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"Tasks" and "Puzzles": Easier Work Management with Categories pain points philosophy Oct 04, 2024

As a project manager who supports over 100 active projects at a time, I have a decent volume of personal tasks or actions to manage in order to keep those projects on track.

This isn’t easy, and I’ve developed and combined many strategies in my 8 years in the field to keep my own workload manageabl...

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Save Mental Bandwidth—Embrace Checklists pain points Sep 27, 2024

Project managers deal in a lot of processes. We lead teams through them, and many of us also create and/or implement them. And while some organizations strive to have a unified process for all projects, the Project Management Institute increasingly emphasizes that much of a project manager’s value c...

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Don't Automatically Accept Others' Timelines pain points philosophy Sep 20, 2024

As project managers, requests tend to fly at us all day. From project changes and status requests to process improvements and new projects to begin, tasks big and small come at us from all directions, and we must collect, organize, and work through them at a pace our companies find acceptable.

The ...

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A Busy Project Manager Finding the Courage to Slow Down pain points philosophy Aug 23, 2024

I am not being paid to read or promote the book discussed below.

I love being a project manager.

But one of the hardest things about my job is that my direct report and I, who make up the project management department, support over 300 active projects at a time between us.

We have a number of str...

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2 Guaranteed Causes of Project Problems pain points Aug 16, 2024

How you initiate a project—or how it is initiated by others—matters.

Many things that happen or don’t happen at the beginning of a project can set that project up for problems later.

Don’t let this reality intimidate you or prevent you from getting a project started. Neither a new nor a seasoned p...

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When Others Resist Planning pain points people Aug 02, 2024

Do you encounter naysayers who resist the idea of taking time to develop a plan before starting a project?

One challenge is that often resistance to planning isn’t direct. It tends to come in the form of people just trying to get project work started, either ignoring our requests as project manager...

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Spurring Action Without Authority: Let the "Why" Drive the "What" inspiration pain points Jul 19, 2024

About 2 months ago, I got a promotion. I’m now Manager of Project Management, or in industry vernacular, the full-fledged leader of my company’s PMO (project management office).

I am very grateful for this opportunity, and I’m looking forward to having a larger impact on my company’s projects and R...

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Best PMI Resources for Project Help RIGHT NOW pain points Jul 05, 2024

I am not being paid to promote any of the resources below. I am simply a satisfied user of them.

The Project Management Institute, or PMI, is a wonderful, well-respected international organization with extensive resources for current and aspiring project managers. The institute is best known for ad...

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Their Anger Isn't Your Emergency pain points people May 31, 2024

Recently, a project manager on my team and I both received phone calls from an upset team member.

We both run our projects in such a way that minimizes how often this type of interaction happens, but even the best project manager can’t prevent all conflict or all situations that might make a stakeh...

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Write Emails that Get Responses pain points May 24, 2024

Do people respond to the emails you send? Do they do so in a timely manner? Do they answer all your questions?

While project managers need to be prepared to use many different communication tools, email remains important. It may be a central means of communication at your organization. Or if your t...

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