Ask A PM: How to Convince My Team to Use Time TrackingDear Elizabeth: I’m trying to implement time tracking with my team. The most difficult aspect is changing people’s perception and getting buy in to do the timesheets. In the past, managing and reporting time was never required, but our company has moved on in project management maturity and in the work we do. Now we...
Ask a PM: How to Juggle Everything without Overloading Your Brain
Dear Elizabeth: I manage multiple projects, and the team juggles a lot. I’m worried about keeping so many pieces in my mind at once so that nothing slips through. I’ve tried various methods of tracking everything, and while some have worked for a while, most ceased to be effective at some point or became more...
Five Ways to Identify Your Personal Strengths and Apply Them to Project Work
Does your job leverage your natural strengths? If you’re doing work that doesn’t tap into your greatest strengths, your performance and motivation will suffer along with your career. In contrast, when you’re aligned with your talents and interests, you gain a wellspring of confidence and expertise, and you do great work with a sense of...
How to Be Productive When You’re Overwhelmed
Has this ever happened to you? You’re having a perfectly good morning. A warm cup of coffee is in your hand, and you think you’ve got your workload under control when suddenly it hits you— You actually have a small avalanche of prioritized work to get through within the next two weeks, and it doesn’t...
Don’t Give Up on Inbox Zero
Look at your email inbox. How many unread emails are there? A hundred? A thousand? My personal inbox has over 6,000 unread emails, which isn’t bad considering I’ve had this address for almost 15 years. In 2007, Merlin Mann championed the idea of “inbox zero,” but now it’s become vogue to argue that inbox zero...
Want Great Work from Your Project Team? Get Happy!
We’ve often been taught that happiness is the result of success, but what if it’s actually the other way around? That’s what one researcher in the field of positive psychology, Shawn Achor, has set out to prove. In his book, The Happiness Advantage, he examines how the brain functions better when a person is feeling...
Eat Your Lunch: Why It’s Important to Take a Break at Work
I’m the first to admit that I work through lunch more often than I should. Usually so I can beat the traffic during my commute home. Working through lunch doesn’t mean I skip lunch, however. Too many studies stress the importance of not skipping meals, and I don’t have time for mood swings, poor concentration,...
How to Prioritize Work When Everything Is #1
Learn how to prioritize your projects when every project is as equally important as all of the others....
Working for the Weekend: Increasing Productivity, Efficiency, and Profitability with a Four-Day Workweek
The dream of an extra day off each week is more plausible than you think. More companies are investigating the idea of a four-day workweek after a New Zealand trusts firm found its employees were happier, more efficient, and more productive after its two-month trial of a 20-percent shorter week. Andrew Barnes, CEO of Perpetual...
The Key to Successful Projects: Resource Leveling in LiquidPlanner
It easy for managers to overbook their teams. A LiquidPlanner schedule is always resource-leveled based on each person’s availability and task assignments....
10 New Books to Add to Your 2018 Fall Reading List
I’m not sure when summer got the reputation for being the least stressful time of the year. I, for one, find the endless heat and sunshine exhausting. There are so many social events to coordinate, and there never seems to be enough time to just relax. I am daydreaming of fall—when I can enjoy a...
Ask a PM: How to Prioritize When You Wear Multiple Hats
You're the project manager for a tech startup. You're also the Operations Director, Customer Services Manager…you get the point. How do you focus your attention with so much going on? PM expert Elizabeth Harrin tackles this tough topic....