A Day in a Project Manager’s Life

Being a project manager is really a pretty tough job. Every day is stressful because there’s a ton of responsibility on your shoulders when you’re in charge. And no matter how good the work is, people always remember that one little thing in the project that didn’t go right. It’s like they don’t even notice the thousand things that DID work perfectly!



Being a project manager is really pretty tough job. Every day is stressful because there’s a ton of responsibility on your shoulders when you’re in charge. And no matter how good the work is, people always remember that one little thing in the project that didn’t go right. It’s like they don’t even notice the 1,000 things that did work perfectly. When you manage a team of people like I do, there are hundreds of tasks that have to be completed for each project. And honestly, it’s impossible to keep track of them all. I’m constantly running around, chasing people down, trying to make sure they’re all working on the right tasks. It’s extremely stressful. I feel like I spend half of my day saying, “What are you working on?” And you wouldn’t believe how many times, when I do ask someone what they’re working on, I find out that they’re putting all their time into a low-priority task which just wastes valuable time and leads to more delays in the project. It’s frustrating. Sometimes I feel like I need to do everything myself, and that’s exactly why I have to make sure I’m checking up on the team all the time. I’d really prefer not to because it’s time consuming for me and aggravating for them, especially since it interrupts their work. I have to admit that sometimes I feel lost. It’s hard to keep track of so many tasks. I have times where I don’t really even know who’s working on what, and that can keep me up at night, especially when we’re close to a deadline. Next to “What are you working on,” the second question I catch myself asking people is, “When will it be done?” I have to run a super tight schedule, and I need to know whether or not the project is actually going according to plan. I’m constantly fielding phone calls and emails from clients wondering when the latest feature that they asked for will be ready. You’ve probably heard this phrase so many times from your clients– “I need an ETA.” So for me to keep them up to date, I always have to be on top of the progress of the project. And if it’s not running on schedule, then I need to have enough time to make changes to the project. There’s no question, project managing is a high stress job. But fortunately, I finally got all that stress to go away when I discovered Elementool’s Priority List feature. It gives me laser-focus control over the projects and my team. I can define a unique priority level to each issue. That way I can make sure that people know exactly what to work on at any moment of the day, so I don’t have to worry anymore that they’re wasting time doing things they’re not supposed to. Sometimes an urgent issue comes in, and that means making changes to the project plan and having people stop what they’re doing to move on to the new task. The Priority List allows me to make those updates in just a few seconds on the team’s work plan. I can also see at any given moment the progress of the tasks that each team member’s working on and the date that they’ll be completed. In fact, you can wake me up in the middle of the night, and I’ll be able to tell you who’s working on what. It’s really brought back the feeling that I’m in control. Now I feel more confident that I can finish my projects on time. When I go home at the end of the day, my mind is free, and I can play with my little girl, and not worry about work. I just love it. Thank you, Elementool. In order for you to get laser-focus control of your projects, all you need to do is click on the signup button below to get a free trial.

 

When you manage a team of people like I do, there are hundreds of tasks that have to be completed for each project, and, honestly, it’s impossible to keep track of them all. I’m constantly running around, chasing people down, trying to make sure they’re all working on the right tasks. It’s extremely stressful. I feel like I spend half my day saying “What are you working on?” to everyone in sight.

And you wouldn’t believe how many times when I do ask someone what they’re working on, I find out that they’re putting all their time into a low priority task – which just wastes valuable time and leads to more delays in the project. It’s frustrating. Sometimes I feel like I need to do everything myself. That’s exactly why I have to make sure I’m checking up on the team all the time. I’d really prefer not to do it, because it’s time-consuming for me and aggravating for them, especially since it interrupts their work.
I have to admit that sometimes I feel lost. It’s hard to keep track of so many tasks. I have times where I don’t really know who’s working on what. That can keep me up at night. Especially when we are close to a deadline.

Next to “What are you working on?” the second question I catch myself asking people most is “When will it be done?” I have to run a super tight schedule, and I need to know whether or not the project is actually going according to plan. I’m constantly fielding phone calls and emails from clients wondering when the latest feature that they asked for will be ready. You’ve probably heard this phrase so many times from your clients: “I need an ETA”, so for me to keep them up-to-date, I always have to be on top of the progress of the project. And if it’s not running on schedule, then I need to have enough time to make changes to the project. There’s no question, project managing is a high-stress job.

But fortunately I finally got all that stress to go away when I discovered Elementool’s Priority List feature. It gives me laser focused control over the projects and my team.
I can define a unique priority level to each issue. That way I can make sure that people know exactly what to work on at any moment of the day. So I don’t have to worry anymore that they’re wasting time doing things they’re not supposed to.

Sometimes an urgent issue comes in and that means making changes to the project plan and having people stop what they’re doing to move on to the new task. The Priority List allows me to makes those updates in just a few seconds on the team’s work plan.

I can also see at any given moment the progress of the tasks that each team member is working on, and the date that they’ll be completed. In fact, you can wake me up in the middle of the night and I’ll be able to tell you who’s working on what. It’s really brought back the feeling that I’m in control. Now I feel more confident that I can finish my projects on time. When I go home at the end of the day my mind is free and I can play with my little girl and not worry about work.

I just love it! Thank you Elementool!