Effective
Planning
-
Managing deadline stress on complex projects
To Do
Lists are important tools for daily
planning. They are, however, not sufficiently
powerful for planning large or complex jobs.
This difference is most notable when jobs
have high visibility, must be completed
to a deadline, or involve coordinating many
people to achieve a single goal. For these,
some level of planning is appropriate.
Action
Plans (simple lists of tasks that need
to be completed to achieve a goal) are useful
for smaller tasks, when jobs or particular
projects are to be completed mainly by one
person, and do not need to be completed
by a fixed date. With Action Plans, tasks
are written down in the order that they
need to be completed. By estimating how
long each task will take, you can quickly
estimate how long the plan will take to
complete.
Formal project management techniques become
essential for more complex work that involves
coordinating several people, or for work
that needs to be completed to challenging
deadlines. The techniques for doing this
are beyond the scope of this site; however,
the Mind
Tools project planning section gives
useful information on this.
By planning a project properly, you can
work out the resources needed, when you
need them, and for how long you need them.
From this, you can work out realistic delivery
times.
This is important for your reputation and
for your stress levels, as there is nothing
more likely to create excruciating stress
for both yourself, and for your co-workers,
than trying to meet an unreasonable deadline.
Similarly, failing to hit a high visibility
deadline will not be good for your career!
Tip:
Project Management is a profession
in its own right. If you need to run
very large or extremely complex projects,
you may benefit from good formal training
in project management, or you may
want to hire a professional project
manager. |
The next
article helps you learn to delegate...
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