Strategies for Effective Time Management in Team Projects

Do you find that your team projects are often running behind schedule? Is it difficult to stay organized with multiple people collaborating on a single project, especially when working with some members remotely? Well then, you're not alone! For many teams out there, effective time management is an ongoing issue. There are always so many details to remember and tasks to take care of in a timely fashion.

In this post, we'll talk about different strategies for effective time management that will help you make the most of your team's efforts and accomplish more in less time.

Map Out Your Project and Schedule Tasks

If you're working on a big project with multiple steps, the first step is to map out the overall project. What are the main components? What needs to happen when? Is there any timing you'll have to account for? Will some of your team members need extra time to finish certain elements in order for the whole project to come together smoothly?

Once you've got a basic overview of where things stand, it's time to start scheduling! If you aren't familiar with Gantt charts, then this tool might be something worth investigating. It's an easy way of visually seeing what needs to happen when in relation to other tasks.

After you've mapped out your tasks, it's time to start scheduling them. Focus on the time needed to complete each task at hand and how much you could extend your deadlines if you needed to. Look for ways in which you can combine tasks together, breaking them into sets with sub-tasks that could be done individually later on. If several team members are involved in a project and one member is a little more important than the rest, ask the person what they need to have done so that it can be added to the list until everything is taken care of.

Have Team Members Work Individually

When working on a team project, it's often easy to get distracted with other things. Since everyone is so close at hand, it's easy to let conversations become side-tracked and not get back to work until the task has been forgotten or lost. To avoid this, it's a good idea to have your team members work individually when possible. Have them all work on different components of the project so that they can't interfere with each others' progress. If you have an issue come up, just send an email or make a simple phone call to address it right away instead of interrupting someone in person.

Don't Let Your Team Members Forget Tasks, Have a Reminder System

It's easy to get distracted with other tasks if you're working on a big project, especially when you have several things going at once. One of the best ways to ensure that your team members don't forget crucial tasks is to find a system that can remind them. For example, if someone needs to give notes on their findings or send out an email by a certain day, they could write it on an index card. Then stick it up somewhere highly visible right beside their computer or phone. This will be a constant reminder until it has been taken care of and you can move on.

Downsize Your Projects Into Smaller Steps

If you've got a big project on your hands, a great way to take it down to size is to break it into smaller steps. Not only will this make it more doable in the time you have, but it will also give your team members better ways to stay focused. They can work on one small step at a time and once the task has been completed they can move on to the next one with ease. There's no need to look at the overall task and find yourself feeling discouraged. Instead everyone can stay motivated and work – even remotely – from where they are most comfortable.

You Need to Define Your Own Time Management System

Sometimes you'll find that you need to have a little bit more flexibility in how you work, especially if you're working from home and your team members aren't. If this is the case, it's important to know your own style of time management and make sure that it suits your personal priorities. There are plenty of great ideas out there on how to best go about things, and in the next part of our series we'll be talking about one of the most popular ones: Pomodoro Timer (a programmable timer for when you work best).

Conclusion

So there you have it. There are a lot of great suggestions for strategies for effective time management in team projects. Use the ideas provided here as a starting point for making your projects run smoothly. In future articles we'll be talking about more topics related to effective time management that can help you make the most of your efforts.

We've put together an infographic on time management tips and tricks that will help organize your tasks, improve your productivity, and stay focused on finishing your tasks. Check it out!

Want more info about how to implement these strategies? Contact us: contact@zentaprojects.com

Sources:

Grace Harriet - How to Manage Multiple Projects Effectively (http://www.crmbuyer.com/blog/how-to-manage-multiple-projects-effectively/)

Artem Russakovskii - Project Management Tips for Startup Founders (http://www.marksdailyapple.com/project-management/)

Visualistan - Infographic: Time Management Tips and Tricks (http://visualistan.com/time_management/)

Karsten and Chris Peters - Time Management Tools for the Web (http://www.techonthenet.com/time-management/tools-for-the-web/)

Strategies for Effective Time Management in Team Projects

Strategies for Effective Time Management in Team Projects

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