How can the Project Manager manage his/her time?

The project manager needs to lead the project team to build a project, which requires a lot of attention and implementation. In terms of time management, the project manager needs to manage the time of the project team members, at the same time, you also need to manage the project manager's own time, both of which are indispensable. Because the project team members have a relatively simple job, it is relatively easy to manage the project team members. You can use the detailed WBS? Decomposition, reasonable project plans, and timely project monitoring are implemented. However, project managers, especially the project managers of large projects, often have troubles, as if everything is important and needs to be handled, how to manage and make full use of your time in a "Pepsi-infected" environment is a major problem that troubles the project manager.
I have summarized some of my experiences in project management over the years and will try to provide solutions to this problem from the following five aspects.
　　 (1) Plan for yourself
Project managers are good at planning the work of project team members, but often ignore planning their own work. This is very dangerous; some project managers even think they can control and grasp their own time, and they do not need to plan at all. This is even more wrong.
The time of the project manager is very valuable. If the planning and utilization are poor, the project performance will be greatly affected, sometimes even "Fatal. Project managers, especially project managers of large projects, are troubled by project meetings, work coordination, and ideological exchanges every day. If they are not good at planning their own time, they will be too busy every day, however, all kinds of transactions are still "Cut constantly, and the logic is still messy ".
The author believes that the famous 'pa' work time can produce obvious importance points. After years of project practice, the author believes that such a rule is more instructive: "the effective way for a project manager to effectively use time and maximize the value of work is as follows: determine the six most important and urgent tasks of the day before work every day, and prioritize them ". The reason for emphasizing "6" is that if too few tasks are planned, it will be difficult to complete the most important tasks. If too many tasks are planned, the work may lose focus.
Of course, the above rules are not "Jin Ke Yu Lu". The project manager can plan the things that need to be done on the day (such as five or seven things) based on the actual situation ), however, we must ensure that "the key work to be completed must be completed", and we must also avoid the occurrence of the phenomenon that "I picked up sesame seeds and chopped watermelon.
I once did a survey and found that most of the outstanding project managers have the habit of using small cards to plan their key work every day.
　　 (2) give up
"There is no endless time, but there is nothing to do ".
There are some project managers around me who think that they can rest assured that they can only do everything well. The actual situation is that they can't finish things, sometimes even the most important things are not done, as a result, the project's work is delayed, which has a great impact on the project.
Project managers must learn to have a keen ability to analyze things. The project manager should be able to clearly determine what is important, what is not important, what is worth the time to do, and what is not worth the time to do. As mentioned in the previous interview, you can give up some of them. If we can really take the most important "six" things that affect project performance (that is, we can simply give up without time to prioritize the overall things.
A project manager is a valuable skill to learn to give up. We must not spend most of our energy on things that have little or even no impact on the project. This will not only be a "waste of time" for trivial matters ", in addition, it will be "useless" and eventually "useless ".
(3) Good At authorization
Some project managers are really dedicated, and they must be "experienced" to feel at ease. In fact, this approach is not advisable.
The project manager needs to become a role model and table rate for the project team members, but it does not mean that the project manager needs to "handle all the problems by himself ".
The project manager should not suffer from problems or failures. If so, the project manager is bound to be light and heavy, and the result can only be "wasted effort but useless ". The energy of a person is limited. The project manager must be good at granting permissions. The project manager can delegate anything other than "six items" to other members of the project team, in this way, the Project Manager can focus on what he should do.
It should be pointed out that the project manager needs to authorize, but do not hand over what only the project manager can do to others, project managers can only authorize jobs that can be replaced by others. The project manager should not authorize work that cannot be replaced by others, so that no good results will be returned.
In addition, the Project Manager also needs to note that authorization is not equal to granting responsibility, and the project manager should not mistakenly think that the work can be done if the work is authorized. The project manager needs to follow up the authorized work in a timely manner, if a problem occurs, the project manager must take the initiative to take responsibility.
(4) concentrate on "big" tasks
For important jobs, the effect of hours of concentrated attention is much greater than setting aside "whole" uninterrupted time for important jobs every day. This is Drucker's important advice on time management for knowledge workers.
As a project manager, do not delay important tasks due to trivial matters. The project manager should "give up" and decide to take the time and concentrate on it ?? Big.
The author has made a mistake on this issue, thinking that part of the daily work can not only make full use of the "Fragmentation" time, but also the results will not be affected. Facts have proved that, in contrast, it not only wastes a lot of time, but also the final results are not satisfactory.
(5) use your mind more
When reading, the teacher often taught us to "study with your heart". After attending work, the boss often taught us to "work with your heart ". At first glance, this is indeed true.
In fact, due to the existence of various uncertainties in the project, I think that as a project ?? "Working with your heart" is far from enough. "Work with heart" can only show that the project manager is very good at work and is very dedicated. What is the best result of work? "We have done everything we have done ". Therefore, sometimes we can see that some project managers are very busy all day long, but the performance is very small.
The project manager must "Work with the brain" in the same way as "working with the heart ". "Working with the brain" refers to thinking more and thinking more about how to work with the brain. "working with the brain" can not only make the best way to do things, but also make valuable time spent on "cutting edge, the result is undoubtedly to catch the key of the problem and get twice the result with half the effort.
When a project manager is "working with heart" and "working with the brain", such a project manager can be regarded as a good project manager and be successful in the true sense. Source: project management Alliance