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Author: Neal Whitten,PMP

28 Time Management Tips to Getting More Done Every Day

Written by Neal Whitten,PMP on . Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on 28 Time Management Tips to Getting More Done Every Day

These ideas can help you improve your time management effectiveness.

We all are looking for that time management formula that allows us to complete work in less time, get more done each day, waste less time, find more free time, take control of your day, improve your reputation and lower your stress. Here are 28 time management actions to help put you in the proper mindset to make the best use of your time.

  1. Maintain a Master To-Do List. List all the tasks that you need or want to accomplish at some point. Assign a due-date and prioritization (1-4) to each entry in the Master To-Do List.
  2. Use a technique for assigning priorities to tasks. Although there are many techniques out there, I have chosen the Time Management Matrix by Stephen Covey that was famously published in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
    The Time Management Matrix is represented as a box with four quadrants and distinguishes between importance and urgency. By importance is meant tasks that contribute to the achievement of your goals. Urgent means tasks that require immediate attention.
      URGENT NOT URGENT
    IMPORTANT Quadrant 1:
    Urgent & Important    		 Quadrant 2:
    Not Urgent & Important
    NOT IMPORTANT Quadrant 3:
    Urgent & Not Important    		 Quadrant 4:
    Not Urgent & Not Important

    Notice the four-quadrant matrix box consists of two rows and two columns that will be used to assign the value of a task. The two quadrants in the first row are associated with tasks that are considered “important,” also referred to as high-valued tasks. The two quadrants in the second row are associated with tasks that are considered “not important,” also referred to as low-valued tasks.
    The two quadrants in the first column are associated with tasks that are considered “urgent.” The two quadrants in the second column are considered “not urgent.”
    Said another way:

    • Quadrant 1 represents priority 1 tasks that are urgent and important. These are tasks that need immediate attention such as important deadlines with high urgency. Examples are emergency issues, demands from superiors or customers, planned tasks now due, meetings, appointments and fire-fighting.
    • Quadrant 2 represents priority 2 tasks that are not urgent but important. These are tasks that are important but do not require immediate attention such as long-term development and strategizing. These are tasks that you plan to do such as planning, designing, testing, training and relationship building.
    • Quadrant 3 represents priority 3 tasks that are urgent but not important such as distractions with high urgency. Covey recommends minimizing or eliminating these tasks as they do not contribute to your high-value achievement. These tasks might be candidates for delegating. Examples are trivial requests from others, apparent emergencies, ad-hoc interruptions and distractions, pointless activities and meetings, and a boss’ whims. Tasks in this quadrant can also be driven by one’s ego.
    • Quadrant 4 represents priority 4 tasks that are not urgent and not important. These time-waster tasks yield very little or no value and should be eliminated such as computer games, net surfing, gossip, social communications, daydreaming, doodling, excessively long breaks, reading irrelevant material and over embellishment.
  3. Create a Daily To-Do List either at the start of the day or the evening before. If there are any priority 1 tasks, they should appear on the Daily To-Do List. If there is time available for priority 2 tasks then selected priority 2 tasks should be included in the Daily To-Do List.
  4. Identify your top three priority tasks that should be worked each day. These tasks could be designated priority 1 or 2 tasks from your Master To-Do List. Visibly display the three priority tasks to encourage you to focus on them.
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  5. Spend most of your time—starting early in the day—working on priority 1 and 2 tasks; these are high-valued tasks and are most critical in defining your contributions and value to the organization as well as your overall career.
  6. Resist allowing low-value (priority 3 and 4) tasks to consume a significant amount of your time. Minimize, eliminate or delegate priority 3 tasks. Eliminate priority 4 tasks; however, these tasks may be engaged for pleasure during moments of relaxation.
  7. Reserve blocks of time on your daily calendar for accomplishing non-meeting work such as time you need to prepare for meetings you will attend today, placing and returning phone calls, servicing your emails and time required to work other tasks that you have listed in today’s to-do list. The reserved time can also include some contingency for working unplanned but important or urgent items that can arise throughout the day.
  8. Expect interruptions but be prepared to professionally manage them.
  9. Find a get-away place. If you are unable or unwilling to stop interruptions when you are trying to focus on working off tasks, find a place to get away for blocks of time of at least 30-60 minutes. This is when your productivity can be at its best.
  10. Before you start a new task, ask yourself if this is the best use of your time. Remember, you have a limited amount of time but a near infinite number of tasks vying for your attention.
  11. Manage phone calls. Schedule times to return phone calls. When on a call, keep to the topic at hand and avoid tangents. Consider silencing your phone during periods where your concentration is especially important.
  12. Reduce multi-tasking—it typically results in a loss of productivity. Do your best to finish a task before starting another task, or to remain on the same task for as long as you can before switching to another task.
  13. Seize control of your day where you spend your time and for how long. Resist allowing others to control portions of your day.
  14. Avoid or limit use of social media tools such as Facebook® and Twitter® unless you use these tools to function real-time.
  15. Invest a few minutes reviewing how you spent your time each day and identify the time wasters; do this at the end of each day or first thing the next day. Then think about how each of these moments could have been better handled. Apply those lessons in planning and managing the next day.
  16. Learn to accept “good enough.” When you are performing a task, there is a point where the task is sufficiently complete to fulfill its need whereby to continue to work the task to perfection fails to produce an adequate return on your additional time and energy investment.
  17. Reduce the number of meetings you attend. Consider only attending meetings that will reveal information you need or that you have information someone else needs. In the latter case, consider giving that information to the meeting leader or coworker who is attending and do not attend yourself.
  18. Create, distribute and enforce rules for your meetings so they run effectively.
  19. Limit checking email to 3-5 times a day. For example, you could decide to check email early in the day, just after lunch and at the end of the day. If your day allows, you could optionally check email midmorning and midafternoon. Email is one of the biggest time-management detractors.
  20. Turn off the alert that notifies you when an email arrives. If you are not tempted, you will be less likely to peek.
  21. Keep emails as short as possible whether sending or replying.
  22. Break larger tasks into smaller tasks. The smaller tasks will be far easier to schedule and you will gain a sense of accomplishment as the tasks are individually completed.
  23. Learn to say “no.” But do this responsibly and earn a reputation for playing fair.
  24. Don’t procrastinate working high-value tasks. Procrastination can cause huge missed opportunities throughout your career as well as your life.
  25. Reserve some “me time” each day. Use this quiet time to relax, be mindful and reenergize. Even periods as short as 5 minutes can go a long way to help you collect your thoughts and reinvigorate you.
  26. Know how and where you spend your time so you can make better time management choices. Keep a log of where you spend your time for a full week. Track your activities in increments of 30-minute intervals. At the end of the week, look for the lessons.
  27. Power nap. If beneficial, find 10-15 minutes to take a power nap around mid-day to early afternoon. The energy boost will help your afternoon be more productive and enjoyable.
  28. Solicit a time management mentor. Find someone you believe is good at time management and is willing to coach you in this area.

Time management is not about being busy; it’s about being effective. Knowing how to prioritize and complete the work that matters the most on a daily basis can be the difference between a sterling career and just barely staying afloat. Good time management does not require extreme effort but it does require deliberate discipline. Effective time management can significantly and positively affect the rest of your life.

Short Quiz on Team Member Behavior – What Would You Do?

Written by Neal Whitten,PMP on . Posted in Articles. 8 Comments on Short Quiz on Team Member Behavior – What Would You Do?

Team members are often in the dark on the behavior expected of them while working with others.

Here are 9 important but common situations that team members are likely to encounter throughout their project.

Choose the answer that best represents the behavior you expect from your team members or coworkers.

The answers are provided at the end of the quiz.

Quiz

1. What should a team member do if she believes that she cannot meet an already committed date?

  1. Work it out with the team leader and propose potential solutions
  2. Get help from her manager
  3. Work it out with the person with whom she has made the commitment
  4. Say nothing until she is 100% sure that the committed date will be missed
  5. Say nothing and do the best she can

2. Team member A repeatedly says that he is on schedule to deliver a critical-path item to member B who has a dependency on that item. But the item is delivered three days late. This puts the critical-path schedule three days behind. What should member B do?

  1. Maintain his original duration commitment which means that the schedule will remain three days late
  2. Notify his manager
  3. Escalate to member A’s manager
  4. Reasonably work with anyone and everyone to bring the team back on schedule
  5. Bad mouth member A at every opportunity

3. What should a team member do if he has bad news to share?

  1. Share it as soon as possible
  2. Share it discretely, as appropriate
  3. Share it in as few words as possible
  4. Delay as long as you can to buy time in case things improve
  5. a, b and c

4. A team member periodically does something helpful and noteworthy for the team leader, another team member or for the team itself. In terms of recognition, what should the team member do?

  1. Share the good deed with the team at the next available opportunity
  2. Inform his manager
  3. Remain humble and say and do nothing
  4. Request the benefitting party to inform his manager
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5. When it comes to commitments and accountability, who within the team should be treated differently—a bit more special—than any other person or group? Who should be cut a bit more slack when problems arise?

  1. Client
  2. Contractor
  3. Vendor
  4. Company employees
  5. No one should be treated a bit more special

6. When a team member has made a noteworthy mistake, what should she do?

  1. Admit she made a mistake
  2. State what she plans to do to correct the mistake
  3. State what she will do to prevent the mistake from occurring again
  4. Do not allow the mistake to haunt her
  5. All of the above

7. What should a team member do to maintain a positive attitude when he works around some really negative people?

  1. Leave the organization
  2. Decide to maintain a positive attitude
  3. Confront the negative behavior at every opportunity
  4. Occasionally confront the negative behavior when the timing and conditions feel appropriate
  5. b and d

8. A team member should ask questions rather than assume. But doing so can cause that person to sense that others perceive them as stupid. What should the team member do?

  1. Let others ask the questions
  2. Make the best assumptions you can
  3. Test the waters with one question before asking more questions
  4. Ask the questions
  5. Obtain the person’s permission to ask questions

9. What can a team member do to discourage her meeting invitees from arriving late and leaving early?

  1. Yell at them
  2. Lock the meeting-room door
  3. Adopt the 10-minute rule
  4. Fine them $1 per minute they are late or leave early (money collected to be used on team snacks)
  5. All the above

Answers

I have promoted answers that my experience suggests represent the behaviors of the best teams—high performance teams. It’s possible, that for some scenarios, you don’t agree with my answer or you may not favor any of the options from which you can select. If your answer is different than my recommendation, it doesn’t necessarily mean that either of us is wrong. We may come from different company and country cultures that may influence our answer. We also may have had different experiences. But bear in mind that, if you and I don’t agree on the best answer, all the more reason that that scenario should be discussed within your team to ensure that everyone has a common understanding of what is expected of them.

  1. The answer is c. Work with the dependent party to resolve the issue without causing harm to other members of the team. If problems result, immediately include the team leader in the discussion and propose potential solutions to remedy, or at least minimize, the harm that may occur. The team member may also need to inform her manager and, if needed, secure the appropriate support from her manager.
  2. The answer is d. Member B is responsible for doing what is reasonable to work at restoring the critical-path schedule to its original commitment. Member B should be creative and open to ideas and obtain help if it is necessary and available. The first priority is not placing blame, but to resolve the problem so that the overall team does not suffer. To that end, the team leader should typically be informed of the situation and may be instrumental in working with all affected parties to repair the situation. If appropriate, member A, who originally caused the delivery to be late, can be included in the resolution.
  3. The answer is e. We all find ourselves having to deliver bad news from time to time. It’s never fun but it’s part of the job. Always deliver bad news as soon as reasonably possible, with the appropriate level of discretion and using as few words as possible. “As soon as reasonably possible” means that, in most cases, you attempt to resolve the problem before involving others—especially higher-ups. If you believe that the bad news must be shared, do so quickly. The sooner the problem is addressed, the less harm may be incurred. Make sure you do not blindside anyone when relaying bad news. No one wants to be surprised by hearing about a problem from a third party or at an inopportune time. As for using few words, if the person you are updating needs more information, she will ask.
  4. The answer is b. The team member should inform his manager about his noteworthy deed. It’s not only okay to toot your horn to your manager, it’s essential. If you don’t then your manager can never acknowledge and praise you for your admirable behavior, nor will you experience any appropriate benefit in your next performance review. However, do not run each time to notify your manager. Instead, use weekly or monthly status reports to your manager to include these types of items. Truly noteworthy and unique events can be communicated right away. Note, however, do not toot your horn to your coworkers—doing so can show you in a less than favorable light.
  5. The answer is e. All individuals and groups are needed to ensure that the team’s mission is completed successfully. If any of these stakeholders are having difficulty meeting their commitments, they must be appropriately worked with to ensure the issue is satisfactorily resolved. History shows that once one group or person is treated differently or so-called “special,” it’s typically that group that becomes the Achilles’ heel of the team.
  6. The answer is e. When you make a mistake—and we all do—it is recommended to admit that you made the mistake. Doing so can take the wind away from some people’s proverbial sails and allow people to focus on solving rather than the blame game. Now state what you plan to do to correct the mistake—this is called being accountable. Next state what you plan to do so the same problem does not reoccur—this is called being a professional. Lastly, do not carry guilt with you about the mistake. Learn from the experience and move on.
  7. The answer is e. Don’t allow others to define you. You choose your own attitude; nobody chooses it for you. A positive attitude can be contagious but so can a negative one. People will look forward to being around and working with you if you have a positive attitude. If others’ negative behavior is undermining your ability to achieve your commitments, then you must take action. However, if the person with the negative attitude has no influence within your domain of responsibility, then you can choose to do nothing. If you are around the person frequently, you may choose to encourage a change in her attitude or at least try to better understand what is behind it.
  8. The answer is d. Ask the questions. Better to have the misperception of looking stupid than proving stupid because you failed to ask the necessary questions. Do what you believe is the right thing to do. When you ask questions and listen to what people have to say, you learn things that you otherwise would not know. What other people think about you should never be more important than what you think about yourself.
  9. The answer is c. Schedule all meetings to begin at 10 minutes after the hour so that attendees can arrive on time from their last meeting. Allowing at least 10 minutes between meetings gives attendees time to travel, make calls or check email, and relax for a moment. Additionally, end all meetings 10 minutes before the hour, or earlier, so that attendees have time to get to their next meeting on time that will likely start on the hour.

This quiz and its answers, when openly discussed among the team leader and team members, provide a venue to ensuring that these expectations are clearly articulated across the team.

7 Crucial Behaviors to Master When Dealing with Your Leaders

Written by Neal Whitten,PMP on . Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on 7 Crucial Behaviors to Master When Dealing with Your Leaders

Your leaders want you to know—need you to know—the behaviors they consistently expect from you.

Just because you have a leadership role doesn’t mean you are living up to the expectations of your leaders.

The more you understand what is expected of you, the more you will likely focus on honing those skills, improving your performance and, in the process, helping your leaders look good which helps you look good. Talk about a win-win! So, if you have an interest in enhancing your image, effectiveness and career—and who doesn’t—let’s get to the first important behavior.

1. Don’t Dump and Run

When you have an idea for an improvement, don’t transfer that idea to your leader and then wash your hands of it. Be willing to be its champion and become part of the solution. Your leaders have neither the duty nor the bandwidth to personally take on and work every good idea to closure.

Your leaders want and need your ideas but they also expect for your hands to get dirty from time to time. Words don’t make companies successful; actions do.

2. Make It Brief

When you’re speaking with your peers you can speak in paragraphs. When you’re speaking with your immediate boss, reduce the paragraphs to long sentences. But the higher up the food chain you communicate, learn to shorten the sentences—even approaching sound bites. Your leaders don’t have the time for the unabridged version. If they need to know more, they will ask you. They respect you more when you can net your messages so they can obtain the necessary information in the minimal amount of time.

3. Don’t Complain

People who habitually complain are a bore and a waste of time and energy to those around them. If you’re complaining, you’re not solving; you’re part of the problem. For example, if you complain to Person A about something that Person B can fix, then you just wasted your time and that of Person A’s. But if you “complain” directly to Person B who can fix the problem, this is not complaining; it’s the first step of moving toward a solution. By the way, if you get a reputation as a complainer, people may stop listening.

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4. Bring Solutions with Problems

When you are faced with a problem and need help, articulate both the solution and the specific help required. Tell your leaders exactly what you need from them, such as funding, letter of support, escalation support, lifting the freeze on hiring, or approval of a new tool. You are far more likely to obtain their support when you have a solution in hand and they know precisely what is expected from them to help you carry out the solution.

5. Meet Commitments

Do what you say you will when you say you will do it. Manage your commitments well. If, at times, commitments may need to be reset, then work with the required parties as soon as possible so that any collateral damage will be minimal. But do not create a pattern of missed commitments where there appears to be no end in sight. No one can meet every commitment that they have made but they should be able to meet most of their commitments. The commitments that slip should be carefully replanned and rarely should they slip again. The respect you develop across your organization or company will, in large part, be affected by your ability to successfully and maturely manage your commitments.

6. Promote Dialogue

Don’t be a “yes” employee—or more specifically, a silent employee. Don’t just take notes, nod, and leave your boss’ office. Listen thoughtfully, ask good questions, and raise concerns— if any. Your leaders need your response, your ideas and your participation.

7. Keep Your Leaders Informed

Keep your leaders informed of important news. Don’t work in a vacuum. Avoid surprises. However, this doesn’t mean you should tell your boss about every problem that comes your way. In fact, don’t reveal most problems to your boss. If you did, your boss would cringe every time he or she sees it’s you on the phone or at their office door or in an email that just arrived. You are paid to solve problems. Your boss gains no value in knowing all the problems that you face each day and how each was solved. Therefore, be selective and only share those problems that you feel your boss should know about or that you want your boss to know about. And be discreet in how you share bad news with your boss.

The success you achieve with your career has a lot to do with your behaviors in dealing with your leaders. Your career-clock is ticking. Now, become your imagined self!

Achieving the Elusive Work-Life Balance

Written by Neal Whitten,PMP on . Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on Achieving the Elusive Work-Life Balance

I have personally wrestled with my own work-life balance issues for most of my adult life. In my younger adult days, I could easily have been categorized as a workaholic.

I was divorced after a 17-year marriage and did not see the break-up coming. I’m not saying that a better work-life balance would have saved the marriage, but a poor work-life balance sure didn’t help it any. For me, the integration of my work life and my non-work life has been a rough ride at times but—as a senior-aged person—I have learned a massive amount of knowledge and, dare I say, wisdom, about the highly important subject of finding a satisfactory harmony across all aspects of life. My mission here is to present you with some starter ideas that can fit into a relatively short article—ideas that can help you not only better understand your work-life balance but to give you ideas that can help you achieve the integration that is most important to you.

Work-life balance can mean something different to each of us. For purposes of this article, work-life balance is about achieving an acceptable harmony or integration between your work life—or career—and your personal life.

Studies show that a poor work-life balance can result in unhealthy levels of stress and unhappiness. At risk are your personal relationships, your career and your development as a person, to name a few. Moreover, too much time spent working has its own problems. You run the risk of burning out and hating your job, maybe even yourself. You wake up one day and realize you’re not happy with your life. 

What does matter is that you create a personally meaningful life that helps you feel happy and healthy overall. While balancing work and non-work life might not be easy early in one’s career, figuring it out is necessary to lifelong satisfaction. Almost everyone wishes that they had realized the importance of life balance at the beginning of their career. Doing so would have meant less regrets and a more deliberate life. But whatever your age, you can still seize control and drive towards the balance you most desire.

I have created an assessment instrument—called the Questionnaire for Self-Assessing Your Work-Life Balance—to heighten your awareness of the behaviors that are affecting your work-life balance. The questionnaire will also provide a means to rate your collective behaviors and present a score that can give you insight into your effectiveness in achieving work-life balance. You can download the PDF and take the quiz now or later at your convenience.

Let’s examine eight important actions and behaviors that can help you in your quest to achieve the elusive work-life balance. 

1. Create a Vision for What You Would Like Your Life to Look Like 

Ask yourself what you would like your life to look like both from a career perspective and a personal perspective and how you see these two major components integrating. Then define what you envision a typical, desirable day would look like beginning from the time you wake up until you call it a day. That day could have interaction with family members, time for exercising, eating healthy, of course time for work activities, personal chores, special events and some downtime to compose and reenergize yourself. Use this vision as a baseline to ensure that you steadfastly adopt actions and behaviors that move you towards your vision. Then define the priorities in your life that are important to support this vision—including those priorities that are non-negotiable except for emergencies; examples could be special family events, sleep and exercise. The bottom line is that in order to improve upon your work-life balance it is essential that you have a vision of what you would like that integration to look like. If and when you would like to create a vision, I have created a sample vision to give you an idea of what a vision could look like.

2. Set Your Priorities Each Day

At the start of each work day, create a to-do list that includes the identification of your top three priorities to focus on for the day. If you have timeframes available of 30 minutes or more, do not work the bottom items of your to-do list, focus instead on the top three. Your top three items are so important that they define your overall value, contributions and success in your job. Work off your top three priorities every 2-3 days and replace them with your next set of priorities. If your top three priorities may take weeks or months to resolve, then, within 2-3 days, put a detailed, trackable plan in place to deal with the priority. Then remove that top-three priority from your list and routinely track your new plan until it is complete. 

If occasionally you experience a day that is so hectic with fire fights and please handles that you never get around to working on your top three priorities, that’s okay; you work in a complex, demanding environment. However, if you frequently have days where you do not focus on your top three priorities, then you are the problem and need to seek help to effectively manage your workload. 

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If your personal life is as chaotic as your work life, consider creating the to-do list for non-work activities as well.

3. Track Your Time 

For one week, keep track of where and with whom you spend your time during your waking hours both at work and in your personal life. Record in increments as small as 15 minutes.  The objective is to identify time well spent that support your priorities and interests as well as time that—looking over the big picture—was not considered put to good use. This exercise is invaluable as you look for ways to fine tune your behaviors throughout each day. Experience shows that you will likely experience some “ah-ha” moments as you look more objectively into your routine behaviors.

4. Limit Time-Wasting Activities and People 

This action will free you to spend more time on the important activities and people, and will likely provide you with additional time that you did not realize you had. Not only will your productivity benefit, the quality of your work and the satisfaction you get from your work likely will also increase. Many people spend too much time on things that don’t really matter. Time, arguably, is the most valuable commodity in life: It is the one thing you cannot buy more of. Therefore, don’t waste it.

The last tip we had discussed, “track your time,” can help here. Also, as your day unfolds get in the habit of consciously questioning if the time you are about to spend or the time you just spent is, indeed, an effective use of your time. After a while, this can become second nature and you will more effectively choose the areas where you dedicate your time.

5. Learn to Say “No” 

Ensure that your commitments mostly support your priorities. Your inability or unwillingness to say “no” can easily allow you to lose control over your day and those things that matter most to you. If you need to buy some time to think about your final decision of whether or not to say “no,” then do so—even sleeping on it. Use whatever methods will help you better control where you commit your time. If you do not seize control over the commitments you make, your time will be surrendered to others… and you will not like the impact to you. You have far more control over your day and how you spend it than you may realize.

6. Minimize Time in Meetings 

Minimize time in meetings, especially unstructured meetings. Most people spend a large portion of their time in meetings. Obviously some meetings are important for you to attend but many may not be providing you a sufficient return on your invested time. For starters, consider only attending meetings if they satisfy one or both of these conditions:1. Information you need to perform your job will be disclosed, or2. You have information that someone else needs to perform their job.

If you have information that someone else needs, consider turning that information over to the dependent person before the meeting starts and don’t attend the meeting. If you feel you must attend the meeting then do so only for the time necessary to disclose the information—say 5 minutes. Work with the meeting leader to determine the specific time when you should attend.

For meetings that you must attend, consider having a buddy who must also be in the meeting cover for you and afterwards inform you of what you need to know. And you reciprocate by covering for your buddy in a different meeting that you both also must attend.

7. Put Yourself First 

Take care of yourself. Look out for yourself. Putting yourself first goes against what many of us learned growing up. But think about it: By putting yourself first, only then can you be your best and give your best to others. An example is on an airplane and the oxygen masks drop due to a potential emergency. You are directed to place the mask on yourself before helping someone in need next to you. You must make sure that you are in a position of strength before you can be your best for all that which comes your way and all those who may have a dependency on you. 

Another example of putting yourself first is protecting your private time. Don’t be so quick to sacrifice your private time for other work and personal events. Your private time may be essential for catching your breath, recharging your energy and reaching a level of understanding and acceptance with yourself and all that going on around you. If you have serious work-life balance issues, not putting yourself first was likely a major cause of the dilemma you now find yourself embroiled in.

8. At the End of Your Day, Assess How Well Your Day Went 

Pause and sit back to catch your breath. Then identify the actions you took that supported your quest for work-life balance. Give yourself some kudos for taking these actions. Also identify those actions that harmed your work-life balance. Imagine how your day could have been more productive and meaningful had you not engaged in the harmful actions. Ask yourself what you could or should have done differently so that you can change your behavior the next time a similar situation arises. See yourself incrementally growing stronger day to day, week to week.

Closing Thoughts

You get to define what work-life balance means to you. Balance is an individual thing and everyone must find their own. It’s not about what others think; it’s about what you desire for you. You achieve work-life balance by first defining the balance you most desire. Then you examine your current life and decide if that balance is being achieved. If it’s not, then, starting with the ideas presented in this article, you can put a plan in place that will deliberately move you into the desired direction. Then periodically revisit your work-life balance situation and adjust your actions and behaviors where and when needed.

Your work-life balance is something that can easily be put off for another day, another week, another year—but you already know that.  Now is the time to seize the control over your life and to make it the life you most desire. It’s possible that this article could be the catalyst to change the rest of your life.
Now, become your imagined self!

You Desire Success? Learn to Manage Daily to Your Top 3 Priorities

Written by Neal Whitten,PMP on . Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on You Desire Success? Learn to Manage Daily to Your Top 3 Priorities

Managing daily to your top three priorities is crucial to your professional success. However, my experience is that most people in our craft do not manage their to-do list effectively.

This article will show you how. Doing so can boost your effectiveness, reputation, and career.

Instantly Identify Your Top Three Priorities

If I were to put you on the spot and ask you what are your top three priorities or problems at work right now—by the way, priorities and problems mean the same thing to me in this context—and you could not rattle them off within three snaps of the fingers then you are not a consistently effective leader. You might be thinking how dare I judge you by so little information; that if I would give you a few minutes, then you could come up with your top three priorities. But if you need time to identify them then I restate my assertion that you are not a consistently effective leader. Instead, you are managing your day by the plethora of interruptions that come your way; by the noise and the minutia that fall over you. You are allowing your day to be managed by others instead of you taking charge and managing to the most important priorities. You are too soft if you are not seizing control of your domain of responsibility and primarily managing to your top three priorities each day.

To-Do List

Let’s talk about how to do this. Most of you likely start your day with a to-do list of work items. That’s good. You should. However, what I do—and perhaps some of you do as well—is create the list the night before. Why? Well, I already have had a busy full day, and I know where I want to hit the road running when I come into work the next day. Therefore, the night before is a great time to populate the list. But another reason I’ll create the list the night before is to focus on the top three items on the list—the top three priorities. Let’s say the list has ten items: the top three and a bottom seven. Now, most of you will likely have lists with more than ten items, but I want to make the math simple for illustrative purposes. When I go to sleep at the end of the day, my mind—my subconscious—is working on solving or moving towards the solving of one or more of these top three problems. When I wake the next day, these problems are either solved or well on their way to being solved; I have a better grasp of what I need to do moving forward. All of us have this ability to help resolve problems when we sleep. Regardless, if you, instead, choose to take 5-10 minutes of quiet time at the start of your work day to create your to-do list, that’s fine.

Focus Predominately on Top Three Priorities

Now, let’s say that you are traveling home at the end of your work day and you recognize that you have not made headway on any of your top three priorities, but you have managed to cross off all of your bottom seven: Do not feel good about your accomplishments that day! Why? Because you worked on the wrong things. If, instead, when you head for home, and you have not worked on any of your bottom seven but managed to make significant headway on just one of your top three, you should feel very good about your accomplishments for that day. And here’s why: Your efficiency to work on your top three priorities defines your value—your contribution—to your organization, it defines your career; not the bottom seven.

30 Minutes or More Available, Work on Top Three

You might be thinking: Neal, it sounds like you don’t care if I work on my bottom seven. You’re right. I don’t care. In the big picture, they are insignificant. Look, if you have five minutes between meetings and you can eliminate one of your bottom seven, then go for it. But if you have 30 minutes or more between meetings, do not work on the bottom seven. 30 minutes is what I call significant time. You should be working on your top three priorities—they define your career.

Work Off Top Priorities within 2-3 Days

Your top three priorities on the list should be worked off the list typically within 2-3 days. If occasionally you have a top-three item on the list for up to a week that’s okay. What’s that? You say that the items that make up your top three typically would take weeks or months to solve and you would not know how to remove them from your list in just 2-3 days. Okay. I’ll show you how. Let’s say one of your top three priorities will take you six weeks to solve. Then put a six-week plan together. Identify the activities, their dependencies, their durations and who owns them. Then get agreement from all the people necessary to make the plan whole and fully committed and track the six-week plan like you do any other plan. Now replace that priority item from your to-do list with a new one.

What’s that? You say the six-week plan hasn’t completed and, therefore, the problem is still open? That you think the problem should remain on your list until it is solved? Look… You now have a good working plan to get it resolved. It’s being taken care of. You will track its implementation with the frequency you feel it justifies. Remove the item from your top-three list and replace it with another very important item that now needs timely attention.

Occasionally, Not Working Top Three Is Okay

What if you come to work occasionally and find you are not able to work on any of your top three priorities because of that day’s firefights and “please handles”? If this happens only occasionally, that’s okay. You work in a complex, dynamic environment. However, if it happens routinely, it’s not okay. If you cannot routinely work off your top three priorities, then you are the problem. If you are not working them off, no one else will—this is your domain of responsibility. You need help. You might be overloaded with work and need some relief; you might be poor at managing time, or it could be something else. Whatever. You need to seek and obtain the appropriate help.

Number One Reason Why Projects Fail

This is a good time to share with you what I believe may be a profound assertion. We have all seen lists touting the top 10 reasons why projects fail. The usual suspects include weak requirements, scope creep, lack of user involvement, unreliable estimates, incomplete staffing, poor communications, weak senior stakeholder support and others. However, from my experience, these lists miss the biggest reason—the number one reason—why projects fail: Because the project manager does not manage to his or her top three priorities on a daily basis. This is so important that I’m going to repeat it. The number one reason why projects fail is that the project manager does not manage to his or her top three priorities on a daily basis.

You might be wondering how come I’m so smart to get this while it appears that others haven’t? Well, I’m not that smart, but I am an old guy who has been around a long time. Longevity and persistence helps me pick up things. For example, over the years I have performed reviews on hundreds of projects in trouble. When I do, I always conclude with identifying the top three problems—the top three priorities—that the project manager needs to address immediately. When I examine these top three lists, the ah-ha moment presents itself. The top items on the lists almost always should have been resolved not days earlier but weeks or months earlier—sometimes years depending on the duration of the project. The lists show that the project managers were not effectively focusing on their top three priorities on a daily basis; otherwise, these problems would have been resolved or under control. So, again, the number one reason why projects fail is that the project manager does not manage to his or her top three priorities on a daily basis. This is a fundamental fact that knowing and adjusting your behavior to can significantly increase the success of your projects—and your career.

By the way, the article might have appeared to focus on Project Managers, not Business Analysts. Everything said here also applies to Business Analysts. The number one reason why Busines Analysts fail is that the Business Analyst does not manage to his or her top three priorities on a daily basis.

Now, become your imagined self!