• I work off to do lists that I generate each morning.
• I use my project charts and my memory to keep me organized.
• I work in a reactive environment where most of my time is spent fighting fires.
• Any time I put into planning would be wasted, given how often project schedules slip and new challenges leap to the top of my priority list.
• I work in a team-oriented environment where we help each other whenever help is asked for. To use a planner as an excuse to say "No" to a team member's request for time is not acceptable.
• I've tried planners, but I keep finding them abandoned under the seat of my car after each abortive attempt.

Why You Should

By merging your project-driven time and outcome commitments with non-project commitments, you have a way (and perhaps the only way) to gauge priorities and how close you are to your maximum workload.

Your project participants can rely on you to do what you say you'll do when you say you'll do it.

You can effectively explain to others why you must either delay action on their request for your time or turn their request down altogether. (Without a planned schedule of priority commitments, people tend to say "Yes" even though they're in a chronic state of overload.)

You are much more reliable in producing the results that you say you'll produce when you promise to produce them. (Trust me on this one - you can't be a good Project Manager if you're not an accomplished Time Manager; it just isn't possible!).

 

Some Tips On How To

If you haven't settled on a planner of some sort (book or electronic), choose one that you can take with you where ever you go. (I recommend against a computer-based planner unless you've got a companion handheld that synchronizes easily.) Spend some money on whatever you select, so you'll be more likely to 'respect' it as an investment and, consequently, spend some time learning to use it.

Schedule enough time to learn how to use your planner (book-type planners are not too tough to figure out, but hand held devices (PalmPilot© and the host of also-rans) are sufficiently feature-rich to require some instruction or at least some time spent reading the owner's manual).

Go through each of your project flowcharts and capture key dates in your planner:

• Every milestone date
• Those task start dates that involve either critical path work or a participant whose skill/motivation are less than 100%.
• Dates upon which key resources must be in the hands of participants in order for them to perform
• The project deadline

Add additional key project dates that don't appear on your flowcharts

• Prime Mover review dates
• Participant meeting dates
• Routine documentation distribution dates

Set aside time in your planner to perform project management duties

• Monitor participant performance, particularly around critical path milestones and task start dates
• Prepare for participant and Prime Mover meetings
• Gather and prepare project documentation
• Perform project tasks yourself

Compare the priority of every new request for your time against the priority of commitments you've made, as they appear in your planner

• Comply when the request is important and urgent
• Schedule for later when the request is important but not urgent
• Deny when the request is neither important nor urgent

Make a habit of planning your time and following your plan, but remain flexible to changing priorities IF THE CHANGE IS VALID.