As a Project Manager, time management is an absolutely critical function of my day-to-day working life -- Not just managing my own time, but managing the time of others. I lead teams on projects every day. We have all been on projects with excessive purpose-challenged meetings. It's demoralizing and counterproductive. Here are some thoughts on how, as Project Managers, we can make everyone's day more productive:
- Meetings If Necessary, not Necessarily Meetings. I try to limit the number of meetings to only those required to ensure that the action list on the project continues moving. Remember, your project team doesn't get work done while they're on the phone with you.
- Limit Your Audience. Not only do meetings with a large number of participants become unruly and hard to manage, they take more time and accomplish less. Not everyone needs to be at every meeting. It depends on the agenda. I also try to have a key representative from each department there but if there are more than 12 people on your meeting, it's likely too many
- Agenda, Agenda, Agenda. Before every meeting, I always make sure to send a detailed agenda of what we're planning to accomplish with that meeting. This does two things: It allows people to prepare for the meeting which makes the meeting more timely and effective. It also conveys the relevance of the meeting to the invitees, encouraging those with an interest to attend.
- Minutes and Actions. Meetings should be followed with meeting minutes sent to all stakeholders, a list of takeaways and next steps and the date of the next follow up meeting. Providing clear expectations to the project team on what needs to be done and on what timeline is what Project Management is all about after all. Keeping your team organized and engaged while giving them notes to refer back to is a win-win.
- Meeting Attendance. Do everything possible to encourage attendees to arrive, and arrive on time. We have all been in that meeting where the last person arrives 7 minutes late. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but think about it this way : If 12 people are invited to a meeting, and everyone is 5 minutes late, an hour of productive time has been lost across the project team. How many meetings and how many hours are we prepared to lose which could be spent on the goals of your project? Every minute counts!
- Ending Meetings on Time. I cannot stress this point enough, but respecting people's time has to be a core value of a Project Manager. If you respect the schedules and needs of others, they will buy in to your process. They will stay engaged and have respect for you as a leader. Just as every meeting should not start 7 minutes late, it should not finish 7 minutes late. Le me re-iterate: Your Project Team is not getting any work done while on the phone with you!
Follow some of this advice and I assure you, you will be able to accomplish more with less time and be a better Project Manager/Leader. Keep the project moving!
Matthew Evans is a Project Manager based in New Brunswick, Canada.