Project deadlines are important to meet but sometimes project issues can cause delays that are unforeseen. What you have to do is ask yourself, “What can I do to plan for project delays”, then this just might help you manage your project deadlines better.

To help you manage your project deadlines, I thought I would share a few quotes to encourage you.

• On the value of Project Management: Trying to manage a project without project management is like trying to play a football game without a game plan. K. Tate (Past Board Member, PMI) 
• Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand. Chinese Proverb
• Be the change you want to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi
  

Now that you are encouraged, let’s look at ways that you can manage your project deadlines so that you can successfully complete them on-time.

• One of the first things that I’ve found that’s helpful is working with a potential issues list which should be part of your project plan. This list would detail those things that could be potential hazards or issues which could affect your deadline. When creating this list, make sure that you include possible solutions for the hazards or issues that may occur.
• Make sure that each team member is aware of their responsibilities and the due date for each one. If due dates are not communicated with the responsibilities then the team members are at a disadvantage.
• Ensure that all team members have the resources and technology they need in order to complete their responsibilities for the project.
• Create a process flow for managing change just in case an issue causes you to change your project plan.
• Under or over estimate time allotment for team members can also cause delays. Make sure that you when you create your time control part of the project that you get feedback from your team members. They can give you feedback regarding how long they feel it would take them to complete their portion of the project.

Like many business owners, I have chosen to use Google Calendar to manage my events and meetings. I’ve spent some time looking for a software program that would allow me to manage my calendar offline and then sync up with Google Calendar, my outlook and my mobile phone easily.

Image: Calgoo.com

Arriving to save the day is Calgoo which is a great tool because it is Windows and MAC compatible which is important to me. Having a PC/MAC business office, I need something that would work on both types of computers and would also allow me to share my calendar with those who want to schedule an interview with me.

Take a look at Calgoo and what it has to offer according to their website,

• Use Google Calendar & 30 Boxes offline
• Manage multiple calendars and contacts
• Organize events in a clean, sleek interface
• Add Outlook, iCal, Google, & other calendars!
• Calgoo Calendar supports:
  • Attendees and attendee status
  • Invitations
  • Reminders
  • Tags and categories
  • Timezones
  • Recurrence and recurrence exceptions
  • Event level privacy settings
  • Free/busy

I encourage you to check out Calgoo and add it to the software that you use to support your business. What do you think about Calgoo? Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Is your cell phone holding you captive is something that business owners need to ask themselves as a way to affectively manage their time. Although cell phones are an easy way to keep in contact with your clients and business associates when you are on the go; the question you have to ask yourself, “Is my cell phone holding me captive?”.

Image: Newscom.com

Below are ways to tell if your cell phone is holding you captive:

• Do you grab your cell phone when you wake up first thing in the morning?
• Before going to bed, do you have to check your cell phone for message?
• Have you fallen asleep while texting others from your cell phone?
• If you take a flight on a plane, do you have to wait to the last minute to get off your phone or are you the first one who gets on your phone as soon as the plane lands before it gets to the gate.
• When watching a movie at a movie theatre, you don’t turn off your phone but put it on vibrate so that you can still answer it. Or you don’t even turn it on vibrate for fear that you wouldn’t feel the vibration of your phone and you don’t want to miss a call or text.
• Do you feel that you have lost a dear friend if you forget your cell phone at home?

If you find that these are true about you, then there is help for you so that you can get your cell phone usage under control.

• Setup up black-out time for your cell phone usage so that you can have downtime from using your cell phone.
• Realize that it’s OK to allow calls to go to voicemail. Just remember that it’s important to return voicemails.
• Before taking or making a call, determine how much time you will spend on the phone. It’s important that you keep to your scheduled time.
• If you end up on a call with a chatty person, make sure that you have a plan in place on how to get them off of the call.
• It’s OK if you forget your cell phone at home occasionally. Don’t get overwhelmed because when you return home, you will be reunited with it.

There’s only so much time in the day, and sometimes despite your best efforts to plan ahead, life intervenes and scuttles your deadlines and best-laid plans.

I know more than a few freelancers who have found themselves trying to juggle deadlines with family illnesses and other lesser crises. And most freelancers I know have taken on too much work at one time or another and found themselves juggling and scrambling to meet all their deadlines.

So how do you avoid freelance overload? And if you find yourself in the precarious position of having to juggle deadlines with unexpected and unavoidable life events, what can you do?

1) Get honest. If you have a legitimate emergency, pick up the phone and call your client or editor right away and let them know your circumstances. Ask for a deadline extension if necessary. Most editors I know would rather find out that you might be running late before the deadline, rather than after the deadline.

2) Pare down. The other day I talked about the importance of sticking to the knitting—in other words, focusing on your core business. To avoid overload,  it’s important to ask yourself how incoming assignments tie in to the primary focus of your business. Granted, it can be tempting to accept assignments that don’t necessarily tie in to your core business in this economy. But if you take on too many of these types of assignments, you’re likely to spread yourself too thin and not further your primary business goals.

3) Prioritize. When you’re crunched for time, look for nonessential to-do items to strike off your list. What on your list can be put on hold until the crisis has passed? Or are there less important tasks that can be delegated to someone else? Or simply let certain things go temporarily—so what if there are a few more dirty dishes in the sink than normal?

4) Call it good enough. Many writers and editors I know have a strong perfectionist streak. If you’re on overload, sometimes you just have to do your best and call the job good enough when you’re done. And chances are—if you’re like most writers and editors I know—what you call good enough is much better than average.

5) Just say no. “No” is one of the shortest words in the English language, but often the toughest to say. But if you’re already on overload, set strong boundaries around your time and don’t volunteer for additional items. And while you’re at it, if you’re really pressed for time, turn your phone off, quit checking your e-mail, and shut out all other distractions until the job is done.

Photo credit: oddsock (Flickr)

Since I left the corporate world, I’ve been having a bit of a time dilemma. When I was working in an office, I had distractions, sure. But those were all within the realm of work. Trying to stay productive here at home is a little different.

So my planner and I had a come-to-Jesus meeting on Friday, during which I was reminded of everything that made me successful at managing my time when I was immersed in the whirlwind of producing magazines. Being a good employee, I responded with an outline of how I plan to use it now in my daily freelance life.

Biding My Time

I invested in this version from AT-A-GLANCE. Over the years I’ve tried a lot of them, and what I like about this version is its dual-purpose space. Each day has one-third of a page dedicated to it, with less emphasis on evenings and weekends, which is just fine by me.

The left-hand side keeps track of the hour, and of course I use that section for marking down meetings and appointments. I kinda like the fact that these lines aren’t covered in ink like they used to be at work. Now I can use them to plot start and stop times for tasks.

To-Dos

On the right-hand side I keep track of my list of tasks. I’ve never been a big list maker—I’m more the big-picture type. But no matter which way you lean, everyone needs a to-do list.

Some days, I don’t get to check them all off. I don’t waste energy beating myself up about it. What I do is draw an arrow next to it and rewrite it for the next day. I spend the time to rewrite it because I think I it helps reinforce that I will do it tomorrow. It’s helpful, too, to look at priorities here, and decide whether it’ll be possible tomorrow. If it’s a lower priority I may write the task down for a later day. When I see it then, I’m usually ready to knock it out. And it helped that I didn’t spend the days in between beating myself up about not getting it done—less stress that way.

Divide and Conquer

Most of my projects are a little more complicated than a single item on a to-do list. I find that it helps to break them down, dividing the various tasks into phases that can be more easily recorded as single to-dos. This helps me keep better track of where I am on the project timeline; plus I benefit from a more frequent sense of accomplishment because I am making progress by completing each phase.

Divvying up a project into smaller sections has a great side benefit too: I find that this process leaves far fewer loose ends floating around in my brain. Just knowing that I’ve corralled them all into one place sets my mind at ease, which means less stress. Less dropped balls too. And when it’s time to quit working, I know I can pick right up where I left off. No obsessing about what I did and didn’t do today, whether I forgot anything, etc.

My planner is always a work in progress. When I am using it properly—help me stay accountable here, folks!—I treat it like a daily diary and work it every day. I get more done, and I’m better organized. Which should keep the boss happy and leave me a little extra surfing time, right?

Do you use a planner? Any tips for making good use of your workdays? I’d love to hear from you.

-Shelley

Photo credit: happyeclair (Flickr)

Call me strange, but I love crossing items off my to-do lists. In fact, I’ve been a list person for as long as I can remember.

I suppose I might have picked this up from my mother, who has always carried one of those small notebooks in her purse wherever she goes. For jotting down lists, thoughts, and things she doesn’t want to forget. Later, my training as a newspaper reporter reinforced what I’d already observed my mother doing when I was growing up. As a reporter, I always carried a stash of pens and at least two notebooks in my car—just so I was prepared for that random newsworthy event.

I’m no longer working in the news business, but I do carry one of those small notebooks in my purse wherever I go—just like my mother. And I’m a fan of work lists too. Which brings me to the subject of this post.

As someone who freelances part time and who also works as a full-time communications and marketing manager, you can imagine that I have a lot of to-do lists. In fact, I maintain separate lists for both areas of my life, along with the usual menagerie of grocery lists and other don’t-forget-to-do-XYZ lists.

I would be completely lost without my lists. Lists help me:

1) Prioritize my workday. Before I dive into any pile of work sitting on my desk, I make a point of writing down all the tasks I need to accomplish that day. And then I prioritize the top three items, and work through those in order. But some days, I’m running the moment I arrive at the office and there’s no time for list making. Even on days like those, though, I eventually take the time to step back and write down what I need to focus on first. Otherwise, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s priority when other requests and assignments land in my inbox. And sometimes priorities change in midstream depending on the kind of workday I’m having.

2) Acknowledge my accomplishments. There are just things that no one else is going to pat me on the back for unless I do the patting myself. Last week, for example, instead of changing into sweats and flipping on the TV set when I came home from work, I changed out of my work clothes, walked out the door again, and went to the gym. I also did a couple loads of laundry. Of course, no one else is going to hand me a medal or pat me on the back for doing a load of whites and a load of darks—and I wouldn’t expect them to. But I know how exhausted I was when I hauled myself to the gym and did those loads of laundry. And that deserved a pat on my own back.

3) Remember administrative to-do items. I don’t know about you, but there are some administrative tasks that I wish I could just ignore, job out, or hand off to someone else. But if you’re like me, there’s no one to delegate these tasks to. So you just have to suck it up and do these things—it’s all part of running a business. Granted, administrative tasks don’t pay the bills, but if you’re running a business, ignoring important things like sending out invoices, tracking your expenses, doing your quarterly taxes, and paying your bills can really get you into trouble. So when I jot these things down on a list, I’m better able to see what needs to get done first. To make things less painful, I sometimes spread these tasks out over a couple of days if there’s no immediate deadline attached to them.

4) Set goals. In addition to helping me organize my daily work life, I also use lists to set immediate and long-term goals. I find it helpful at the start of the week, for example, to think about the items that I need or want to wrap up by the end of my workweek. This helps guide and inform my daily to-do lists, and helps keep me focused on the right tasks throughout the week. I also do similar monthly, quarterly, and yearly planning and usually jot down the top three to five priorities for those time periods.

5) Stay accountable. There’s nothing like a list to help you stay on track. I don’t know about you, but when I write items down in the form of a list, it helps me stay more accountable to the goals I’ve set for myself—whether those goals are daily, weekly, monthly, or longer term. And there’s nothing like getting to the end of your workday and realizing that you can cross all the items off the list that you made at the start of the day. Most times, I carry over a few items into the next day and then make a commitment to finish those items within a certain timeframe. Lists can also help you track how you’re spending your time—informative when you’re trying to determine where your time really is going and how you can better manage it. Outside of the work realm, I’ve also used lists to track my spending habits and to monitor what I’m eating throughout the day. Tracking works because it increases awareness and can create a call to action.

6) Stay on task. Not every request for information, time, or a meeting is a drop-everything-you’re-doing-and-respond-now priority. And few e-mails that land in your inbox need to be answered right away. But when you have a bunch of things flying at you, the urgency of things can get a little skewed. So I always keep my list in front of me throughout the day as a reminder of what my focus needs to be. Of course, priorities can change if a client has an emergency request or you realize that something else needs to float to the top of your list. Sometimes I’ve found it helpful to write down the top item from my list onto a sticky note so that I can place it near my computer monitor. That way, my top priority is always right in front of me, no matter how many distractions come my way that day.

So how do you use lists? How do they help you in your business? Drop me a line and tell me about it!

Photo credit: tiny white lights (Flickr)

I don’t know any writer or editor who, at least once and awhile, doesn’t wish for more hours in the day or days in the week. Sharon Cherry writes a blog at b5media called Startup Spark. It’s really aimed at starting a business, but I keep finding things that work for writers.

For example, she’s got a 2-part series on managing your time. My favorite in part 1 is “Find out how you spend your time.” In < strong>part 2, she’s telling my story with Say the magic word: No.

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

There was a time when I had a full time job, raised three kids and got an occasional bit of writing done… I don’t know how I did it. Seriously.

The major item on my to do list today was to work on the book or ebook that will go with the teleclass about getting your book written. I can’t move forward with the class until that ebook is, if not done, at least close to done. So I opened the file.

Then I remembered a letter from the IRS I’d put aside until today. So I read that and although it was good news, it meant a call to my tax guy. Part of that call included getting a go-ahead to borrow $1,000 from my credit union to put into that savings account to begin to rebuild credit.

I filled out the loan app faxed it over, and, per instructions, called them. That resulted in a fairly long conversation and an appointment in an hour to sign papers. Signing the papers took about 45 minutes and then I stopped to look at an open house on the way home.

Since I was into financial stuff, I decided to assemble and mail the documentation so TransUnion could send me my credit report – they don’t seem to know who I am.

In about 20 minutes I attend Mark Silver’s teleclass for a couple of hours.

Now, in my own defense, I did get a couple of concepts for the ebook down in a way that will allow me to recapture them, and that’s progress… but not nearly as much as I’d hoped.

My question is, how did I get it all done when I had a full time job? Maybe I didn’t, but I’m always amazed at how much time the stuff of life, like banking, and shopping, and going to the doctor and car repair always take.

Maybe I need an assistant. How do you get life’s details handled while you’re writing?

Write well and often,

You know me… I’m the one who tells folks if they have trouble starting writing to just start. I make it sound so easy, and often it is. But not always.

Here it is Sunday and most Sundays I blog at least once. Most Sundays I have something to say about writing… but not this Sunday. I’ve been staring at the write box for hours. Oh, that’s not true exactly, but it’s been one of the windows I’ve had open. I’ve done some other things, both trivial and important… but the truth is I need some more down time.

So I’m going to take it. As Mark reminded is, we are all in control of our own time.

TTY tomorrow!

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

Angela Booth has started a series on time management for writers. Her first entry was unexpected. It is: See yourself as a competent writer. She briefly describes a way to stop the negative self-talk and to begin to change your view of yourself.

She’s absolutely right. I remember clearly how I began to call myself a writer even before I’d been published. I even opened a checking account for my then non-existing writing business. I think I even got business cards printed stating I was a writer. And it worked.

It seems mysterious and I don’t pretend to understand it, but how I view myself is incredibly important to my success.

Recently I’ve been working to see myself as truly part of the Whole. While the connection to my writing business isn’t obvious on the surface, I know the more I really believe myself to be part of the Universe, the better my life works, even my writing life.

I choose to see this as a Spiritual practice, although you don’t have to have a spiritual belief system to make changing your view of yourself work.

Take a few moments and explore how you see yourself in terms of your writing business. Does that view support you? If it does, great, but if your self perception needs some adjustment, use Angela’s method for a week or so and see what happens.

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.