Volume 24: Project Management Habits to Take Into the New Year

It’s almost 2024, which means parties and New Year resolutions that you likely won't keep. In life, you have to change your behavior first and then you’ll have a plan to reach your goals.

Project management is no different. It's all about changing behaviors and making plans when managing projects to achieve a successful outcome. Let’s look at three ways project management techniques can help you meet your goals for the coming year.

Keep a close eye on resources

Resources are what you use to achieve your goals. They're both human and nonhuman resources, such as your team and the equipment that'll help execute your tasks and achieve your goal.

It's critical that you have the resources you need when you need them or your schedule will be delayed. It’s also important to identify and source those resources to meet your budget or you’ll be spending more than you want to.?

That’s why you need resource management tools to plan your resources to ensure they’re available when you need them and then to track them through the course of your project to avoid overshooting your budget.?

ProjectManager has Gantt charts to plan human and nonhuman resources. You can set the availability of your team members, which makes it easy to assign them to tasks. We help balance your team's workload and track resources in real time.

Jumpstart productivity with templates

If you’re not ready to use project management software, we have dozens of free project management templates for Excel and Word that can help you plan your resources. Templates can be a good starting point to keep teams productive.?

For example, our free resource plan template for Excel allows you to list all your resources and their costs. Then you can chart them around a calendar to ensure that they’re where you want them when you want them.?

We also have a free work breakdown structure template for Excel that can help you identify project deliverables and in so doing the tasks and resources needed to deliver them. Between these two free templates, you can plan and manage your resources effectively.

Prioritize collaboration?

Managing resources also takes staying in touch with your team and stakeholders. Templates aren’t going to give you these features. They’re great for getting started, but these static documents fall short in terms of collaboration.?

ProjectManager is cloud-based project management software that connects everyone on the project team whether they’re working in the office, on the job site or anywhere in between. Users can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email notifications and in-app alerts so everyone is always on the same page.?

Our mobile app for iOS and Android means you have our app in your hand wherever you are and whenever you need to access work and keep your projects moving forward. Our reporting features can be easily filtered and shared to keep stakeholders informed and manage their expectations.?

ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that has all the features you need to deliver success in the New Year. Our risk management features help you identify and track issues in real time and task management tools keep teams working productively. Join teams who are successfully managing projects at Avis, Nestle and Siemens by using our software. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.?