Projects usually have a variety of tasks that need to be completed during development. Some tasks need to be completed in a specific order and one cannot start until the prior has been finalized. If delays start to build up it can prevent the deliverables from arriving on time.

Every project has a critical path of tasks that need to be completed. Float is how much time you have until a task will impact the due date of the project. Learning how to monitor and plan for float is an essential skill for every project manager.

In this blog post, we’ll define float time in project management, what the benefits of using float time are, and what it means in a larger context. We will also give an example of float time in action.

What is Float Time in Project Management?

The time a task will take is defined as the float time, which indicates how long you have before it must be completed. The amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying the project’s deadline is known as total float time.

Any additional delay that may be allowed for a particular assignment before impacting the following activity is referred to as the free float time. It’s crucial to remember that float time isn’t always available; it depends on the type of job and its level of complexity.

Float time becomes important in project management when you need to understand how much time you have to delay a task without it impacting the due date of the project as a whole. This becomes especially important when tasks start to build up on the critical path and can delay the project if they’re not completed on time.

Free float delays aren’t as serious as total float delays, usually. If there is enough time for the subsequent task to absorb the delay this may not lead to major issues overall. Any total float delay is very important though, as it may cause the project to miss its date.

Zero Float Time

Finally, you might see the term “zero float time” used in project management. This refers to a task that needs to be completed so quickly there isn’t any room for delays at all. The total float time for a zero float task is always 0, which means it must be started as soon as possible and finished on schedule.

Benefits of Float in Projects

Using float is especially useful for project managers who are overseeing big projects that are juggling different tasks. If one task is delayed the next step isn’t affected because it has some float time to play with.

Float can also be used to offset any other tasks that are behind schedule, so they’ll have enough time to catch up.

This also allows for more flexibility in your daily workflow if you’re juggling multiple projects at once. For example, if you have a high-priority project and several low-priority ones, you can schedule your time to accommodate for the higher priority project by doing some preliminary tasks in advance.

This way if you have an unexpected delay for one project, or get ahead of schedule on one of the others, your overall daily workflow stays relatively under control.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the major benefits of using float:

1. Prevents tasks from building up and impacting the due date of the project
2. Allows for more time to complete high priority tasks
3. Helps to manage resources more efficiently
4. Can help to avoid rushing to complete tasks at the last minute
5. Reduces stress and allows for a more relaxed work environment
6. Keeps the team on track and focused on the project goals
7. Helps to avoid overtime and additional costs associated with it
8. Allows for a more accurate assessment of how long tasks will take to complete
9. Prevents unnecessary delays from occurring and causing a ripple effect

What is the Critical Path in Project Management?

The critical path is the sequence of tasks in a project that is necessary for the project to be completed on time. If any of these tasks are delayed, it will impact the overall completion date of the project.

Project managers can determine the critical path by analyzing the dependencies between tasks. If a critical task is delayed, all tasks that depend on it are likewise delayed.

If there are multiple projects with different scheduling requirements, you can define a separate critical path for each project to help define your float time more accurately.

Float is an essential part of project management because it allows teams to assess their scheduling requirements and define a clearer timeline to help them stay on track without sacrificing quality.

Task Type Affects Float Time

As mentioned earlier, not all tasks have the same float time. It’s important to define what type of task you’re working with in order to determine how much delay it will tolerate before delaying the project as a whole.

Here are some specific task types and factors that impact their float time:

1. Tasks on the critical path
2. Short tasks with a lot of complexity
3. Detailed design-related tasks such as testing, inspection, and quality control
4. Customized tasks such as writing software code or designing complex projects
5. Tasks that are required to be completed within a strict deadline (e.g., contract deadlines)
6. Projects that have multiple individuals working on them
7. More difficult tasks with higher risk factors, such as any task requiring innovation or creativity

Calculating Float in Project Management

In addition to allocating float time for different task types, there’s also a formula you can use to define how much delay is tolerable before total project completion. Using this calculation is a valuable tool in defining your schedules and identifying the most critical tasks that define the timeline of a project.

To define total float time: Subtract the finish date for the last task in the project from the date the project is due. This will give your total amount of leeway to deal with any delays.

To define free float time: Subtract the current task’s end date from the projected start date of the next task.

What Kind of Project Management Methods Benefit From Float?

Float can be used by project managers following many different types of frameworks. No matter what you have been trained in, or are looking at learning, float will become a key part of your knowledge base.

Using float is very beneficial in the following types of project management methods:

Agile

Agile methodology is a term used in project management for a framework that allows for changes and adaptations during the course of the project. It’s typically used in software development, but can be adapted for other types of projects as well.

One of the main benefits of using agile is that it allows for more flexibility and responsiveness to change. This makes it an ideal methodology for projects that are constantly evolving and changing.

Since Agile methodology is based on short sprints, it also allows team members to easily measure their progress and adapt their plans as needed.

Lean Six Sigma

The Lean Six Sigma methodology is a data-driven approach that helps organizations improve their quality and efficiency. It’s a combination of two popular methodologies- Lean and Six Sigma- and is designed to help teams achieve their goals in a more streamlined way.

One of the main benefits of using the Lean Six Sigma methodology is that it helps teams focus on the big picture. By identifying and addressing problems early on, teams can prevent them from becoming more costly and time-consuming down the line.

Critical Path Method

The critical path method, or CPM, is a project management tool that helps you define and optimize your project timeline. It does this by identifying the tasks on your project that are most critical to its success and then calculating the amount of float time available for each task.

The main benefit of using the critical path method is that it allows you to focus on the tasks that have the biggest impact on your project timeline. This helps you stay on track and avoid delays.

DMAIC

The DMAIC(or define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) method is a data-driven approach to quality improvement. It’s a problem-solving methodology that helps teams identify and address problems early on.

The main benefits of using the DMAIC method are that it helps teams focus on the big picture and it allows for more flexibility and responsiveness to change.

PERT

The PERT method is a project management tool that helps you define and optimize your project timeline. It does this by identifying the tasks on your project that are most critical to its success and then calculating the amount of float time available for each task.

The main benefit of using the PERT Method is that it allows you to focus on the tasks that have the biggest impact on your project timeline. This helps you stay on track and avoid delays.

Kanban

Kanban is a project management method that helps you visualize your work and optimize your workflow. It does this by allowing you to track the status of each task and identifying any bottlenecks in your process.

The main benefits of using the Kanban Method are that it helps you focus on the tasks that are most important, it allows for more flexibility and responsiveness to change, and it helps you identify and address problems early on.

Float Time Example

To give you the clearest idea possible of what float time is in action, let’s use a construction example. When building a house there is a critical path of tasks that need to be completed in order. You can’t install the toilet until the flooring has been laid down in the bathroom.

There’s no way to lay the flooring until the walls on that level have been erected.

In this case, if any of these tasks on the critical path are delayed, then the entire house construction project is delayed. This means that there is zero float time on a task like this and it can’t be delayed without delaying the entire project.

Let’s look at a less critical task.

If you were painting the interior of the house, this is not a task that impacts the whole project if it’s delayed. This means that there is some float time available to push off the painting until later without delaying the entire house construction project.

This does not mean that it can be pushed back infinitely or for an unlimited amount of time. If the painting task is pushed back to the point where it would delay handing the keys back to the client, then that’ll end up affecting the total float time.

You’ve put every possible effort into preparing a thorough estimate for your project. You’ve cut corners and accounted for unexpected costs. But now, when the project is halfway through completion, you’ve been ordered to trim the cost further.

You’re stuck. How do you do it? Most importantly, how do you cut the budget without compromising quality? Is it possible to rework the starting idea into a successful outcome and still deliver on your strategic objectives?

Deploying effective cost reduction methods in project management is no easy feat. Don’t feel rejected or frustrated. Instead, get prepared! Note that managing a project budget is a continuous process, and even if the initial estimate has been approved, changes are going to happen midway through the project.

It’s good to be informed about time-tested cost reduction techniques in project management to act early and prevent budget slippage. But before we delve in, let’s, first of all, define two terms to clear any possible confusion.

Cost-cutting vs. cost reduction: what’s the difference?

Cost-cutting is applied to reduce expenses directly and boost the business’s bottom line. It’s a reactive approach to cost management. Cost reduction, on the other hand, is more about optimization and better aligning. It’s a holistic view of the project lifecycle, where the traditional approach is replaced with rethinking requirements, freeing up resources, and increasing efficiency. To adopt proactive tactics, you’ll need to have a clear strategy before making a decision.

As a preparatory step, you’ll need to classify costs into so-called ‘good’ and ‘bad’ ones. Good costs serve business objectives, create value for the customer, and enable growth, while bad costs destroy value and waste resources. With a careful classification, you’ll red flag the costs that do harm and focus on those that contribute to business advancement.

Let’s now get acquainted with seven quick tips to help you implement sustainable cost reduction methods in project management and address cost drivers at their core.

1. Ensure proper allocation of resources

Resource planning is the critical process of identifying the resources required to execute and complete a project. It’s done at the beginning of the project before any actual work begins because without proper resource allocation, you run the risk of causing budget overrun.

People, equipment, and time are the key areas you’ll need to look into. That’s why identifying and assigning the right resources during the project initiation phase is essential to delivering projects within time and budget.

For a smooth process, centralize resources and information. This will allow you to balance resources, avoid duplication, and reduce resource idling.

Here is a pro tip: assess the impact of time on resource requirements. For instance, a critical resource may be available for only a limited period of time which means you’ll need to adjust your project’s schedule accordingly. Conversely, if a resource is going to be available only at a later stage of the project completion, you might need to extend the timeline to accommodate the availability of the resource.

2. Mentor and retrain your team

Resources are now optimally mapped and distributed. Every possibility of cost reduction has been carefully considered. The next step for project managers is to develop a detailed work breakdown structure (WBS). Look at each subtask and identify how many people with what type of skills are needed to finish the task. Remember that assigning under-qualified resources will cause delays in delivery and compromise the quality of results.

Effective management avoids hiring resources at the eleventh hour. If you encounter workforce shortage at any stage of the project lifecycle, retraining can be a smart solution. Explore the in-house potential before you reach out to outside consultants. For instance, instead of hiring an independent contractor, you may consider training your team to get them up to speed.

Replacing expensive resources with cheaper ones is a mere cost-cutting strategy that isn’t sustainable. Therefore, consider having your more experienced team members mentor the folks who need that little push to unearth their full potential. There is an added benefit here. Upskilling junior resources will increase organizational agility and drive motivation further. Research is available to back up this strategy. Recent studies by Gartner indicate that, especially due to the evolving COVID pandemic, companies will have to adjust career pathing strategies and make targeted talent investments to witness continued growth and outperform competitors.

Project managers may assign the highest skilled personnel to high-priority tasks. Avoid this trap. When you think about cost reduction techniques in project management, you should consider distributing high-skilled resources across all projects. First, this will minimize the need for hiring expensive independent contractors. Second, this will provide a unique opportunity for other team members to get valuable professional guidance. Keep in mind that team-oriented and forward-looking tactics are always rewarded in future projects.

3. Outsource on an as-needed basis

Start by exploring the non-core activities of your business. You’ll most probably find tasks that don’t add sustainable value to your business and are limited to a single project. These activities are the first ones to be outsourced to lower-cost specialists.

Furthermore, you may lack a specific skill locally. Have a well-thought-out policy in place to be able to leverage global resources. Low-cost resources can temporarily fill in the gap and help you control the budget.

And what if a critical resource leaves the organization? Last-minute hiring may cause disruption, create chaos, and compromise the bottom line. If you have a predefined outsourcing process and know what factors influence successful outsourcing, you’ll prevent failure in the event this critical resource decides to leave.

4. Analyze variances between forecasted and actual spending

The time rolls on. You continue overseeing the entire project through cost control and risk assessment.

When you search for cost reduction methods in project management, you should acknowledge that periodically tracking each milestone is absolutely crucial to prevent discrepancies. Rigorous comparison of the actual spending against the baseline budget can mitigate budget overrun and help you spot opportunities for cost reduction both in advance and on the go.

The greater the deviation between initial estimation and actual costs, the less likely it is for your project to succeed. What’s more, going over the budget affects project profitability and may even jeopardize the project’s completion (you might have to seek additional approval from different stakeholders to continue your work).

5. Account for hidden and unexpected costs

Here is an example. You had your product catalog ready and sent to printing only to discover that three products have the wrong discounted prices on them! Luckily, you don’t have the entire catalog printed yet, and there is a chance to replace that one page. Do you have a budget allocated for such mishaps?

From minor incidents to major rearrangements, last-minute hick-ups are inevitable. They do cost money, but if you aren’t prepared to handle them, those unexpected costs can break the deal and even affect your baseline. That’s when the golden rule comes into play – reserve 10-20% of the budget for unpredicted circumstances. Have your plan B. Projects rarely go without any deviations. To deliver the project on budget, account for an appropriate amount of money for twists and turns, unplanned hiring, or changes to the project scope.

6. Seek process improvements

Look for and detect money-saving process changes. Think critically about which processes can be standardized and stabilized to prevent major variations, establish capability, and prevent defects.

Ask your team: can we achieve our final goal differently? Is there rework, double-handling, or backflow that we can avoid and reduce cost? For example, is it possible to do work remotely instead of requiring office visits? Is it possible to accomplish this task through a joint session in a week rather than in three weeks using the predefined method? Dive deep, analyze, and come out with solutions that you didn’t think were possible.

7. Reduce project scope

You’ve checked and rechecked to ensure the project cost is accurately calculated, reflects the reality, and aligns with the business strategy. However, the overall cost remains a concern…

It’s time to try another cost reduction technique in project management: reconsidering the scope of the project. Is it too broad, or is there anything you can negotiate? Is there a task that is specifically costly and can be cut back? Is it possible to leave out a particular phase in a project?

Although the scope of the project was determined at the initial stage, you may still spot certain tasks that can be cut down. Start negotiations with different stakeholders involved – investors, vendors, partners, customers, etc. Single out the most critical processes and goals and see if any of the smaller, little-value requirements can be omitted without affecting the margin you aim for. Find out if you can achieve the same results with fewer resources, fewer people, or less expensive technologies.

Do you set New Year’s resolutions? Life feels like a clean slate on January 1st, and it’s so exhilarating to pursue something you’ve always wanted. Maybe it’s to lose weight, develop a new skill or finally get out of a dead end job.

But then, it’s so often the case that once the Superbowl party rolls around, all the goals go kaput. It’s so discouraging to watch dust collecting on the new treadmill, to have new books sitting unopened on the coffee table, and to face the same long commute to a boring job, with no end in sight.

Chronically setting goals and never achieving them makes it feel pointless to set them at all. Why try if you’ll only feel like a failure in the end?

What if goal setting was tantamount to being granted a wish that’s certain to come true! What would you ask for? A house? Better health? A brand new car?

The truth is, you really can achieve “impossible” visions. Goal setting isn’t about falling short and always missing the mark. It’s about putting a plan in place to realize wonderful things in your life.

In order for goals to be effective, you need to pan in and pan out at the same time. In this post we’re going to look at how achieving goals requires the right mix of long term and short term goals…and a few strategies for keeping yourself on track!

The Myth of Overnight Success

Do you ever read those “40 under 40” articles about really young people who seem to have it all? They’re successful, bright, wealthy and it all apparently happened overnight.

If you dig a little deeper, however, you’ll realize that it isn’t like that at all. In her reality show “My Life on the D-List” comedian Kathy Griffin points out that achieving success is about slogging through the muck of hard work for years and years. And she’s not alone. Most anyone with a success story has had to grind away for years, to no acclaim.

To make an analogy, achieving a huge milestone is like a dam breaking. Over a long period of time, water gradually builds up, and then finally one day the dam gives way to one epic splash. That is to say, success doesn’t just happen. It’s the result of continually pounding away at a vision.

If you don’t set goals, you’ll still make decisions about how you spend your time. But the decisions are made without a lot of reflection. It’s really easy, for example, to develop a habit of eating out most nights of the week…and then at the end of six months wonder where the money is for a summer vacation.

Not setting goals is a bit like driving a car with no destination in sight. You’ll end up somewhere eventually, but it may not be anywhere you wanted to go!

Goal setting is about taking the macro view of your life, or one area of it, and getting deliberate about the choices you make. It’s about determining the direction you want to head in, and looking at the steps needed to get you there.

Tips on Goal Setting

We set goals for all areas of our life. Maybe you’re looking to budget for retirement and a vacation at the same time. Or maybe an organization has the objective to create a culture with more transparency.

When shaping goals, a good starting place is to unpack everything related to the topic.

If it’s a financial goal, outline all your financial obligations, both short and long term. This may include a college fund, a summer vacation, a new car, groceries, monthly bills, house payments, and retirement.

Or with a goal related to company culture, consider all of the factors that shape the culture: communication tools, recruitment methods, rituals around meetings, project planning procedures, and policies around work life balance. There’s really a lot that goes into company culture, so this takes some real brainstorming.

The next step is to look at all of these pieces and develop the goal. Crafting the right goal per your situation is central to achieving it. Let’s look at characteristics of a good attainable goal.

Set Goals, Not Desires

A goal is measurable, and focuses exclusively on work you can control.

Maybe you’d like to have a transparent company culture. At first blush, this seems like a perfectly appropriate goal. However, changing a culture has a lot to do with things completely out of your control. It’s dependent on the cooperation and behavior of other people within the organization.

Having a transparent culture, then, is really a desire and not a goal.

Developing a goal around this entails doing specific things that might bring about more transparency. These could include things like sharing the long-term strategy with the entire team, soliciting feedback from everyone at the end of a project, or regularly scheduling skip level meetings with the team.

Incorporating these practices would hopefully bring about transparent company culture. If not, it’d be necessary to shore up a new set of goals.

Set Motivating (not Demotivating) Goals

The way we frame a goal affects the level of enthusiasm we bring to it.

Consider these goals around weight loss: “I want to get out of my oversized clothing” and “I should start eating better” and “I want to look great this summer.”

Although each of these goals achieves the same end, the last one looks at the desired result and is far more aspirational. The first two focus on the problem, and feel discouraging.

Or within a company, setting a goal of “figure out what went wrong with the failed products from last year” may well bring about dissension within the team. Rather, a goal to “design innovative products that serve customer needs” keeps the team forward looking and thinking creatively.

When framing goals, it’s best to get away from “should” language and an emphasis on failure. In order to make the goal aspirational, focus the goal around the desired objective.

Make Trade-offs

We live in a world with finite resources, including time, labor, and money. This means we can’t achieve everything. If a company, for example, sets a quarterly goal to start a new podcast, then the time and money dedicated to this takes away from another desirable objective of, say, starting a newsletter.

A realistic approach to goal setting means accepting trade-offs. In order to determine the supreme objectives, it’s good first to lay out all possibilities onto the table to evaluate them.

The MosSCoW Method of Prioritization effectively helps with this process of sorting through various goals. It’s about identifying the musts, shoulds, coulds and won’ts of a project or objective.

By identifying things that “must” happen, it’s easier to then decide areas that can slide down on the priority list.

In sum, setting good goals makes it easier to achieve them, so take some time to craft good goals. You may find that in achieving one goal, others fall into place as well!

The Macro View: Setting Long Term Goals

We all have a fantasy of where we’d like our lives to be, and each of ours is a little different. If you could have a completely different life in ten years, what would it look like? Maybe you’d have an entirely different career, or even be working for yourself. Maybe you’d live in another place, and own your own home. Or maybe you’d achieve a huge physical milestone, such as climbing a mountain or deadlifting 200 pounds.

Tony Robbins has been known to say that “We overestimate what we can accomplish in a year, and we underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years.”

Goal setting oftentimes is focused on the short term: the ten pounds we want to lose, the savings for a vacation this summer. And we get discouraged when we don’t achieve these, as we may have set our sights too high.

However, the fact is, when we set our minds to something, we can shift our lives 180 degrees within six to ten years.

Long term goals aren’t achieved linearly. We only cross the finish line after a lot of hiccups, setbacks, detours and roadblocks. And so be sure to anticipate them!

And sometimes, your final objective isn’t crystal clear at first. But that’s ok.
Maybe you’ve quit your job in search of “something else” that you can’t define precisely. Just by outlining some of your musts (I want more freedom, I want more independence, I want more work life balance) provides direction. Clarity comes from taking steps in the direction of these musts.

Here are three pointers to keep in mind when setting long term goals.

1. Ask Questions to Clarify

When you have a lot of uncertainty around a long term goal, it’s good to ask questions to arrive at a better understanding of where you want to be.

A good set of questions clears away some of the brain fog. If you’re setting goals around a career, ask things like “What kind of environment do I want to be working in?” “Where do I want to live?” “What do I value most in a company culture?” “What skills do I want to utilize?” and “In what situations do I feel the most energized?”

Taking the time to answer a good list of questions allows imperatives to surface. It creates priority and some “musts” start to emerge. From there, it’s easy to chart a path toward making a long term goal a reality.

2. Pick One (or Two) North Stars

Generally speaking, long term goals are huge milestones. When you have a list of five or ten, it’d take a superhuman to achieve them all. Simply attempting them leads to burnout.

And, by making everything important it means that nothing really is important.

Limiting long term goals to only one or two makes them much more achievable.

Narrowing goals down also gives your ship a clear direction to sail in. In letting the North Star be your guide, you may find that many other things fall into place as well.

3. Seek Out Resources and Experience

Oftentimes, embarking on a vision is a step into the unknown. Maybe you’re considering diving into a career you know nothing about. Although this is exciting, it also begs the question, “Am I suited to this type of work?”

Determining whether or not you really want to achieve your goal entails seeking out educational resources, as well as having some hands-on experience.

For example, when embarking on a new career, materials such as the career-change workbook “What Color is Your Parachute,” personality tests and internships all serve to let you understand if you’re headed in the right direction.

In sum, it really is possible to change your life. Long-term goal setting entails embarking on a path, and learning as you go along. Oftentimes, along the way you achieve greater clarity as to where you ultimately want to be headed.

The Micro View: Setting Short Term Goals

“Every action that brings a company closer to its goal is productive. Every action that does not bring a company closer to its goal is not productive,” says the character Jonah in Eliyahu Goldratt’s bestselling book, The Goal.

When you’re in a situation you don’t like, it’s easy to have a myopic focus on a short term goal. Maybe you’re stuck in a job where every day is the same and there are no opportunities for growth, and so you decide that you will take any other job opportunity you can find.

Or maybe you really want to lose some weight, and so go on a crash diet to lose it all in just six or eight weeks.

But this narrow focus doesn’t always pan out. Often, the next job is just as bad as the first, or you gain all the weight back right away.

Effective short term goals are about alignment. It’s a two step process of first identifying where you want to be in five or ten years, and then working backwards to see how to get there.

As Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog, 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, says: “In your work, having a clear idea of what is really important to you in the long term makes it much easier for you to make better decisions about your priorities in the short term.”

Oftentimes, the long term goal is the big, glamorous achievement, such as a new career or a new home. The short term goals, however, are like the back end work which no one but you notices. These, however, are critical to achieving the big vision.

In order to keep on track, here are three pointers for succeeding in short term goals.

1. Break Work Down

When setting short term goals, it’s hard to gauge how long some things take. Maybe we take on a quarterly goal to run a half marathon, and find that it’s way out of our reach.

In order to achieve the short term goals we set, it’s good to break a larger task down into smaller tasks that can be completed in just a week or two.

So something like “go out for three five-mile runs” might make a better short term goal, as this can be accomplished in just one week.

And of course, it’s always good to celebrate your wins, no matter how small.

2. Be Willing to Pivot

Progressing with short term goals is like taking a journey toward a final destination. As you progress, it’s good to pause and reflect on how things are going.

Are the action steps you’re taking moving you closer to your long-term goal? And does that long term goal still look like a worthy endeavor?

It’s ok to pivot based on the feedback. Maybe you headed back to school to study law, and discover that it’s just not at all what you had in mind.

Our long-term goals aren’t set in stone. They’re malleable, and depending on what we learn along the way, we can move the goal post and change the North Star.

3. Take One Step at a Time

When working toward a long term vision, it may feel like you’re moving at a snail’s pace. But a glacier doesn’t melt overnight.

It takes patience to press on, trusting you’ll reach the finish line eventually. By focusing on small wins and celebrating them, it’s easier to stay on track.

In sum, short term goals are often the somewhat tedious, back end work that you need to do in order to achieve a larger goal. But short term goals give you a boost of momentum. These small successes motivate you to achieve the big victory. And don’t be afraid to adjust course as you continue along.

Strategies for Staying on Track

Achieving goals is a journey. At some turns, you experience exhilarating, expansive views. However, at other times you feel like you’re stuck in the badlands, making very little discernible progress with no end in sight.

It takes some stamina and finesse to press on and navigate these inevitable ups and downs. Here are a few strategies for staying on track.

1. Remember the Why

Glamorous goals all entail boring work such as writing code, doing the books and cleaning up messes. These things take time, and they all need to get done.

It’s a real slog getting through “meaningless” tasks, and so make an effort to maintain focus on your “why.” What’s the overall goal you hope to achieve? What’s the dream?

A vision board with the goal clearly displayed keeps you mentally aligned to your long term objectives, even amidst the daily grind. Placing a vision board in sight of your work area keeps you thinking big during all the mundane tasks of your day.

2. Use Metrics

Some goals have a clear and definite finish line. Say something like completing a book: once you’ve finished the last page and closed the cover, it’s definitely completed.

Other goals, however, are far more nebulous. Consider a goal such as “increase marketing efforts.” Although this is certainly a worthy goal, it’s such a huge, broad topic that it’s hard to define when you’ve “completed” the goal and can cross it off your list.

In these sorts of instances, it’s helpful to set clear metrics around the goal, so that you can know when you’ve given it a good faith effort and can move on.

With a goal to increase marketing, for example, both time or quantity metrics provide appropriate limits. Maybe the goal is to spend five hours each week marketing. Or, another might be to send out one newsletter a month and ten social media posts each week.

When a goal feels seemingly endless, metrics allow you to shut down the laptop at the end of the day and move onto something else.

3. Use Mental Agility

Achieving goals is a psychological challenge. You’re stretching yourself and possibly doing things you’ve never done before.

Long term goals present surprise detours as well. Maybe late in the game, you find that you want to change course.

Rather than becoming disheartened, however and getting derailed, mental agility allows you to keep your head in the game, and acknowledge that roadblocks and detours are part of the process.

In sum, achieving short term and long term goals is no piece of cake. From time to time, it feels like a real grind, and it requires strategy to keep you pressing through to the end.

One Brick at a Time

To an onlooker, achieving huge milestones may look effortless, but the fact of the matter is that they’re really a lot of hard work.

Effective goal setting entails taking a micro and macro view to one area of your life, and aligning short term goals to the long term vision. Many short term goals aren’t glamorous at all, and it requires strategy to achieve them.

No one’s goals look exactly the same. Everyone has their own special set of factors and desires that determine the direction they choose to take.

If you’re in a difficult or seemingly inescapable situation, it lifts your spirits to set goals and take steps toward a way out. The more steps you take, the clearer your vision for the end goal. And when all of your efforts culminate, and you cross the finish line, you receive a badge of honor that no one can take from you!

Building a successful project team isn’t something that just happens; it sits on a foundation of high-quality management skills and includes some essential rules for each project it takes on. It’s intentional choices and procedures that create consistent, long-term success for your project team.

Designing a high-caliber project team – and leading it to success – can be a complex undertaking. However, with the right knowledge and planning, you can make the process easier to navigate.

5 Steps To Build A Highly Proficient Project Team (and their benefits)

A strong project team can be the deciding force behind the productivity of your company and the quality of their work. While there are many ways you can create a project team that performs well, there are five essential elements to its success.

1. Set Clear Goals

Goal setting is something that is included in most project planning, however, the detail included in these goals is what’s most important. When you begin planning for a new project with your team, ensure you follow a strict system to help you define your goals and help your team meet them consistently.

Clearly defined goals increase the rates of project success because they provide your team with a way to plan how they will achieve them. They also provide you with a way to assess the tasks needed to successfully complete the project and assign them in the most efficient way.

One of the most common ways to create clearly defined goals is through the SMART method:

S: Specific
M: Measurable
A: Achievable
R: Relevant
T: Time-Bound

Goals that are created following this method have high rates of success. Not only do they define the goal in distinct and precise terms, but they also ensure you’re planning within your capabilities. The SMART method also provides a predetermined way to measure the progress and success of a project, and how to measure the success of the team as a whole.

2. Have Effective Communication

How a team communicates is directly related to their success. It affects every area of your team ranging from understanding their individual roles to maintaining positive relationships with their colleagues.

Effective communication can:

• Increase employee engagement
• Boost employee morale
• Reduce conflict
• Build a healthier workplace
• Increase productivity

Communication extends past how your team interacts with one another. It also includes how they understand their job roles, expectations, and their knowledge of the project as a whole. It also is directly connected to their awareness of communication standards and mediums across the workplace. If effective communication is lacking, both your team and the project will be negatively affected by it.

3. Assign Tasks Based On Skill Set

A high-performing team includes a balanced skillset, which should be planned for in advance while you build out your team (we’ll get to that in a minute). A team that is well-rounded and provides a wide array of abilities will find higher rates of success while also providing a better quality project altogether.

As you break down the project into individual tasks, it is essential to pair those tasks with those members that are best suited to tackle them. If your employees are expected to complete a task outside of their skill set, it can cause additional workplace stress and be detrimental to the project. This can include:

• the project falling behind schedule
• individual tasks not aligning, leading to a clumsy final product
• tasks simply being left incomplete.

When you work to match your employees with tasks that reflect their abilities, you create a healthier workplace where everyone can thrive. Your employees will feel both understood and valued, leading to increased productivity and quality of work.

4. Encourage Collaboration

Collaboration in the workplace can provide your team with a wide range of benefits. It provides a way for your employees to naturally learn from one another, offering growth opportunities through the combination of skills needed to complete a task. It also gives them a better understanding of the team as a whole and helps them understand the value of their role in a deeper way.

Some of the most notable benefits of collaboration in the workplace include:

• Higher productivity
• Increased quality of work
• Develops employee creativity
• Creates high rates of group responsibility
• Promotes better problem solving

5. Have High-Quality Standard Processes

The standard processes of your company set the foundation for every project your team takes on. These standards reflect both the company’s values and long-term goals – and they can change as the company grows.

A company that has a strong set of standard operating procedures and processes they’ve developed, will have a higher rate of success due to the consistency it provides their employees and their projects. This consistency builds repeatable success across all project teams and outcomes. Standard processes ensure everyone has the same understanding of the company’s expectations and provide them a starting point for any undertaking.

Additional benefits of implementing quality standard processes include:

• More efficiency
• Increased accountability
• Improves clarity
• Higher levels of workplace organization
• Creates reliability both for the company and employee

Essential Management Skills To Increase Project Team Success

While the steps you take to build a strong project team are important, how you manage that team is imperative. The management style of a company is a large determining factor to its success and has a strong influence on the workplace environment as well.

How you manage a team will play a vital role in the outcomes of your projects. Your team’s quality of work, creativity, success rates, and overall morale are a direct reflection of you. This makes your management abilities measurable and can highlight areas that could use improvement, allowing you to become a better manager and build a highly successful project team in the future.

There are five major elements to include in your management style that will help you create a strong workplace environment for your team, and foster positive results from it.

Grow Your Team Skill Set

When you design your team, it’s important to consider the project you’re responsible for, and the tasks required to make it successful. This will give you a starting point for considering who should be involved in your team. Include a wide range of skills in your project team to help support any unexpected tasks the project may present.

Once you’ve designed your team, it’s important to continue to work towards improving their skillset. This not only helps them become stronger employees but also creates a positive workplace where people feel valued and commit to the company for longer periods of time. Provide your team with growth opportunities that reflect their skills and passions, and encourage healthy risk-taking. This will ensure your employees feel confident in taking on new challenges.

Support Your Employees

Supporting your team is a key part of being a strong manager. While this may seem obvious, it’s not uncommon for managers to misunderstand what support their employees need on a deeper level.

A strong manager will provide a stable foundation for their team while being a reliable source of support. These managers step in to help complete tasks that have fallen behind and problem-solve alongside their employees. They take time to create an action plan with each team member individually, both towards the project goal and their career goals. They provide their staff with all the resources they may need to complete their work and delegate effectively without overwhelming one or all of their team members. Supportive managers treat their team like equals and will work just as hard as their team does.

Supporting your team can have great rewards for you, your employees, and your company. Some of the most influential are:

• Increased employee morale
• Higher productivity
• Healthier workplace relationships
• A united team
• Lower employee turnover
• Better project quality and success

Include Your Team In Project Decisions & Planning

Projects can take extensive planning, and the decisions will have a ripple effect throughout the entire team and length of the project. When you begin developing your project plan, include your team in the process. This will allow you to better determine and delegate tasks, navigate any project hiccups, and align everyone with the project as a whole.

It’s important to let your team play an active part in developing the strategic approach for the project. This will provide opportunities for multiple perspectives to shape the plan, and encourage employees to break the project down based on individual skill sets. This can lead to a more robust project plan and help your team become more invested in the success of the project.

Involving your team in project decisions and planning also plays a vital role in employee morale. Your employees will feel respected, heard, and valued in the workplace, which is reflected in their productivity and involvement within the company.

Measure Your Success

Measuring the success of your project should be included in your goal-setting process, however, measuring your success as a manager is equally important. This can include a project management audit, which will not only look at a project in-depth but also highlight the effectiveness of the management staff assigned to the project as well. This provides an effective way for you to become a stronger manager while also creating better systems for future projects.

Some benefits of measuring the success of both you and your project include:

• Supporting your growth as a manager through past performance
• Creating a stronger team through reviewing data throughout the project lifetime
• Supporting the long-term growth and success of the company
• Developing stronger processes for future projects

Build A Diverse Team

When you’re developing your team, selecting members from a diverse range of backgrounds is essential. A diverse team provides a variety of outlooks and perspectives that helps generate better ideas and navigate a project in a way that is suited to a greater group of people.

Managing a diverse team effectively reflects the strength of your management skills and it provides important benefits, such as:

• Developing better standard practices through expansive knowledge
• Creating inclusivity
• Facilitating a healthier work environment
• Increasing employee engagement
• Bringing in exceptional talent