As the previous year was ending, most of us were taking stock of where our work and personal lives were headed and possibly identified a few things we wanted to improve or change. Setting goals is a great idea, but having check-in points to keep yourself accountable is even better. It should be a best practice to check on progress towards the goals you set for yourself.  Failing to do so, you might find yourself staring next year in the eye, setting the same goals again. 

So, are you on track to complete this year’s goals? If you aren’t on your way to completing some, why not? Here are a few reasons you might not be as far along as you hoped:

Other priorities took precedent

Often, priorities change, which is just part of life and business. These quarterly and mid-year check-ins help ensure the change in priorities is actually benefiting the organization (or your personal life, depending on your goal). Take some time to ask yourself why the goals changed part way through the year? Was it due to competitive pressures? Resource constraints? Make sure the stuff that came up took precedence for a good reason, and if not, now is a great time to course-correct and get back on track. Use this mid-year check-in point to reevaluate your goals and see if they still make sense for you, your customers, and the organization. 

Shifting priorities isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, it may well yield better outcomes. This is the time of year to assess and find out!

Achievement timelines and steps to get there weren’t clear

Goals are essential to set personally and professionally. But if you didn’t create a plan to achieve the goal, there are no tangible steps or accountability to measure progress. Goals without a path to get there are just pipe dreams. 

Software like LiquidPlanner makes it easy to create an action plan against your goals. LiquidPlanner helps you estimate timelines by listing tasks and then applying ranged estimations. Detailing out each step with a high – low estimate on how long it will take to complete each task allows you to see when you can realistically achieve your goals.

Turning those goals into real achievements that move your career or company forward is essential. The best way to set up your project for success is to list the tasks needed to achieve the goal, estimate the effort involved, and identify critical milestone dates to stay on track. What are your mid-year milestones?

Budget issues may have gotten in the way

We’ve all had times when no matter how hard we tried to progress on a project or personal goal, a budgeting issue got in the way and forced us to change direction. Maybe you had to shift priorities due to revenue needs on other objectives. Or perhaps role responsibilities shifted due to revenue streams changing. Maybe the expected revenue for the first half of the year didn’t meet our goals to continue funding this project. Perhaps your personal finances shifted from what you anticipated. These are all key reasons why a mid-year check-in is even more necessary. 

You or your organization made those goals on purpose and with much forethought. They are probably still important if they were deemed necessary six months ago. Make sure to take the time to revisit them even when the budget is tight. Or, if the budget increased, has this expanded the possibilities for your goal? Perhaps the plans need adjusting, but be sure to keep the initial intent and desired outcome close. And if some significant changes in the goals are required, don’t move forward without replacing those goals with new ones that better meet your budgeting needs. 

Too many fires to fight

Sometimes, you may be faced with too many fires to fight simultaneously. Or, perhaps you set too many personal goals to achieve realistically. Balancing too much can leave us setting aside some or all of our long-term goals. When an organization constantly fights fires or when we take on more than we can realistically handle, long-time priorities may get overlooked or tossed out the window to solve the current stressors. Focus is king. 

So now that we are at mid-year, let’s assess the situation. Did we prioritize too many short-term fires at the sake of our long-term goals? Can we get back to making progress on those goals? Are the fires under control, and can we resume making progress on our resolutions? Even if the fires are still ongoing, can we develop some strategies to focus on achieving the most important goals? It’s equally important to make those career or organizational progress even when project tasks seem to be taking over.

Aren’t using the appropriate tools to track progress

If you aren’t even sure if you’re on track to complete your goals, then project management software may be the key to helping your team stay organized and on schedule. Often teams think they can plan projects in Excel to track the progress of their portfolio of projects. But this process becomes cumbersome when you manually change the project plan. When one priority shifts, all other projects in the pipeline need to shift with it – especially when you have shared resources. Project Management software can account for changes in resource constraints, priorities, or other timeline shifts that simple excel software cannot automate.  Not all project management software can automate projected timelines like this, so it’s essential to do your research to invest in one that can help make your job easier. LiquidPlanner is one tool that builds automation into the product to save your organization time and energy on manual task updates. A small investment in PM software can go a long way.

Sometimes, the easiest thing to do is attack the issues at hand and abandon our long-term  goals. When we only focus on short-term needs, it becomes easy to lose track of our goals for ourselves or the organization. We may never grow the organization or ourselves by making progress on the big things because we get weighed down by the trivial. You can end up looking back on the year and thinking you made no progress at all. Save yourself the heartache by taking the time to have a mid-year check-in to reset priorities and stay on track. 

Brad Egeland is a Business Solution Designer and IT/PM consultant and author with over 25 years of software development, management, and project management experience. He has been named the “#1 Provider of Project Management Content in the World” with over 7,000 published articles, ebooks, white papers and videos. Brad is married, a father of 11, and living in sunny Las Vegas, NV.

The post Time to Check-in on Your Mid-Year Goals appeared first on LiquidPlanner.

I’ll be honest, the expectations of the role have broadened since I became a project manager. One thing has stayed the same though: ambitious leaders want to know how to be better at the job and how to affect more change in their organizations.

Are you that ambitious leader? If you are looking for tips for being a next-level project manager – someone who can get things done and is on the fast track for promotion – then read on. I have seven tips to share that will help you take your career to the next level and make more of a difference at work.

1. Focus on value

Look at what people are finding valuable and do more of that. It doesn’t matter how you define ‘valuable’ as it’s going to be different for each project and each organization. What does matter is that you seek out feedback.

Talk to stakeholders about how they are judging the project’s success and what benefits they are expecting. If you know what people want to get out of your work, you can make better decisions about how to deliver it.

In addition, you can surface that information in your project reporting to present intelligent insights that give stakeholders what they are looking for.

2. Look for strategic fit

If your project doesn’t support the overall strategic objectives for your organization, why are you doing it?

Being focused on the right work is important to show that you are contributing both as an individual and also on behalf of your project. Make sure you understand how your project fits into the bigger picture. Perhaps it is part of a program or portfolio. Perhaps it underpins one or more strategic aims or objectives. Perhaps it is simply some executive’s pet project that snuck in under the radar and you can’t really evidence why it’s happening at all.

The reason this is important is so that you can prioritize your time effectively on the projects that add the most strategic value.  Prioritization of projects across the portfolio helps to shape your project to better achieve that goal. For example, you might be able to get some benefits early if you reorganize workstreams. The team might be able to tap into new technology being launched by another department if you understand cross-departmental dependencies.

Most importantly, you can frame risk and issue management plans in the language that business leaders understand which should make it easier for you to secure their support.

3. Choose the right tool for the job

Too often, I see teams scanning ‘best buy’ lists and to make a strategic decision on which tool to invest in. If you want to next-level your project management game, you need to go back to basics and think about what you want a tool to do for you.

As with any project, start with your requirements. How are you going to use it? What problem are you trying to solve? For me, the biggest challenge is keeping up with changing priorities and trying to create a reliable schedule when it feels like we don’t really have a clear grip on what needs to happen. (Yes, there are tools that can help in that situation – LiquidPlanner is one that excels in automating timelines amidst changing priorities.)

4. Spend time horizon scanning

Another common problem with the way projects are managed is that often a lot of project management is retrospective. We look backwards at what has happened: through reporting, root cause analysis, and lessons learned.

Project managers should spend at least the same amount of time looking forward. Put some time aside individually and with your team to scan the horizon for what’s coming. Look for potential risks, issues, and changes. Talk about what dependencies are outstanding and anything new that you have learned.

Proactive project management like this can help make you better at forecasting uncertainty. The more aware you are of what is coming, the easier it is to feel ready for it.

5. Build your network

You don’t have to know everything, but it helps to know others who will have the answers. Build your internal and external network so you have a wide web of connections in your organization and industry.

This also helps you maintain an externally focused approach to projects. When there is a change proposed, for example, you will be more easily able to see the potential impacts on other teams because you know those teams’ pain points and competencies.

Be the person who says, “who else needs to know about this?” during every meeting and then make a few calls.

6. Improve your power skills

Power skills – according to PMI – are empathy, communication and collaboration. And they are essential for project managers. Teams led by people who display and model those skills are more likely to succeed.

Given that PMI’s research shows that high complexity projects can have an average of 24 team members, you can see why being able to engage and work with others is high on the list of must-have skills.

7. Go home on time

A next-level project manager is someone who has the mental capacity to operate at their best every day. Erica Ariel Fox argues in Forbes that we should ditch the term work/life balance and switch to life/work balance instead, which makes sense to me. Otherwise, it’s very easy to find that there is no time for life because it’s all work.

Get enough sleep. Look after your mental health and that of the team. Manage stress in the ways that work best for you. And most importantly, set a good example for your team to do the same.

Organizations benefit most when team members are sharp, well-rested and able to bring their best selves to work, whatever that looks like each day.

Being a next-level project manager is all about looking for opportunities to make a difference in your organization by delivering efficiently, effectively and in a way that supports the strategic objectives. It’s easier than you think to stand out. Try these tips and let us know how you get on!

About the Author

Elizabeth Harrin is author of Managing Multiple Projects and several other books. She is founder of Project Management Rebels, a membership community for project managers who want to deliver with more confidence and less stress.

The post 7 Tips for Becoming a Next-Level Project Manager appeared first on LiquidPlanner.

• I never have enough time in a day
• I don’t manage my time well enough
• I was a lousy worker/parent/student because I didn’t do this task today

I’ve succumbed to the idea that I only have a ‘good’ day if I have checked enough tasks off my to-do list. Well, that extra pressure you’re putting on yourself to achieve a certain level of productivity is probably making things worse and will lead to burnout faster. 

Burnout is prevalent today, with 49% of the workforce feeling at least somewhat burned out.¹  Yet paradoxically, time management tactics and tools often increase the stress we face rather than reducing it.²  This is because many time management techniques attempt to squeeze more tasks into our days. We optimize our time and then feel pressured to accomplish an even longer list of tasks before addressing the root issues. 

If your mindset is ‘productivity or bust,’ you need to address the root problem of your negative time management mindset. Here are five time management techniques to prevent burnout and reframe your negative perspective on time management.

1. Struggling with perfectionism? Try the 80/20 rule

If you’re like me, you set higher standards for yourself than anyone else. So when we think we fall short, we tend to create this narrative that our work isn’t good enough. But balancing perfection with appropriate time management solutions should be the goal which is my version of the 80/20 rule. There is no need to let perfection be the enemy of good!

The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, states that 80% of results come from 20% of the effort. In other words, when you’ve spent 20% of the time working on your task, you’re already 80% finished. There is clearly a diminishing return on your time after 20% of the effort. So instead of spending 8 hours on that project to make it perfect, could it be ‘good enough’ in 3 hours or less?

There are many root causes of burnout, one of which is perfectionism. A study of physicians noticed that self-critical perfectionism is uniquely predicted by high emotional exhaustion and burnout.³  This is an excellent example of how a poor time management technique can cause burnout. Shifting your mindset to be less critical can take some time, but is worth the effort.  Preventing burnout and creating a healthier mindset around time management is essential.

2. Start your day by accomplishing the most challenging task

Historically, I’ve started my day by completing the easiest tasks first. I created this narrative that my brain isn’t firing on all cylinders before my morning coffee kicks in. This is a false story I’ve told myself for years. In fact, I often think about that difficult task in the back of my head all morning, distracting myself from clearer thinking which is critical for maximizing productivity.

Procrastination is something we have all succumbed to. Getting started on a difficult task is half the battle. So, instead of procrastinating and letting that difficult task loom over your head, tackle it immediately. This could even boost your confidence to complete your other tasks more efficiently.

Don’t fall into the trap of putting off a task for multiple days. When this happens, ask yourself, why am I avoiding this task? When I defer complex work, it looms over me after working hours. Waiting to start that problematic project until later in the day or week is a poor time management technique that will only add extra stress, and contribute to burnout.

3. Schedule no meeting days

My favorite work days are now Tuesdays because they are my no-meeting days. I look forward to these days because I know I will have more uninterrupted time to accomplish my work. I have found that getting into a groove of my work is easier if I know I don’t have other set obligations that will break up my time.

One meeting free day each week may not be possible, depending on your role or industry. If this is the case, try asking yourself why. Is it because you think you can’t ask for this from your manager, colleagues, or customers? Can you move recurring meetings to another day? This doesn’t need to be the same day each week. Perhaps it can move around depending on your weekly workload and schedule. If you feel like one day a week is impossible, try a 3-hour time block twice a week instead.

It’s essential to keep your boundaries firm on your no meeting time as much as possible. If you find it difficult to say no, your people-pleasing tendencies may be the root cause of this time management problem. Sometimes you need the flexibility to drop everything to help someone out. But you don’t need to do it every time. One company I worked for implemented no meeting Fridays to address team burnout. For the first few weeks, it worked splendidly. But after two months, it was common to have team meetings on Fridays again. Find the courage to set boundaries and explain why they benefit you and the organization. Take the time to celebrate the freedom achieved, health benefits realized and productivity gained.  Active and tangible illustrations will reinforce the new boundaries as both credible and effective. Over time they will become components of the team work practices and revered as a positive component of company culture.

4. Avoid phone distractions

A study found that the average person unlocks their phone 110 times daily.⁴ I often unlock my phone without a destination in mind to feel a connection or to entertain myself. You may think this serotonin boost helps to provide a quick break. But this is likely another form of procrastination. And we know procrastination increases our stress levels, leading to burnout more quickly.

If you find yourself picking up your phone throughout the day when you don’t need to – try putting your phone out of reach. One fear may be that you need to have your phone on hand in case someone calls or texts you that you need to address immediately. My solution to this issue is a smartwatch. You don’t need to spend $400 on an Apple watch for this time management technique to work. A lower-cost option like Fitbit runs off Bluetooth. So when your phone is nearby, a notification can be sent to your watch to alert you.

An even better (and free) alternative time management technique is to activate your personal phone’s “do not disturb” setting during critical working times.  You can even deploy a “pro” tactic and set specific contacts to be allowed notifications when your phone is in “do not disturb” mode. This way, you can simultaneously be available for those important contacts while also focusing your time and attention on your tasks.

5. Don’t check in on work outside of working hours

Early in my career, I got into the habit of checking emails outside of working hours. In my first job, I was an analyst consultant and was expected to respond to our clients promptly. I was eager to please and mistook the “respond promptly” guideline as an expectation to reply to emails even outside of working hours. Sound familiar?

Like you, I was motivated to start strong with my new employer and excited to establish rapport with assigned clients. In doing so, I overstepped personal boundaries to please both my clients and my manager. Always being ‘on’ happened gradually, and over time became a habit. This constant pressure of always being available during personal time can lead to burnout faster because it interrupts time to relax and recuperate. When you’re burned out, it’s more challenging to manage time in and out of working hours appropriately. Do yourself the favor of not checking emails until the next business day to prevent burnout before it happens.

Good time management techniques are strongly associated with positive mental health indicators such as lower stress levels and a healthy work-life balance – ultimately freeing you up to do better work and be more fulfilled doing it! These time management techniques help you optimize your time in and outside of working hours to reduce stress and anxiety levels.

A great solution to optimize these time management techniques more efficiently is LiquidPlanner. One of the core product features is creating and maintaining a balanced workload. You’ll know right away if you’ve signed yourself up for too much work each week. The automatic resource scheduler enables prioritization of tasks and changes with a simple drag and drop are reflected across your work in real time so you can maintain a balanced workload each week. LiquidPlanner can also help you reduce the stress of delivering against timelines. The predictive scheduling engine estimates when tasks will be complete with 90% confidence, so you don’t have to fret about delivering your projects late. The software makes it easy to apply these time management techniques to your daily life. Address the root causes of your poor time management routines with LiquidPlanner to create a sustained and healthy relationship with your limited time.

About the Author

Missy Day has over ten years of experience developing and executing marketing strategies for various industries. She runs and operates her marketing consulting firm and various other small business ventures. She also specializes in burnout management and prevention for other corporate professionals. 

Footnotes

¹ https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/coronavirus-leading-through-the-crisis/charting-the-path-to-the-next-normal/employee-burnout-is-ubiquitous-alarming-and-still-underreported
² https://hbr.org/2021/06/time-management-wont-save-you
³ https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1366911/v2/0bd30b10-c58d-46fd-a33f-0e99f1c033d2.pdf?c=1648480090
⁴ https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/how-many-times-do-you-unlock-your-phone-every-day-c6971627223c

The post Time Management Techniques to Prevent Burnout appeared first on LiquidPlanner.

Exciting news! – setting dependencies between plan items just got easier with dependency chaining. In addition to this Release 31 update, we’ve expanded upon filtering options with the new ASAP task filter. Visibility is also increased in portfolio, package, and project views by surfacing inherited custom data values and target dates in columns. Other updates include showing scheduled hours in workload view, changes to access roles, and consolidating the actions available when using the right-click/3-dot menu.

Dependency Chains

Easily visualize the sequence of phases and skip going to the edit panel with dependency chaining. Set dependencies directly from portfolio, package, project, and grid views. 

NEW: Quickly create relationships between tasks and containers by selecting multiple items and using the right-click/3-dot menu. After opening the menu, click “Create Dependencies” to chain the items together in top-down order. 

ASAP Task Filtering

NEW: See which tasks have an elevated priority in the workspace with the new ASAP task filter. This filter option is available in the following areas within the task status filter menu: 

• Widgets in Dashboards
• Board View
• Project View
• Timesheet Export

Learn more about ASAP scheduling here: ASAP TASK SCHEDULING.

Custom Field Inheritance

NEW: Custom field values set on a parent package, project, or subfolder can now be inherited by the sub-items within the higher-level container. To set inheritance on custom fields, go to Administration in the left-side navigation and select the Custom Data tile.

Increased Visibility

Custom Data Fields: View item metrics alongside custom data in portfolio, project, and grid views, as well as in the timesheet export. Following recent work on custom field inheritance, inherited custom data values appear grayed out in columns. 

Target Dates: Inherited target start and finish dates are surfaced in columns when in portfolio, package, project, and grid views. Inherited target dates appear in gray.

Workload View: Get insight into a member’s workload at a glance. In workload view, hover over a workload bar to see the number of hours scheduled for a specific task on that day.

Access Controls

CHANGED: In the time tracking modal, the user interface has been updated in Release 31 to more clearly reflect read-only access for project observers. 

FIXED: Workspace members with project editor access were previously unable to open links saved on a container’s custom field. This was brought to our attention by one of our users – thank you!

Right-Click/3-Dot Menu

CHANGED: When multiple items are selected in portfolio, package, and project views, the right-click and 3-dot menu adjusts to only show actions that can be applied to multiple items. 

The post New Updates | Release 31 Summary appeared first on LiquidPlanner.

The post Why You Need To Be Part of the Artificial Intelligence Revolution appeared first on LiquidPlanner.

What is your relationship with time tracking?

How well do the people on your project team manage their time? Are deadlines frequently or infrequently missed? “Procrastination is perpetuated by good intentions combined with bad habits.”² Procrastinators can inadvertently sabotage themselves by putting off difficult or challenging tasks until tomorrow. It is human nature to dodge discomfort, uncertainty, or change. The trick is to put effective time tracking techniques and systems in place to trick ourselves – to trick our brains – into staying on task when we need them to.³

By contrast, our relationship with time management is not necessarily unique and can be commonly held. Typically, people in the West say that time is money. Cultures and organizations that hold a black and white perception of punctuality are said to be monochronic. People comfortable with this form of time usage are task oriented and emphasize the value of being prompt. Polychronic culture places a different emphasis on time that might be seen as more emotional and event driven. “Their concept of time is free-flowing, and changes depending on each situation. Distractions and interruptions are a natural part of life, and have to be taken in stride.”⁴

Consider time management software

Systems and tools such as LiquidPlanner serve as a means to bring together diverse groups, so they are literally on the same page. A dedicated and purpose-built platform enables collaboration in a manner that is not possible using something simpler like Microsoft Excel. For example, a bespoke tool ensures good data quality, so insight is relevant, timely, and actionable. To be clear, when time management is a concern, a best-in-class software solution can swiftly solve these time tracking challenges. By employing a dynamic scheduling engine that is integrated with time tracking, your project schedules are updated in real-time as progress is logged. Notably, LiquidPlanner offers this functionality and enhanced planning intelligence, enabling teams to both visualize where time has been spent and optimize future workload plans or forecasts – ultimately reducing your risk of error and delay. 

When it comes to time management skills, it is human nature to underestimate the time taken to complete a task. The effect of this psychological phenomenon⁵ can be mitigated in several ways. Rather than estimating a single completion target, one effective tactic is to provide teams the ability to report a range of possible completion dates. LiquidPlanner not only satisfies this need, it also offers this functionality to all team members, at any stage during project delivery, when better information emerges. Such dynamic ranged estimates can be subsequently employed by modern tools like LiquidPlanner to generate predictive insight where it is possible for “group superforecasting methods to achieve 80-85 percent accuracy.”⁶

Finally, it can be noted that dedicated project management tools also provide teams the ability to capture insight consistently, or reference class⁷ data, that allows them to learn more effectively from past experience, make more accurate estimates, and better manage what everyone may agree is the most precious of scarce resources: time.

Is your project team empowered to create time management techniques that better enable all individuals to successfully meet your project and business commitments? If you have not tried it already, LiquidPlanner can help teams better communicate revised forecasts and more effectively navigate uncertainty in the face of known and emerging risks.

About the Author

With more than 20 years’ professional experience, James Arrow has played a key role in successfully delivering critical capital assets, in a variety of locations, around the world. Having had the opportunity to work with diverse teams across the globe, James is well-versed on project best practices and applies exceptional communication skills to lead multi-disciplinary teams. An effective hands-on team-player, James is also an acclaimed writer and speaker on topics concerning project risk management, data analytics, data science, including digital disruption in the engineering and construction sector. In recent years, on several occasions, James has been formally recognized by his peers for his contributions to the profession.

Footnotes

¹ Ralph Sawyer, and Mei-chun Lee Sawyer. Sun Tzu the Art of War. 500AD. New York, NY, Barnes & Noble, 1994.
² Combs, Jeffery. The Procrastination Cure: 7 Steps to Stop Putting Life Off. Pompton Plains, NJ, Career Press, 2011.
³ Levitin, Daniel J. The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload. New York, NY, Penguin Random House, 2014.
⁴ Group, United Language. “Do You Experience Polychronic or Monochronic Time?” Www.unitedlanguagegroup.com, 2022, www.unitedlanguagegroup.com/blog/polychronic-monochronic-time#:~:text=Polychronic%20means%20a%20culture%20does%20many%20things%20at. Accessed 14 June 2022.
⁵ Wikipedia Contributors. “Planning Fallacy.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 8 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_fallacy. Accessed 14 June 2022.
⁶ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, And Medicine (U.S.). Emerging Trends and Methods in International Security: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC, National Academies Press, 2018.
⁷ Wikipedia contributors. “Reference Class Problem.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 14 Dec. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_class_problem. Accessed 14 June 2022.

The post Creating Personal Time Tracking Techniques appeared first on LiquidPlanner.

An analogy may help: If a project is a recipe, resource planning is the process of coordinating the requisite ingredients, kitchen utensils, and cooks to deliver dishes to customers in the most efficient and quality way possible.

What is the challenge of resource management?

In truth, a good recipe is only the beginning. The next step is planning which and how many resources are required during specific time frames. A project manager must then continuously monitor those resources for availability, utilization, and cost. The dilemma of resource management is this: projects have demanding requirements and deadlines, but the resources used to fulfill those requirements are finite. In today’s climate, project teams are expected to do more with less.

Sadly, many companies fail at this challenge. In the IT industry—where companies often manage hundreds of projects at a time—failure rates are particularly high. Gartner predicts that 80 percent of IT organizations will reach “resource breaking points” due to time constraints and other pressures¹. Across all industries, the speed of innovation demands efficient resource management. Without the right tools for managing resources across your portfolio of projects and identifying bottlenecks and risk early on, managers are likely to fail to deliver.

The solution

The right project management software provides a visualization of resource availability, helps you distribute work across finite resources, and minimizes duration of projects by maximizing use of resources. Effective project management software increases efficiency both in the planning phase and in continued optimization during the project. Many project management (PM) systems, especially those designed for project and portfolio management (PPM), provide built-in tools for planning, allocating, and managing project resources. Common features in a resource management module include:

• Visual resource planning
• Capacity planning
• Demand planning
• Real-time analytics and forecasting
• “What-if” simulations
• Skill matching and skill repositories

Some resource planning tools are available as standalone products, while others are integrated with larger PM or PPM suites. Depending on your needs and what software you may already have, either of these could be a good fit.

There are several ways PM software can help you better allocate and manage resources at different points during the project lifecycle. Here are three:

1. Better time management

A project management system with resource management gives you complete, up-to-the-minute visibility into the division of your workforce on macro and micro levels. For example, visual resource planning shows what your resources are working on and when. Most project management tools also give you the ability to drill down to the granular level, where you can assess schedule availability. This helps you avoid creating a bottleneck on one individual resource constraint which would inevitably delay the project delivery timeline.

2. Intelligence-driven decisions

Some of a project manager’s most challenging decisions are about how to prioritize all the moving pieces in a project or portfolio of projects. Prioritization, of course, is directly tied to resource allocation. Allocation mistakes can be extremely costly to a company if they happen on a large scale. The best project management software takes the guesswork out of resource allocation by helping you plan and prioritize based on data updated in real-time. Capacity and demand planning reconcile the volume of work that needs to be done with your resources actual capacity (usually in hours). You can also run tests or “what-if” scenarios by plugging in variables and letting the system predict their impact (such as a material shortage, or changing priorities). Once you’ve seen the data, you can decide how to best allocate resources to yield the optimal results. Check out how LiquidPlanner’s resource management software has helped Victualic create a competitive advantage.

3. Real-time resource optimization

We all know that priorities and market pressures cause teams to change their project timelines constantly. Almost as soon as you define your resource allocation schedule, you can expect it to change. This means your distribution of materials and equipment will also need to change . Keeping up with today’s pace of change and making  end-to-end adjustments manually is painstaking, if not impossible. Good software, on the other hand, automates this process for you, enabling capacity and flexibility to meet ever evolving project timelines. Some sophisticated project management solutions can drag and drop resource assignments with a few clicks. And if you’re using a cloud-based solution like LiquidPlanner, all relevant stakeholders will have access to the updated timeline immediately. This automated information flow is critical to effective collaboration and to ensure each member of the team knows what to work on and when. 

These are only a few ways project management software can improve your resource management strategy. You can also expect to see more accurate job costing, the ability to give your teams more autonomy, and a better understanding of the interdependencies between projects and resources. With today’s reality of hybrid work for many teams, software that delivers this is increasingly important.

A well-balanced resource planning portfolio is only made possible by an optimized resource schedule. Project management software happens to be the most useful tool in the industry for accomplishing this.

Did this article inspire you to learn more about how to manage project resources like a pro? Share with us how project management software has helped your team plan and use resources more efficiently.

Footnotes

¹ https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/the-data-center-is-almost-dead

The post 3 Ways Project Management Software Helps With Resource Planning appeared first on LiquidPlanner.

This is not necessarily so. To help you break free of striving to master time management skills that don’t deliver what they might promise, here’s a list of the most common time management myths. 

Myth #1: There’s a magical finish line.

Forget the idea that all your tasks will ever be completely finished once and for all. You (and your team) are never going to check all of your tasks off of your to-do list, and that’s okay. According to Liana Sayer, the director of the University of Maryland’s Time Use Laboratory, many people who are employed, married, a parent, or a college graduate feel shorter on time today than people in those situations did several decades ago.  A better way to look at “reaching the end-goal” is to make sure you’re on top of prioritizing the work that needs to be done first. An effective time management strategy helps you make deliberate choices that move us toward the most important outcomes. Productivity will never be measured by what’s left undone. Your focus is better spent on the quality and impact of tasks accomplished, rather than the number of tasks completed.

Myth #2: A to-do list is an effective time management technique.

To-do lists may help you to organize all of your tasks in one place. But they won’t actually make you more productive. In fact, this kind of list keeping can often be a way you trick yourself into thinking you have accomplished something when you haven’t actually progressed on any of your tasks. In fact, the Harvard Business Review’s Daniel Markovitz states, “Stop making to-do lists. They’re simply setting you up for failure and frustration.”

This time management myth of to-do lists gives the illusion of furthering a project or task along. However, lists are in fact, only intentions of productivity rather than an effective solution to time management. Markovitz suggests, “Take your tasks off the to-do list, estimating how much time each of them will consume, and transfer them to your calendar. Don’t forget to leave time to check and respond to your emails and Slack messages. And leave some empty space—one to two hours—each day for focused thought or, worse case, to deal with the inevitable fire drills that will crop up. In essence, instead of a to-do list, you’re making a production plan for your work.”

Myth #3: Emails, calls or sudden deadlines are distractions.

Emails, phone calls, meetings, notifications: these are indisputable parts of today’s working world. Even calling them “distractions” minimizes the importance of this kind of collaborative work. Instead, let’s think of them as “obligations.” The ability to respond to colleagues in a timely fashion, be on hand for in-person interactions or occasionally reboot your schedule is important with any job. Effective time management means you can manage your schedule well enough to be flexible and responsive without getting completely sidetracked by other priorities.

For example, if your manager likes to email new ideas and goals late at night, give yourself extra time in the mornings to respond. Conversely, if you know your best writing or coding time is first thing in the morning, silence these distractions and block off your calendar in the morning. Make sure you communicate this schedule to your team so they know that you can attend to calls and emails later in the day. Managing the flow of communication is an essential tool for your time management strategies.

Myth #4: A perfect time management strategy exists.

There really is no single magic bullet for managing your time more effectively. So many factors—from your company’s culture to management timelines to your own inner clock—affect how and when you are able to get your work done. The best way to improve time management for yourself, and for your team, is to make small, incremental changes. Begin with short-term goals: practice adding working time into your calendar, set aside one day a week to return calls or non-pressing emails, or even book a free hour for last minute meetings into every afternoon. Over the course of a few weeks, you’ll see what changes work best for you and your team as you implement them. Then, adjust accordingly.

Myth #5: Undivided focus is king.

One of the most cited time management myths is that successful outcomes come from hours and hours of completely focused, uninterrupted time. The reality is that creativity and productivity can respond best to routine. The best way to achieve a large goal is to break it up into manageable tasks and complete those tasks on schedule. Always plan some extra time beyond what you think you’ll need. Try to get into a rhythm of work that suits your internal clock, and be consistent about achieving daily goals.

If you need help creating an effective time management strategy, try using LiquidPlanner for your daily workload. LiquidPlanner helps you know when work will be completed with 90% confidence with our predictive scheduling engine. By estimating timelines with a best-case – worst-case estimate, you’ll feel more confident with your project timelines. And you’ll know exactly what you need to work on to meet those deadlines. You can try us for free today!

There are a lot of rules, types and best practices around how to manage time effectively. As a result, there are a lot of time management myths. Don’t fall for the fact that there is a “best way” to manage your time, and stay rooted in realism. Find what works for you, and master it.

Tell us a time management myth you’ve turned on its head. Please share your favorite trick for managing your time most effectively?

The post 5 Time Management Myths (Updated for 2022) appeared first on LiquidPlanner.

The post Calming Project Management Anxiety appeared first on LiquidPlanner.