Project Management

Overview

Project management is essential to all organizations. When implemented effectively, it gives you peace of mind that things are getting managed & done according to expectations. However, it can be a broad and loosely defined discipline, so let’s break it down to concrete actions:

1. Get all your tasks documented & organized in a single place so you can keep track of it. Too often tasks are just talked about in meetings or in casual conversation without any follow up or accountability and they get lost in the shuffle. You must write things down and not rely on memory.

2. Organize your tasks by priorities. You can only do 1 thing at a time. Multi-tasking is the enemy of efficacy. Once you’ve fulfilled your first priority, you can move on to your second priority. But make certain to keep first things first.

3. Once you have priorities and deadlines, create and schedule time blocks in your calendar to complete those tasks. This is a practical step often overlooked in execution.

If this feels like too much because your days are already overflowing with tasks and meetings, then start with tracking your time. What are you actually doing every day? You’ll be amazed when you actually track what you do each day and realize it does not line up with what you think you do each day. This can easily be achieved by tracking your time in your calendar at the end of each day. Or you can get more sophisticated and use a time tracking tool.

Once you’ve tracked your time for a few days or weeks, you’ll notice patterns and identify areas where you can Automate, Delegate, or Eliminate (ADE) work on your plate. The more you can ADE your tasks, the more time you can free up to focus on higher value activities that only you can do. Don’t be afraid to let go of your comfort-zone tasks, these are holding you back from achieving higher value goals. Free yourself using the ADE framework and realize your full potential.

Recommended tools

• Asana project management tool (link)

• Everhour for time tracking (link)

• Eisenhower matrix for prioritization (link)

• Google Calendar for time tracking

• Zapier, Google Sheets, N8N, or other low-code or no-code tools for ADE (link)

• Upwork for hiring administrative support for delegating repeatable work (link)

• Loom for recording processes and repeatable work (link)

• Scribe for documentatig process and repeatable work (link)