Project management is an important aspect of any business. Being able to initiate, plan, execute and monitor big projects is key to running a successful business. Unfortunately, for freelancers, we are our own project managers, on top of every other hat we wear which can be a lot of work at times. Below, are some project management tips that will hopefully improve your project management skills!
All successful projects have a clear starting point and ending point. So when you are planning out the entire project in the beginning, it is important to establish a clear end point. That way you'll know exactly what needs to get done, and you won't be distracted by things that have nothing to do with that end point. It will help you prioritize items as well.
When you take the time to understand the overall mission of the project, it becomes easier to say 'no' to certain ideas or tasks that may pop into your head. It's common to get distracted by new and fresh ideas, especially in bigger projects, so understanding what you are trying to accomplish with this project will help you differentiate needs and wants in terms of tasks related to the project.
Even though it is natural for us as humans to feel the need to be perfect, there are too many factors outside of our control that can negatively affect the outcome. This is especially true in project management. For this reason, it's important that we come to grips with the fact that almost none of our projects are going to exist without flaws. Instead, we should predetermine a list of project goals and measure our success on whether we reached those goals or not. That way, instead of aiming for perfection, which is nearly impossible, we aim to reach goals that we set before starting which is much more reasonable.
According to the American Psychological Association you can lose up to 40% in productivity by switching between tasks. It may be tempting to switch between tasks often, because it may seem like we are getting twice the amount of work done in half the time. However, our brains aren't wired to handle more than one complex task at a time. You'd be better off working on reducing distractions in your work setting so that you can focus on getting the first complex task done quicker, then moving on to the next.
There's tons more project management tips that I'd love to share. Stay tuned for more posts similar to this one!
