What Are the Basic Steps to Project Time Management?
The skill of time management usually refers to techniques and tools used to manage time when accomplishing specific goals, tasks, and projects.
Becoming a great time manager requires clearly understanding the activities of the project and the ability to plan, schedule, and control project timelines.
To be successful in time management, you must also be able to apply professional time management tools to help you analyze, measure, and assess your time management techniques.
There are four basic steps to help with project time management:
- Defining activities
- Sequence the activities
- Activity resources estimation
- Developing and controlling schedules
4 steps to project time management
Defining activities
At the first stage, you define all tasks, milestones, and other activities needed to complete your project. Begin with identifying a basic definition of each task and fill in the details as the project gets fleshed out.
Gantt charts are really helpful here. Use them to add tasks and their estimated timeframes.
Activities sequence
At this stage, you start putting the activities in order. Order the activities in a way that makes the most sense to you without worrying about dates. Create subtasks as needed and organize the project in a logical manner. Then add dependencies to each task.
Estimating resources
Estimating resources requires to assess the supply and demand of each resource/person and how it relates to your specific project. Assign people roles to each task and then revise the dependencies based on the resource allocation.
Developing and controlling schedules
With the help of Gantt charts or powerful project roadmaps, it should be easy to develop a project schedule. Make sure you have complete buy-in before you start the project. Everybody should understand their role in the project and should be able to confidently commit to the timeline. Controlling the schedule is a lot harder than planning the schedule and requires more one-on-one management than you might expect.
Note that ensuring that the hours are entered when the activity is completed will save a lot of time. Do not hesitate to use smart roadmaps and apply useful Gantt charts – they will definitely empower your time management and teamwork.