Understand the what, when and why of the project and its due dates. This involves clear communication, and results in a realistic schedule that should satisfy the requirements of the client and your team’s ability to deliver it.
Once you are established in your career, prioritise job details that impact your daily life, like commute time and project management systems rather than pay and career development. This will give you more time for a better work-life balance and time for personal growth and development.
Your time is important. Yet you are so busy. Distractions make this even worse. Set blocks of time for “Focus Time”. Setting these blocks of time will help you get lots more work done, leading to better outcomes for you and your projects.
Project meetings can take a lot of time and cost a lot of money. A simple way to encourage meeting efficiency is to display the hourly cost of the meeting for all attendees to see. It is a simple way to keep attendees focused on getting things done and ending the meeting sooner.
Short RFP/RFQ/RFT response times reduce the quality of project proposals and ultimately increase project costs. Reduce the chances of this happening by allowing sufficient time for companies to prepare quality proposals.
Meeting attendance and project document approval records are important. Ensure you get the full name (not just initials) on project records. This will help you identify those people later and will save time when trying to get further information from them.
Restricted access to project information, documents and data can cause a significant increase in project cost and schedule. Ensure all your project team has access to the information and data they need.
Multiple timesheets waste project staff time and project management time. Automate the transfer of timesheet data wherever possible, to save time, costs and increase staff satisfaction.
Project controls are important. They help you keep track of project costs and schedule. A good project controls system will help the project manage its costs and schedule, preferably part of a project management tool. It should be easy to use and automate as much of project controls as possible.
A good timesheet and labour forecasting system should make the task of budget forecasting much more efficient and accurate, saving time and money.