Building a project through task management
A few years ago I made a New Year’s resolution to stop procrastinating. To my credit, I developed a pretty good habit of not procrastinating over the year, but I don’t think I went about it the right way.
My method was unorthodox: every time I thought to do something, I’d do it, no hesitation, no time-wasting. What ended up happening was I’d flit from one task—finished or not—to the next in a neverending series of quieting squeaky wheels.
Prior to that I was a classic list maker. I’d amuse myself by writing ‘make list of things to do’ at the top and then crossing it out when I’d compiled the tasks. I figured it was good to get momentum straight up, even if I never ended up striking out the items on the rest of the list, which happened too often.
Little did I know that if I had combined the two, I could have had a good thing going. Something along the lines of ‘state what you need to do and do it’. Add prioritisation and deadlines and I could’ve been the most productive person on the planet (okay, maybe just in the office).
Time and task management is just a tiny part of any project but so crucial to get right in order to ensure things get done when they need to get done. From these little building blocks, projects progress. What’s your best task management tip? How do you get your project team to follow through?
