We are going through the topic – Top Ways to Boost Productivity for a Project Manager. If you want your team to work better and not get stuck, here’s what you can do.
We’ve come up with eight tips to help your team work together and do better work:
1. Cut Out Unneeded Meetings:
Meetings are good when there’s a plan, the right people are there, and everyone helps find answers. But if not, even short meetings can take time from important work. To avoid this, share the plan before the meeting.
- Share Meeting Plans:
Tell everyone what will be talked about in a meeting. This helps everyone be ready.
- Ask Questions and Plan After Meetings:
Make a place where people can ask questions about important work. After the meeting, make a list of things that need to be done.
2. Do Important Work First:
People have many tasks, but it’s hard to know what’s most important. Give each task a number to show how important it is. This helps people do work that’s best for the company.
3. Delete, defer, delegate, or diminish
We found that people spend a small part of the day doing important work. To stop small tasks from getting in the way, remember these four things:
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- If something doesn’t help the company, get rid of it. – should delete
- If one task is more important, do it first and wait for the less important task
- If one person has too much work, give some to another person.
- If a task can’t wait or be given to someone else, find a way to do it faster.
Remember, these tips can help your team work better and get more done.
4. Use your team’s strengths
No two team members are the same. Each person has different experiences, things they’re good at, and areas where they might struggle. This makes each person important for the team. When you give out tasks, make sure each person gets something they’re good at and will enjoy doing. If you give your team tasks they like and find challenging, they’ll do their best work.
Also, watch out for burnout. Make sure your team doesn’t get too tired. You can use something called “Workload” to help with this. It lets team members say how much time they have for tasks. This way, you can stop them from having too much work. If needed, you can switch tasks around to make sure your team does the right things at the right time.
5. Plan before you start
Once you know what needs to be done and who will do it, you should make a plan. This plan will help you avoid doing extra things that don’t really help. Like giving too many updates or sending too many emails. First, decide when each part of the project will happen. Then, make sure everyone knows who will do what and when.
A tool to manage your work can help with this. It helps you set up small tasks that lead to finishing the big project. If you’ve done similar projects before, you can use old plans to make sure nothing gets forgotten.
6. Encourage teamwork across different parts
Just because you’re in a different department doesn’t mean you can’t work together. You’re all trying to achieve the same goal for the whole company. Knowing what other teams are doing can help everyone work together when their tasks and goals are similar.
Use tools to help everyone see each other’s work and how it fits into the big goal. These tools can be like a central place to share what you’re doing and find areas where people with different roles can work together.
7. Promote days without meetings
Meetings can stop you from focusing and getting your work done. Having a whole day for focused work can really help you be more efficient.
For instance, having a “No Meeting Wednesday” lets everyone concentrate on their tasks instead of talking about them. This way, the team has more time to complete important tasks on projects. Many employees like No Meeting Wednesday because they can finish projects faster. Another way is to let your team decide when they need time to concentrate and not get distracted by messages. Tell your team that you’re busy and not getting messages, and make sure they can still reach you if needed.
8. Understand communication tools
Tools for talking are helpful when everyone knows how to use them. Using them in different ways or having many tools for the same thing can make things confusing and not efficient.
It’s important to clearly say what each tool is for. For example, at a company like XYZ:
- For talking to people outside the company, use email.
- For quick answers, use a special app like Teams, Slack, Google, or others.
- To plan, organize, and talk about work, use a special tool.
Making your team work together and connect better makes everyone work faster. Making work better is an ongoing process. It might seem like a lot, but simple tools and working together can make everyone more efficient.
Why productivity goes down in Projects ?
There are many reasons why projects can become less productive. Here are some of those reasons:
Not enough time:
Projects often run out of time for two main reasons. First, because the time needed for tasks is estimated wrongly, and second, because tasks aren’t done well. In both cases, project professionals need to fix the issue. This means giving a realistic estimate of time needed and sticking to the schedule.
Not enough information:
The fast pace of new technology makes it hard for project people to stay updated. Missing important information also slows down projects. To fix this, we can use technological databases, management info systems, and a team that values information.
Not enough good ideas:
Sometimes, there aren’t many good ideas because either the thinkers lack creativity or the environment isn’t encouraging. If there’s a lack of creative thinkers, we can bring in new ones. If the environment needs a change, we can use creative techniques like brainstorming or swapping people with other groups.
Starting with wrong ideas:
One of the worst mistakes is starting projects with the wrong ideas in mind. Not checking ideas at the start leads to poor decisions. We can prevent this by reviewing ideas, getting outside experts, or using creative sessions at the beginning of planning.
Bad habits:
We all have habits, and some help us meet project goals. Good habits include creativity and solid ways of working. But habits that repeat old ways without thinking about new situations hurt project work. We need to keep questioning habits to make sure we reach project goals.
Negative attitude:
Sometimes, people say they can’t do better because of others. This attitude makes projects less productive. The opposite attitude, wanting to overcome obstacles and finish the job well, makes projects succeed. With good planning, organization, direction, and control, this positive approach leads to success.
Other things like politics in and out of projects, and unexpected events, also lower project productivity. A mix of all these things makes projects less productive.
