Being a multi-entrepreneur and an experienced professional in Project Portfolio Management, “multitasking” sometimes feels like my middle name, but is it really multitasking what I need to manage or is it “just” a pile of tasks that I wished I could do all at the same time?
Is it really multitasking or “just” a pile of things that I wished I could do all at the same time?
As Leo Babauta says, in summary, in his article “5 Tips for when you have too much to do”, you cannot do everything you have on your list at a time and therefore you better focus on the next best task on your high priority list and just do it. And while you are doing it, don’t think of all the other things that you are not doing right now.
At some point I realized that most jobs are seasonal, meaning that the required effort goes up and down (although it might not seem like that when you are doing it). This insight allowed me to developed certain habits that help me make my day more manageable. The key word is frontloading.
Frontloading means allocating effort unevenly, with the greater proportion at the beginning of the enterprise or process.
1. Zoom out
Graphically representing the peaks of all projects and high-level activities that we need to do along the year, helps us to distribute better the effort required to get everything done. We usually include everything that requires our brain to shift from one mindset to the other: Project peaks, fiscal deadlines, events and, in general, tasks that need to be done several times a year in a given month or week.
The x-axis displays the 52 calendar weeks, and the y-axis shows business lines, projects, or major events that we like to attend the Mobile World Congress, etc..
Having this representation makes it easy to estimate our workload each week of the next quarter, and we can schedule new things directly for the less full weeks.
2. Understand what the next week will be about
In our weekly planning meetings, we not only discuss the mid-term activities but also what will be relevant in the next week. Personally, I always try to “understand” what the next week will be about because this understanding helps me to get my priorities right. It helps me to focus on the few tasks that are important next week. I know that I can do this confidently because the mid-term tasks are all on the master plan and nothing will be missed.
3. Anticipation
3.1. Prepare everything you can before the projects’ peak
All projects portfolios have work-peaks when several projects or subprojects have a work-intense period at the same time. These potentially stressful weeks are as inevitable as they are manageable if well prepared.
Think of everything that will be required during this period and decide which things can be made before: templates for documents or emails, checklists, meeting invitations, shared folders, etc.
When dealing with a rollout, we can also do the preparation or the fine tuning during the pilot, keeping in mind that reusability should be one of the key aspects to consider in the design.
Having all this taken care of, you can focus on triggering activities and making sure that the technical experts have everything they need to do their job smoothly, without missing or skipping anything.
3.2. If you sow the wind, you might reap hurricanes
In most of the projects that we do, at some point, we need to ask a larger group of people to provide certain information. The workload generated by this need will depend on how we organize the recollection of data. Here are some useful tips:
a) Arrange self-service options whenever possible.
Instead of encouraging to receive replies by email, set up a shared document in which each contact person can fill in the information directly and focus on checking consistency and giving support to reflect complex local situations, that are different than the usual standard in the company.
b) Make checklists to track the replies.
When the group of people you expect feedback from is not that big, or the expected answer is something like “yes/no” or “done,” it seems over-engineered to create a shared document that everyone needs to open instead of just replying to your email with a short answer. In those cases, make a list of the people you expect a response from, ideally, print it out, and tick them off as the replies start coming in.
4. Work with checklists and process descriptions
I’m always amazed at how time and brain-saving it is to have lists and process descriptions available at work (and home). It makes sense to prepare these tools for any sophisticated task that we don’t do on a daily basis or when for whatever reason it is important to repeat the same steps when doing something.
Considering process descriptions as living documents and keeping them updated, makes it easier to delegate tasks.
5. Use the phone whenever it makes sense
This might go against the mainstream opinion, but consider a 3-minute call instead of engaging in a 2-day long email exchange.
Usually, our clients’ contact people have many other things to do apart from replying to our emails.
In fact, most of the times, the project is THE PROJECT for us, but for them, it is just another project in their already busy day. Only a few people at our clients’ are dedicated full time to the rollouts.
If it’s going to take longer than 10 minutes to process an email, many people prefer to have a short call of 10-15 minutes, scheduled in advance, get it done and carry on with their day. Although it always depends on the other person and therefore it’s difficult to make a fixed rule out of it.
It is more efficient for us as well because we can immediately clarify any doubts, get a better understanding of the situation and document it. Plus, and that is the greatest advantage, we deal with the task in 10-15 minutes, and are free to do the next thing instead of having to wait for hours or days until the other person finds the time to reply.
There are many other little things that I do to make sure that I get the most important things done each day, but these were the first that came to my mind, and therefore they are probably the most useful ones for me.