within tight deadlines. That’s why we have curated a list of time management strategies for project managers, so you can better plan your work and make time for everything that needs your attention.
Work on a Well-Defined Project Plan
When you start something without a particular plan, you spend most of your time discussing what to do and how to do it. This chaotic approach could often be the leading cause of misused time in a project. Know in advance what you want to accomplish in a specific timeframe. Quality planning will not only increase the chance that your project will be completed successfully but will also be cost-effective. Start with planning your daily simple to-do list consisting of must-haves and want-to-haves.
Work with Clear Priorities
Having clear priorities set will help you order the tasks according to their importance, urgency, and efforts needed to achieve them. Let us introduce you to one of the famous methods of prioritizing tasks:
- Write down six and only six most important tasks you need to accomplish for the day.
- Rank the tasks in order of importance.
- Follow the “Getting Things Done” method given by David Allen.
- Try and keep your whole team on the same page.
- Try your hands on the Eisenhower Matrix.
Avoid Meetings without a Purpose
Unnecessary meetings are one of the most common time wasters when working on time management strategies for project managers. These meetings could be the ones that were scheduled at the start of any project but become less necessary as time went on but were never struck from the calendar. Use a high-yielding tool like Picktime to handle all your administrative tasks. Picktime is a free appointment scheduling software. From business events to medical to beauty & wellness Picktime serves every business. With Picktime’s streamlined features you can save time and work on the best route for your project.
Using Picktime you get a personalized booking page with a book now button and accept bookings requested through your website. With Picktime calendar sync SMS & email reminders reduce the chances of no-show and get notified about upcoming, canceled, or rescheduled appointments. With simple task management and a user-friendly interface book free unlimited appointments which can be accessed at multiple locations. Using Picktime you get 24×7 email support, gather more leads efficiently, and rich customer experience all in one place with affordable plans.
Set Shorter Deadlines
In most cases, if you allot more time to a task, you’ll end up procrastinating rather than accomplishing it. It’s not just us stating this statement randomly. It’s being said by the famous British naval historian Northcote Parkinson. One technique you can try to overcome this is to set shorter deadlines than expected for yourself. That way you’ll always have a feeling of rush in your head to speed up your process. If you still struggle to force yourself to finish your duties consider taking help from your team members to review and assist you in order to accomplish the set deadlines.
Learn to Delegate
There’s a lot of pressure on project managers when working on time management strategies. This is why delegation is beneficial in time management. In theory delegating may sound easy but passing the tasks to others requires a lot of trust, communication, and coordination. There are times when managers fail to delegate when they think that they could do better or they’re nervous about letting go of control. In these situations, you have to embrace self-enhancement and have faith in your team. Delegating tasks will not only give you extra time but empower your team and assist in your professional development. Points to consider when thinking of delegating:
- Choose the right person thoughtfully
- Provide the detailed instructions
- Explain why you’re delegating
- Provide suitable resources and training
- Always give constructive feedback
Summarize Each Day
It’s as simple to understand as the heading. Having a daily detailed summary of your work can help you discover where you did well and what needs improvement. If you still see some unresolved and untouched tasks on the list try and find solutions for those before leaving for the day. At the end of the day, take a thorough look at the list of priorities you set and tasks you’ve completed. By seeing what you have managed to accomplish you feel motivated for the next day.
Using the above shared time management strategies will help you organize your workday better by getting more done. Within a few days, you’ll notice your productivity has increased all of a sudden, you have more free time and less work-related stress.
