The Culture Code team has recently redesigned the Things app to emphasize larger categories in their task management process. The drawback of this app? Only available on Mac. The key differentiator for this task-tracking software is that you can select a core focus for each day. Things lay on a small layer of project management that has sections on comments, tasks, and subtasks. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2015 Survey “the ability to work in a team structure” tied with leadership skills as the #1 most attractive job skill for prospective employers, with 77.8% seeking both of these qualities. Yes, calling yourself a “team player” is a big cliche, but it has become a big cliche or a reason.
Regardless of where you stand in the organization hierarchy or personal accomplishments, this blog is for you. Here is a list of handpicked task management tips that you can work with today to accomplish your milestones without them getting the better of you.
Our daily lives revolve around a certain number of tasks that we identify along the way to achieve our ambitions and SMART goals. In the struggle to be at the top of our game and retaining our competitive edge, we often bite more than we can chew.
Although everything seems of high priority, something goes amiss in this race of getting things done and keeping your head. Some of us create a long to-do list to accomplish – before a certain time period or a certain age. Others spend so much time perfecting a single task that by the time it shines, it is obsolete.
Workload balancing and time management skills are not only associated with project managers or bosses. In fact, these skills need to be adopted on each level especially working in a team. If not, it can render dire consequences for a project altogether.
According to a study by Cornerstone, work overload decreases productivity by 68% in employees who feel they do not have enough hours in the day to complete their tasks. So, what are the essential task management tips that we all need to be effective and efficient, simultaneously?
To-do lists are classic, yet powerful and effective more than ever today. Back in the day, people kept handwritten notes for ideas and things to get done. They are like your everyday essentials and add to your effective task management tips.
Now, people have smart to-do list apps that give out notifications and reminders before the task is due. It is easier than ever before to jot down ideas in the form of images, voice notes, text and so much more.
Shivani Siroya is the CEO of Tala, a microloan startup. Siroya states: “I’ve figured out how to make all these digital systems work for me, but I have to admit, at the end of the day, a list on paper still feels the most useful.”
Make it a habit to arrange a list of things to do. Also, make use of the many free and premium to-do list apps that will help you do just that.
Understandably, not everything on your to-do list needs to be done right away. Yes, there are some great ideas that can help you take your game a notch up. However, it is important to establish what is important at a specific instance.
Michael Mankins is a Bain & Company partner and co-author of “Time, Talent and Energy”, a CMI Management Book of the Year. According to Mankins, “Liberating time requires eliminating low-value activities altogether, not merely capturing them on a list,” he stresses.
Take help from the BCG matrix, and understand the strengths and weaknesses of your projects as well as the opportunities and threats it is facing. Once clear with what matters at the time, you can define the importance of the tasks better.
Scheduling tasks is a great task management skill and keeps the team focused on what is at hand without going off-track worrying about other tasks. However, keeping on track is a major struggle in itself.
Did you know that according to a study, a person wastes about 21.8 hours a week? Professionals are more or less affected by distractions that seem harmless at the moment but result in major setbacks later. These distractions include phone usage and small talk.
According to a study by Udemy, more than a third of millennials and Gen Z (36%) say they spend two hours or more checking their smartphones during the workday.
Next, make a schedule and allot start and due dates. By assigning a due date to a task, we tend to be more aware of the cost it incurs, both monetary and time-wise.
One of the best ways is to go Agile. Create backlogs and assign it to a sprint. This also gives a better perspective on the time required for each task completion.
Holding your stance is a great quality to embody if you want to achieve milestones and deadlines. However, some instances and situations require revisiting already made decisions. Being flexible is #4 on our list of the top task management tips.
This can be due to a sudden change in the market trends, change in customer drive or if a certain task appears to overshadow others.
Any of these factors, if not acknowledged on time, can strip a team off potential chances of success and growth. It is important to be on the lookout for likely loopholes of if another opportunity seems to be passing us by. Be flexible with deadlines when you need to be.
As stated by Osman Khan, CEO, and co-founder of the online auction house, Paddle8, in a Forbes interview,” In the right roles and with the right people, flex does offer tremendous productivity improvement.
It gives people time to process properly, and it gets them out of the office in terms of being bogged down in day-to-day admin. So, there is more thought leadership that comes to the table, and that’s where your creativity and innovation come in.”
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Being open to change is important but mastering the how-to of it is equally important. Most of the times, we are unable to drive the change needed for a certain project or in our strategy.
However, this skill can help increase the chances that your project meets its objectives 6 times more than with poor change management.
With the Scrum methodology, you can be open to and manage change easily through the daily Scrum meetings. The daily scrum gives you an opportunity to not only have an overview on the tasks being done but also the bottlenecks they may face. This way you can alter backlogs to better suit the changing requirements.
Being over-burdened is a real thing and if not addressed well, it can significantly affect productivity. By the end of the day, we are only humans working with other humans. Each of us hold a unique set of qualities when it comes to patience, resilience, working under pressure or getting a task done in the least amount of time.
According to Eli Broad, philanthropist and founder of 2 Fortune 500 companies, “The inability to delegate is one of the biggest problems I see with managers at all levels.” Hence, it is downright crucial, to not only be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses but those of your team, too. Prizmo pro 4 0 3 0.
When you stay vigilant, you can better analyze who can better help out at a certain stage. One of the best task management tips is to know how to delegate tasks, to the right person.
This opens windows for the other person to experiment and grow as well, which leads to growth in your team.
After helping the team sort out their priorities and delegating critical tasks, leaving the arena is a complete no-no. Setting up a team and schedule is great for success, but it also needs to be consistently followed upon.
If a project requires a daily scrum meeting, increasing workload or approaching deadlines can lead teams to give it a back seat. This may often lead the management to stay aloof in hopes that the team will suffice by itself. In reality, this is the time to be more involved than ever before.
Did you know that according to a study by the University of Ottawa, 33% of projects fail because of a lack of involvement from senior management?
Instead of micromanaging, be present and reachable if the team needs you. In order to make the most of your plans, prioritization, and scheduling ensure that all steps are followed by everyone in the team. This includes stakeholders and clients.
At times things may not go as planned causing us unprecedented setbacks. As per a study by Wellington, only 37% of teams in the U.K. reported completing projects on time more often than not. It is only human to feel overwhelmed and experience a dip in your morale at such times.
By mastering the art of patience, you can get through difficult situations and help your team get back on its feet sooner as well.
As Jack Ma, entrepreneur and founder of Alibaba says, “The very important thing you should have is patience.”
The importance of communication has been reiterated on numerous channels on a variety of levels throughout the years. However, statistics prove that this is an area where professionals, even managers lack skills in.
The anomaly here is that despite the criticality of this skill, proven time and again, professionals choose to look the other way when it comes to communication. Whether it is your personal task management or project milestones to be achieved in a team, people seldom decide to state their mind. This is where team collaboration software plays a vital role in ensuring smooth communication between the concerned parties.
Fear of seeming incompetent, lack of availability by managers, and playing the blame game are some of the bland reasons why the most important information goes amiss. This can lead to major setbacks, in the long and short run.
According to David Grossman, in “The Cost of Poor Communications”, a survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each stated an average loss of $62.4 million per year (per company) due to insufficient communication among employees. Planner 5d 4 2 30 inch.
Having the right ammunition can win you battlefields. The same goes for battling effective task management and time tracking. Technology has paved the way for many startups to become market giants and has built billionaires.
The right tool at the right time can render wonders for your personal and professional life. Task and project management skills may have a lot to do with on our personal traits and qualities but adopting the right task management tool can raise chances of success exponentially.
Be sure, to research and choose the right task management apps for you and your team.
Some of the free project management tools you can consider today are nTask, Asana, Trello, Wrike and more. However, be practical and adopt tools according to what is feasible, not just what is reining the market, keeping in mind finances, learning curve and team requirements.
You can start with free task management and productivity apps, and upgrade along the way.
Telegram 2 20 – messenger based on the mtproto protocol. Which task management tips have helped you manage your workload? Share your story and lend us some tips in the comments below.
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Management skills are something that you hear a lot about in the abstract; yet you may find you're at a loss to define what the term really means. In the broadest sense, management skills can be nearly anything that enables you to manage others effectively. While some skills will vary based on your industry, there are several that are universal across nearly every work environment.
Managers who can motivate their employees are true assets to their company. This type of interaction not only increasesproductivity and employee satisfaction, but it sets a good example as well. Hiring managers look for leaders who can spot employees' strengths and encourage them to develop their skill sets. The best managers have a keen eye for areas that could be improved and know how to approach these issues diplomatically so workers feel encouraged to make productive changes, rather than discouraged by their shortcomings.
Important skills in this area include:
The right skill set empowers managers to identify, face, and overcome various problems that might arise in the workplace. This first requires outstanding attention to detail. Top managers can spot emerging problems before they're apparent to everyone in the company and identify the root of the trouble. Analytical skills are also important in management. You should know what data is most relevant to your industry, how to gather it, and what the resulting numbers mean.
Highlight these problem-solving skills on your resume:
Good managers hold themselves to the highest standards so that their employees will have a clear example of what they should strive for. Integrity, honesty, and professionalism are crucial skills for strong managers. As a leader, it's better to show rather than tell when it comes to work ethic and demeanor. Hiring managers look for job applicants who adhere to a strict moral code and set the right example for others.
Qualities that exude professionalism on a resume include:
One of the most important responsibilities that managers have is communicating effectively, both with the employees who work under them and with other managers throughout the company. They're part of an intricate web and must act as a strong connection point that bridges the gaps between lower level employees and top brass or between sales, marketing, and production departments.
People skills are crucial. You should be able to communicate in both verbal and written form. Typo-riddled memos or rushed, confusing meetings won't do. The best managers are always able to send a clear message and share valuable, understandable information that will help get the job done.
Include these types of communication and people skills on your resume:
Technical skills are more important for low-level managers than for those at the top of the chain. If you're angling for your first managerial spot, it's crucial that you demonstrate a keen understanding of the business as a whole. Many companies promote their managers from within for this very purpose. You can't oversee a team of IT professionals if you're lost when it comes to navigating your company's programming systems. No sales manager can be effective if he doesn't know how to close a sale.
Your industry knowledge and experience should guide all those whom you oversee, helping them to achieve higher levels of success. Managers are often called upon to provide training and coaching for their employees. You should be able to impart useful wisdom and handy trade secrets that will help your team excel.
Innovation is a keyword for nearly every company. Your competitors are always striving to develop the best new products and services ahead of you. Businesses that innovate well stay at the top of the pack, netting new customers with their fresh offerings and keeping existing clients happy with a continuous selection of upgrades. Hiring managers have a keen eye for new hires who will bring different perspectives and new ideas to the company.
Including any of the above-mentioned skills on your resume will position you for success in management. This applies both to those who are actively pursuing a managerial position as well as those who are applying for lower level jobs. Highlight all your applicable management skills on your resume no matter what job you're after. Having the solid qualities of a good manager will position you for success at any level of the company.
Management skills are important for many reasons. They position you to act as an effective leader and problem-solver in so many situations. Work on honing these skills and watch how they can impact your job performance and opportunities.
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