A Day in a Life Of a Project Manager

Written by Sakina Shabbir

As a Senior Projects Lead, Sakina finds Project Management an incredibly exciting and a colossal professional field. When she isn't taking care of translating customers; she enjoys reading, traveling and baking.


Strange thing, Management!
My 16-yr old self : I want to be a Manager. Did this happen to you? No, Me neither.

But here we are anyway.
Submissions. Deadlines. Delays. Reports. Strategies. Tools. Does it all ring a bell?

For a Project Manager, everyday can be a new adventure. You may be responsible for multiple projects. There is no time for a break until the tasks are done. Also it is not possible to do the same thing for two days in a row. There are days when deadlines are approaching and stress is at its peak. That’s when Delivery Management kicks in!

Managing Projects OR Stress?

Its scientifically confirmed that Project Management is the most stressful job out there.

But what makes the job so stressful?
Maybe a looming deadline.
Maybe one of your favourite co-worker is on a holiday with his/her project handed over to you.
Maybe a standoffish client OR worst of all, an inconsiderate boss.

In short, our day may not start easy!
But the good news is, some of us make it easy.

EAT THAT FROG

“Get more of the important things done today.”
- Brian Tracy

In management, the phrase “Eat that frog” works like a magic trick. The phrase means nothing but, you should attack the hardest problems first. Some call it the “coffee” or the “music” ritual.

One needs to pick the best method to achieve the most, in order to bring success between you & your client, you & your project and you & your team.

Keeping the Momentum

In the middle of the day & as the end of the day is approaching, you want to be sure that you have gone over every single project and its respective status.

Multiple dilemmas may rise up. There may be sudden unexpected announcements from the upper management or even unexpected delays.  
Sometimes the budget maybe an issue too. You may be spending too much and the budget review was not done properly.

But as a good PM, you need to know how to handle them & more importantly how to prevent them in the future.
In order to maintain your success rate over the projects, you may use the following checklist -

  • Keeping the email correspondence ongoing.
  • Keeping and reviewing notes from meetings
  • Maintaining a Lessons Log
  • Coordinating the resources
  • Consulting with the Specialists.

Even though project managers are planners by the nature of their jobs, it is possible that over the course of their day, their focus, energy levels and overall momentum drops!

It is important to find that balance.

Project Management is People Management

PMs deal with people on a day to day basis, this could be team members, inter-departments of the organisation and most importantly the stake owners. This requires multiple soft skills. It could be recruiting a new team member, managing conference calls, internal team meetings… sigh!
We are always chasing people, one way or another.

Project Management and People Management are two disciplines that require strong leadership skills. Project managers lead teams to achieve common goals and to be a leader, people have to follow.

The Project team solves a projects problems & issues. The project manager provides structure for the team to do so. A Project Manager is an expert in project management processes who brings together differently qualified experts to achieve a project goal!


We would love to know, is your day any different?

PMP, PeopleManagement, Prince2, ProjectManagement, ProjectPlan, Team,