Why are we busy and what are we doing with our time?

“It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” Henry David Thoreau

While it might be funny to think of yourself as an ant, take a look at your daily routine and consider if you’re using your time productively, or merely keeping busy for the sake of being busy.

On this episode of ClearTalk, Brad Malone is joined by Jennifer Jackson, Manager of Professional Services at Solutions360 to share some time management strategies that help them be more productive.

“Between the two of us, we’ve been project managers for over 50 years, managing a wide range of projects,” says Malone. “And without fail there are people and events trying to drag us down into the quagmire of the day to day.”

“A few of my fundamental principles for time management consist of setting a good schedule, as much in advance as possible,” Jackson shares. “Then it’s really important to manage expectations with everybody I work with. And that could be management, customers, or direct reports.”

How does Q360 help with time management?

“Q360 is a massive tool, and it offers a ton of data to help manage projects and people,” Jackson continues. “I have a standard set of reports, workflows and dashboards that I review on a daily and weekly basis, which gives me visibility on all my active projects and their status.”

“There is also a dedicated project management dashboard that provides direct links to a couple key reports from that dashboard so that PMs can review project labor forecasts and project revenue cost forecasts.”

Also on the podcast:

• How lists can help you stay on track, or get back on track
• What is the difference between urgent and important?
• What is the best way to deal with time stealers?