9 Project Management Tips to

Make Order out of Chaos

Collect all related work items.

Ask yourself these sorting questions:

• Which tasks have the most immediate hard deadlines?

• Which task will make the most positive impact when it’s finished?

• What are the dependencies?

• Is there a task that you just have to get off your plate to clear your mind and move forward?

Identify urgent vs. important.

Use a prioritization method

to identifies work that, if not

completed by the end of the

day, will have serious

negative consequences.

Put those items at the tippy-

top of your list.

Give yourself 3 key items to

accomplish.

Don’t spread yourself so thin that you get nothing significant accomplished (except for spreading more chaos).

By having a focused—and realistic—approach to your workload, you increase your chance of completing important work sooner.

Develop a process that works

for the way you think.

Right brainers focus on the big

picture and tend to be more

ad-hoc in their approach to life.

Left brainers are the list

makers; they like advanced

planning and have a more

linear approach to solving

problems.

Get organized—give everything

a place.

Focus on your core competencies.

Efficient people know when to give it their all and when to do a good enough job to move forward.

Prioritizing your skills organizes the day, increases productivity and ROI.

Know when you’re most

productive—and use it wisely!

Regularly review your work

items.

Stay on top of the moving life force of your projects.

Looking at the big picture and reviewing your workload gives you fresh insight on what needs to get done, reprioritized or reorganized.

Do it!

At some point you have to deliver the final

product. Here are four things to consider

for the doing part, based on David Allen’s

GTD methodology:

1. Context: What can you do right now?

2. Time available: What do you have time

to do right now?

3. Energy available: What are you able to

accomplish right now?

4. Priority: After you answer steps 1-3,

start working on the highest priority

item.