Time Management – Elementool Blog

How to Eliminate Stress

Hi, it’s Alison again. People often ask me if I know a good way to eliminate stress in life. Think about how much more fun you would have if you could relieve the stress that you have in your everyday life. You’d be less worried and you’d be much happier and healthier. Well, I do know of a way to eliminate stress, and I’m going to share it with you. It’s actually very simple. Before I share this awesome stress elimination technique with you, I’d like to talk about a related subject. If you want to succeed in something that you do, you need to have two things. The knowledge of how to achieve your goal and the tools that enable you to achieve it.

You need to have both and you can’t achieve your goals with only one of these factors. Let me give you an example. Let’s say you want to drive somewhere. You need to have two things, the knowledge of how to drive or driver’s license and a tool for driving, which is a car. You can’t drive somewhere if you only have one of them. You can’t drive somewhere if you only know how to drive a car, but you don’t have a car, and you can’t drive somewhere if you have a car, but you don’t know how to drive. You’ll be able to move the car but you’ll probably hit something quickly and have an accident.

It’s so obvious that we hardly ever stop to think about it. Same goes with Project Management. You need to have the knowledge of how to run projects, and you need the set of tools that will enable you to actually run the projects. That will take me to the stress elimination technique in a minute. If you have the tools to run projects, but you don’t have the knowledge of how to do it, you’ll start having accidents pretty quickly in the form of project delays, scope, creep, et cetera. This is why we, at Elementool offer you both the knowledge and the tools.
The knowledge comes in the form of our Project Management Formula Program, which is a five-step system for running projects successfully from beginning to end. The tools are the Elementool Project Management Software. Together, they give you a complete solution that will allow you to achieve your goals. Now, back to the stress elimination technique.

First, I’m going to give you the knowledge of how stress is created and how you can prevent it. After that, I’m going to give you the tools that will enable you to eliminate and prevent it. I’m going to start with a short clip from our Project Management Formula Program that explains how stress is created and how you can eliminate it. Here it is.
Most people these days will tell you that they have too much to do, and not enough time to get it done. We’ve enhanced our quality of life in so many ways, yet ironically, we nearly kill ourselves with stress by taking on more work than we have the resources to deal with.

That’s why time management is so important because it’s really kind of stress management. Have you ever wondered why you can’t seem to shut down your brain at night when you’re trying to fall asleep? Why are there so many thoughts running through your mind all the time? That’s stress. Now, let me explain how stress is created. It’s not just the big problems that create stress, all of the little unresolved tasks that we have to deal with sit at the back of our heads, subconsciously creating tension. As soon as you attach a should, or a need to, to a task, it becomes incomplete. Decisions that you still need to make about whether or not you’re going to do something are already incomplete.

If you put your mind’s attention on something that needs to be done, and then don’t complete it because it’s low on the priority list, your mind will have already created an open process that keeps running in the back of your mind. It’s going to keep bothering you till you complete that task. Worst of all, it takes up your energy and prevents you from having a clear focus on the more important tasks.

It’s kind of like your Windows Task Manager. When you open Task Manager, you see that there are a lot of processes running in the background. Processes that you didn’t even know existed. Many of them don’t do anything for days but there they are, consuming your computer memory and causing it to run slowly. If you shut down the processes that you don’t use, then it frees up the memory of your computer, and it will run faster.

All these open-end processes create stress. How do we handle all these processes and how do we minimize stress? The key is to clear the open process from our mind by having something else managing them.

Usually, the reason something is on your mind is because you want the situation to be different than what it currently is. The problem is, you haven’t yet worked out exactly what the intended outcome is. You haven’t decided what the next physical step is, and you haven’t put reminders of the outcome and the action required into a system you trust.

Until you do all that, your brain will refuse to put the matter to rest. You can try to fool the people around you by acting like everything’s okay but you can’t fool your own mind. Only it knows whether or not you’ve come to the conclusions you need. Until you clarify your thoughts, make the decisions, and store the data in a system you can trust, your brain will keep nagging you about the next step and adding to your stress.

To manage the actionable items, you’re going to need a storage place to put the tasks, a calendar, a list of reminders of next actions, and a list of reminders of things that you’re waiting for. You will also need a list of projects. Projects or things that need to be completed by following a set of tasks. Hiring a new employee, decorating a room, and building a new version of software or all types of projects.

In order to manage this inventory of open processes, you have to capture it in containers that will hold them until you have time to decide what they are and what you’re going to do about them. Then you need to empty these containers regularly to ensure that they remain good tools for collecting.

The fact that you haven’t put an item in your basket doesn’t mean you don’t have it. You need to be sure that everything you need is collected somewhere other than your head.

Now, there are many kinds of collection tools and they can be physical or digital. For example, a basket, writing paper, a Word document, an email, or Issue Tracking software, are all different types of collection tools. It’s important that the tools have a good reminder system that you can trust. Once you set up a reminder, you move the responsibility of this task to the reminder system. This enables you to close the process in your mind and reduce the stress.

Okay. Now that we have the knowledge about stress causes and how to prevent it, let me introduce the tools that will help you to eliminate it. Let’s say you have a task that you need to complete and you want to take it off your mind and put it in a system so you won’t stress about it. First, you log into your Elementool Issue Tracking account. Then, you create a new issue and type in the description of the task and how it should be solved. When you’re done with this step, create a reminder that will remind you to complete the task. Elementool will manage the remembering part for you. When the due date comes, if the task is not completed by then, Elementool will send you a reminder regarding this task.

This way, your mind will remain stress-free. Cool and simple, isn’t it? This is a small example of what we offer you and how much it can improve your life. The Project Management Formula offers a six-week program. Each week, you’ll get a set of short video clips about a specific topic. All it requires is 30 minutes a week of your time to watch these videos. The six major sections that we cover in this program are Requirements, which explains how to collect and write requirements and define project objectives. The Learning Process, this section describes how we learn and create habits. It will show you a simple system that will improve your learning speed and help you to create positive habits.

Estimating, this is where you learn how to create and provide the best possible estimates for your clients and for your team. Time Management, here you’ll find a wealth of information and tips on how you can ensure that your valuable time is used to its best advantage so you can achieve more in less time. Scheduling and Planning, you’re going to find out practical, easy ways to schedule your projects and keep them on track as you go along. The Project Management Formula, this is an easy five-step system for running projects from start to end that you’ll be able to start using straight away.

On the tool side, we offer you the Elementool’s Project Management System, which includes Issue Tracking for managing your project tasks and the team’s daily workflow. Help Desk, for running customer support and making your clients happy. File Sharing, for sharing files online and saving time. Test Cases, for making sure everything is tested and no bugs are slipping through the cracks. Requirements Management for making sure the project is developed according to what your clients want. Scheduling, for managing the project plan and schedule, and making sure tasks are completed on time. Conference, for running online meetings and approving communication. Amazing, isn’t it?

I think this entire deal is a game-changer. This is what I would like to offer you. You’ll sign up for Elementool’s Project Management System, which includes the seven tools that I mentioned just now for one year with unlimited users for only $2,519. As a bonus of signing up, I’m going to give you free access to the Project Management Formula Training Program for 50 people on your team. Usually, the price of the Project Management Formula is $497 per person, times 50, this is a bonus of $24,850. I want to give you this bonus because I want you to be successful.

We at Elementool love our clients, and we want to help you and share our knowledge with you. Now, I bet you said to yourself, “This is too good to be true. There must be a catch.” Well, you’re right, there is a catch. This offer is only valid for 24 hours. It’ll expire soon, so you better act fast. Click on the Sign-up button below now.

The Power of Partnerships: Working Together Versus Working Alone

But you don’t have to do it alone anymore. In a period of 18 months myself and the rest of the team at Elementool, Inc. have conducted extensive research, read dozens of books, run surveys, and received a lot of feedback from our clients about their problems in the way they run their projects.

That helped us to gain an understanding of the challenges that companies face and enabled us to come up with a solution that will help companies have control over their project management process. We want to share our knowledge and expertise in the project management field with you to help you improve your life.

We’ll be covering a lot of ground in this book, guiding you through some very important concepts. But one of the best things about Elementool’s Project Management Formula is that you will start noticing results right away. As you begin adopting the practices I show you, you’ll immediately see improvements in your work and life. That’s because the tools are simple, step-by-step and easy to follow:

Six Sections for Success!

What, exactly, will The Project Management Formula give you? What I am offering you in this book are six sections for success, the last of which – the Formula you’ve been hearing so much about – will provide you with the final five steps, or solutions, that will kick your project management into overdrive!

The six major sections that we will be covering in this book are:

Requirements
The Learning Process
Estimating
Time Management
Scheduling and Planning
The Project Management Formula

The first section, Requirements, breaks down the requirements phase for you. This is a crucial part of project management that gets ignored far too often, so I am going to start you off on the right foot by explaining the “why’s” and “how’s” of good requirements management.

That will be followed by our second section, The Learning Process, which I think you will find truly eye-opening. In that lesson, I reveal some little-known truths about how our minds take in information and process change.

Some people think that, to do their job well, they only have to know the technical aspects of how to perform their tasks. But at Elementool we believe that to get to the next level professionally – to find greater success – you need to be able to think beyond the obvious. It’s important to understand how the mind works so that you can create positive changes with your team members and within yourself.

The third section we’ll cover together, Estimating, is where you learn how to create and provide the best possible estimates for your clients and for your team. I will show you different methods for doing this that you will want to put into action right away. Best of all, they are easy to understand and easy to implement.

The book’s fourth section, which focuses on the extremely crucial skill of Time Management, offers a wealth of information and tips on how you can ensure that your valuable time is used to its best advantage.

In the fifth section, Scheduling and Planning, you’re going to find out practical, easily applicable ways to schedule your projects and keep them on track as you go along. You will also discover in this section that good project management involves managing expectations.

Finally, in the last and most pivotal section of the book, I’m going to teach you The Project Management Formula. This is an easy 5-step system for running projects that we here at Elementool are really excited about, and that you will be able to start using straight away. The five steps of “the Formula” are:

Step 1: Define project objectives and collect requirements
Step 2: Define the priority of the requirements and features
Step 3: Planning iterations
Step 4: Running iterations
Step 5: Present the product to the client

Project Management is Learned, Not Given

Nobody is just automatically born a great project manager, nor does becoming one happen overnight. Instead, like anything else of value in work or in life, being a great project manager is a skill – or, to be precise, a series of skills – that you have to master over time before those skills become habitual. But many people never quite acquire these skills, because after all change takes time and very few of us have time to spare these days. I understand all this, which is why I’ve done the work for you by assembling the six basic strategies and five simple steps you’ll need to, as the subtitle of this book suggests, “complete projects on time.”

The knowledge is out there; it’s simply a matter of distilling it all down and putting it to use. The challenge isn’t just how, but when? Case in point: there are many books about project management, but who has time to read 400-page books when there is barely any time to finish the things you need to do right now, today?

And even when the project manager is knowledgeable about how to manage projects, usually the team of developers, testers, managers and clients have no knowledge in project management methodologies and that creates miscommunication between the different project stakeholders, leading to frustration and project failure.

Let me give you an example: Tracking the time that team members spend on tasks is very important. It enables the project managers and the team to see how the project is progressing, if there are any delays that need to be addressed, or any changes that need to be made in order to keep the project on track.

The project manager knows that, but the team, who might be a group of excellent programmers who have no knowledge in project management and are not aware of the importance of time tracking, might feel like “big brother” is watching them when team members are asked to report the time they work on assignments.

As a result of not knowing the true reason behind this request, they often object and even refuse to report their time. While it’s human nature to see requests like this as “interference,” this type of basic miscommunication between the project manager and the team leads to arguments, frustration and project delays. In short, project mismanagement.

This is why it is so important for everyone on the team, including developers, testers, managers, and even clients themselves, to be familiar with all the stages that are involved in the project development cycle. And who’s responsible for making them familiar with those stages? That’s right, you; the project manager.

Don’t Just Manage Your Time; Master It!

When it comes to project management, regardless of your position in the company, the size of company or even what industry you’ve been in, time is a mission critical factor that often makes completing projects a challenge.

We’ve all been there: not enough time, no solid schedule, poorly defined goals and objectives, no formal plan, out of control scope creep, miscommunication between people that are involved in the project, etc.

As a result, projects are delayed, time is wasted, clients are angry, your company’s reputation is damaged and you lose customers, people are frustrated and stressed out, team members have to work extra hours to catch up, morale goes down, and employees lose confidence in the company.

If you’ve invested time and money in trick after trick – such as using different project tools, begging and threatening, shouting, motivating team members, holding group discussions, adding more people to the team, and working more hours – but nothing has worked, I would ask you to give this book, and The Project Management Formula it contains, a chance.

Here’s why: You’ve been investing in a host of project management tools and services because you want a better income, a better life for your family, more freedom and independence. But tools alone are useless without solid foundations.

You need strategies for using tools. You’ve been focusing on tools and solving problems instead of focusing on creating strength and power that can be leveraged to avoid problems in the first place. That’s a mindset I hope to change with the Formula I’ll be showing you in this book.

It might help you to think about it this way: let’s say you have the fastest car in the world in your garage. But you don’t know how to drive. The car will be useless to you because you don’t know how to move it, let alone master all the strength, vitality and speed that’s being wasted under the hood. But if you are an excellent driver, even a slow car will be able to get you from one place to another.

In this book I am going to show you how to take charge of your projects and run them in a simple, step-by-step way that will enable you to complete them on time, starting today. This can boost income now and bring you the high-caliber clients that you want to attract. It can also make your company more efficient and competitive and begin refining and spotlighting your brand starting on this very page.

The best part is you don’t need any special background, education, or skills to use this Formula. That said, you do need one special super power to put it into use: action. And not just any action, but aggressive action. Process without action will never produce change. Process without action is simply doing the same things you did yesterday – and the day before – and expecting change.

Albert Einstein said: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Something is missing from that equation; something vital. That something vital is aggressive action.

If you don’t take aggressive action once you’ve seen the path I’ve laid out for you in this book, then I can’t help you. Real Success is for people who take action. Mediocre people follow the herd and wait passively for things to “maybe” change in the future.

You are not like that. How do I know? Because you’re here, with me, reading these words and hoping, ready, for change. I am going to show you how to drive your projects and you’ll be able to use this knowledge with any tool that you currently have.

How to Create Project Schedule – Part III

Hi, it’s me again, Allison.

In this clip I’m going to show you a simple way how you can use Elementool Schedule to track the progress of the project. This will allow you to make sure that everything is progressing according to plan, and if it’s not, you’ll be able to see that and make the necessary changes in you project plan to get it back on track.

Although estimates provide a projection of how long tasks are expected to take, it is important that team members submit the actual time that they end up spending on each task, and Elementool can help with this process.

Tracking the time that team members spend on tasks allows project managers and the team to see at what pace the project is progressing. Based on the times being submitted, they can see if there are any delays that need to be addressed, or any changes that must be made in order to keep the project on schedule.

The team submits the time that they spend on each task to the Elementool Scheduling system. They can submit it a few times a day when they finish working on different tasks, or once a day for the entire day.

There are two ways team members can submit tasks:
1. If they use the Issue Tracking to work on issues, they can use the Schedule form on the bottom of the Issue form.
a. Scroll down to the Schedule form.
b. As you can see, this issue has already been included in the project.
c. Submit the date and number of hours that you worked on this issue.
d. You can submit the start and end time and the system will calculate the duration automatically.
e. Or just submit the number of hours that you worked on this issue.
f. When done, click on Update.
2. The second way to submit time is to go to the Schedule application by selecting it from the service dropdown menu at the top of the screen.
a. Click on Add Time.
b. Find the task on the project list.
c. Fill out the date and time and click on Submit button.

The hard part is behind us. Now let’s take a look at the Gantt chart. As you can see, the tasks that were reported are starting to fill up on the chart. This allows you to see how much has been done and how much is still left. In case people work on a task longer than expected, their colored time bar will extend itself outside of the Gantt bar borders. This means that they spent more time than was estimated and probably had less time to work on other tasks. So you might expect delays in the project.

This is all for now. If you want to learn advanced strategies for project scheduling and planning, I recommend that you sign up to Elementool’s Project Management Formula program at: www.projectmanagementformula.com
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to submit them in the comment section below.

Website Facelift

In the next few weeks, we’re going to be making some design enhancements here at Elementool.com. But don’t worry, these changes will not have any affect on the way that you utilize our site.

During the redesign process, the application functionality will remain completely the same throughout the website, so you can continue using it without interruption. Here’s a sneak peek at the changes we have in store for Elementool.com.

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