The Art of Project Management -Task Management
Continuation to The Art of Project Management published earlier…
Task Management
Task management is both a science and an art. Projects are made of Tasks. With the right methods and a proper task management system in place, you can ensure your projects run smoothly from start to finish.
A task is a single unit of work — an action to accomplish in a project, a single step in a multi-step project. A task is accomplished by a set deadline and must contribute toward work-related objectives. Just as project management is the coordination of individual tasks, a task can be broken down further into subtasks, which should also have a clear start and end dates for completion.
Task management is a way of describing how you identify, monitor and progress the work that you need to do during the day both in Work & Personal Life. Task management lets you stay on top of all your work and help your team hit their deadlines too
The benefits of task management are:
- You can see everything you are working on at once
- You know what your priorities are
- You know how much time you’ve got to do those tasks
- You can group tasks together to work on similar things at the same time
Above all, you can keep a balanced workload so that you can adjust or delegate tasks and deadlines so that you are not overworked.
Tips for Task Management.
- List all Tasks for every everyone and every project
- Manage Task Status (Open/In progress/Backlog/Completed…)
- Add Dates Due
- Include Dependencies
- Account for Non-Project work
- Setup Reminders & Periodic Check-ins
- Add Notification on Complete Tasks
- Breakup Complex tasks to simple Ones
- Train Team to Communicate
- Add milestones to Celebrate the tasks.
Projects are made up of tasks, and knowing how to manage your tasks (and everyone else’s) is the secret to getting your projects completed on time. At its simplest, task management is having a To Do list.
Never fear, we’ve got years of experience when it comes to managing tasks and in this article, we’ll share it all with you. We’ll step you through everything you ever wanted to know about task management but were afraid to ask!
The Tools for Task Management
There are lots of tools for managing your tasks. At the simplest, you’ve got a notebook and pen and you can write down your To Do list. But it’s hard to move tasks around to group them and prioritize them. And you have to rewrite the list every few days or it gets too messy with all the crossings out. But if you are managing a project or multiple projects then you’ll need something more sophisticated as Mongrov.
Task management software lets you automate all of that. We can make a list of all the tasks required for the project (Work Breakdown Structure). Simply add a new task for each item.
The PMBOK defines the work breakdown structure as a “deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team.”
Online Tools like Mongrov can help you by being flexible in providing a collaborative Approach to Task Management. We can do the following in a snap in Mongrov, Export Lists, Define Views, Filter List by users &Categories, Manage a group of task With few Clicks, Besides that each task can have subtask and we can have a separate checklist.
What You See on a Task Management
Obviously Tasks.
You will see the work you have assigned to you that day and the upcoming tasks so you can check the priorities and align to what you feel you need to work on and make any changes as necessary. Click any task and you will see the detail about that piece of work. You can go even further in Mongrov, sharing status updates, adding links, uploading files and recording audio messages on your task. It’s a great way of keeping everything to do with that activity in one place.
Tasks that are overdue will be highlighted. You can either agree with your team that the target date for completion needs to be changed or get cracking on making sure that work is finished off. It’s a very visual reminder of what needs to be done!
Tips: for staying focused and avoiding multitasking in the next article.
How Often Should You Update Your To Do List?
The easiest way to stay on top of your deadlines and tasks, and those of your team, is to update your To Do list once any individual item on it is completed. If that sounds like too much to remember, check your To Do list at the end of every day and mark the tasks you finished that day as complete. Mark anything that you started as ‘in progress’.
It will take you a minute or two and it means that tomorrow you’ll be starting work with a clear idea of what you are in the middle of and what should be your next priority.
Pro Tip: Book a 15-minute slot in your calendar at the end of every day to update your task list.
Should You Share Task Lists?
Yes! Task management works best when everyone can see what needs to be done. Mongrov makes this easy because your project task list can be shared with the team.
The exception to this rule is that you will probably want to keep your personal tasks separate from project tasks.
How To Save Time With Task Management
Managing your tasks, and those of your team takes up valuable time in the day. You may be wondering if it’s worth it.
When time is money, are you really going to get a return from spending so much time on managing your workload?
The answer is easy: Yes!
Not managing tasks is a recipe for missing deadlines and feeling overwhelmed. You’ll spend more time working out your priorities every week and dealing with the fact you’ve spent time on the less important tasks while ignoring a looming deadline. Ultimately that will cost you money, time and stress.
You can still cut down the amount of time it takes to manage your tasks. Here are 5 tips for saving time on task management activities.
- Tip #1: Use Your Calendar
- Tip #2: Stick With One Method
- Tip #3: Prioritize your tasks
- Tip #4: Track your time
- Tip #5: Delegate
Urgent tasks are things that must be done right now, such as a request from your project sponsor to provide an update by the end of the day.
Important tasks don’t necessarily have to be done immediately, but they are essential for the success of the project.
Next Steps if you are not using a task management tool yet Have a try on Mongrov.
