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5 Ways Project Managers Can Do More by Doing Less

Managing a project and steering it through different obstacles in an ever-changing business environment is certainly challenging. On top of that, project managers are burdened by a lot of meetings, emails, and deadlines.

However, you can make things easier for you in managing projects. Here are five project management tools that will help you save time and costs when it comes to managing projects.

1. Identify Priority Tasks

The foremost thing that you need to do when managing projects is to prioritize tasks. The fact is that not all tasks are equally important. Some tasks are urgent but not important. Others may not be urgent but important. In addition, there might be some tasks that may neither urgent nor important.

You need to sort out the tasks and arrange them based on importance. This can take some time, but the activity will be worth it as it will help you work more efficiently.

2. Use the Right Work Management Software

Once you have prioritized the tasks the next task is to use a work management or online project management software to assign tasks to employees. The benefit of using online collaboration software is that it saves costs as compared to using standalone software. There is no need to maintain costly servers to maintain critical project files when you use online team collaboration tool.

3. Make Use of Gantt Chart

You should select project management software with Gantt Chart feature. A Gantt chart consists of horizontal bars that display progress and phases of projects. You can view the progress of team easily with the chart. The chart will tell you what work is in progress and how much time each task is expected to take.  This will help save time in checking the progress of the team.

4. Apply the 90-Minute Rule

Physiologist Nathaniel Kleitman had found that every 90 minutes our bodies shift from high alertness to low alertness. He had dubbed the phenomenon ultradian rhythm. In other words, our body remains in a highly productive phase for about an hour and a half.

After the productive times up, we start to feel lethargic, lose focus, and don’t see the big picture. In order to remain alert when performing your tasks, you need to take regular breaks after every hour and a half of productive work. The result will be more work done during a specified time without getting burned out.

5. Use Mobile Applications

A lot of mobile apps are available that can help save time in project management. You can find online calendar apps, storage apps, and timesheets apps. Also, you can find apps to organize video conferencing. You can use these apps on your mobile device anytime and anywhere.

The above tips can help project managers to make the best use of time. Following these tips will allow you to achieve more while doing less. The enhanced productivity will translate into improved project outcome.