By Trish Thurley, Master Trainer Project Management
“UK productivity gap widens to worst level since records began – growing gulf means UK workers produce significantly less per hour than G7 average”. The Guardian, Feb 2016.
It’s a real concern for UK companies hoping to compete in a global market post-Brexit. In his book ‘Productivity Through Project Management’, James A. Ward (May 2007) asserts that productivity has always depended on competent project management.
Honing your skills in project management is a sure-fire way of: doing more with less… less time, less resources and less money. Whether an everyday, off the side of your desk or larger-scale project.
Invest one to save 20!
I strongly believes that the thinking tools inherent in project management save me up to 20 hours in a typical week when investing just one hour. This invaluable investment also:
- Reduces stress.
- Ensures you work smarter, not harder.
- Avoids letting people down, you simply get stuff done.
Here are my five top tips on increasing your productivity on your everyday projects:
- Invest quality time in setting a clear goal – write it down.
- Be clear what ‘successful’ and ‘finished’ looks like.
- Set achievable small steps in priority order.
- Remove distractions (phone, pop-ups, social media) and power through the small steps – making sure you can focus on the top 5 priorities.
- Reward yourself when you achieve them!
Developing your project management skills:
- Practical Projects™ – Do more with less and understand the fundamentals of project management. More…
- Managing Projects™ – Building on from Practical Projects™ to give a complete ‘toolkit’ for delivering results in a planned, measured and organised way. More…
- Agile Project Fundamentals™ – focuses on the practical steps needed to run, or play a part in, an Agile project. It provides you with the principles, tools and techniques that can be used in the workplace to ensure you deliver maximum project value, on time to budget, every time. More…
- Project Management Survival Guide™ – The complete project management workshop that helps everyone involved in projects to be more planned, more organised and reduce risk. More…
- Sponsoring Projects™ – Confidently govern and control successful projects alongside your day job – and accelerate the pace of delivery. More…
