Take a marketing campaign, for example. It’s a small germany phone number list free part of a larger project and consists of many individual tasks, such as visuals, drip email creation, paid ad launches, and more. By gathering all of these tasks into a clear, achievable Sprint , you can focus all of your energy on getting it done by a specific deadline before evaluating your work and moving on to the next Sprint.
Make sure to build flexibility into your sprints and the overall project. You may be diligent about setting deadlines for each task and even including time for review and revision, but in the world of project management, there are a million external factors that can delay your work.
Mature managers know how to calculate the probability of completing a project on time and always add some breathing room to sprints. That way, if things go wrong, you can absorb the problem and move forward, rather than missing a deadline and allowing your project to be delayed.
One last tip on how to complete projects on time is to just get started. Psychology suggests that fear of failure is one of the biggest causes of procrastination, and being aware of it is the first step to a successful project. This is especially important for solopreneurs who don’t have the luxury of coworkers or a vibrant office culture to motivate them.
Define your communication strategy and tools from the beginning
Yes, you’ve set expectations with your client and made a clear plan (with some flexibility built in), but that doesn’t mean you should hang up and disappear until the deadline.
Good communication is essential to completing projects on time, but you need to be smart about it.
Throwing out instant messages like they’re old hat and filling people’s email inboxes with every thought that comes to mind is not good communication. Instead, set a communication policy for both your customers and your internal team. Your strategy should include every type of communication you expect to encounter and provide a few tips on what’s acceptable and how it will help you complete projects on time. Here are a few examples.
Task-related work
As your project’s cloud-based headquarters, it makes sense to include all instructions, updates, and questions in the relevant task card in your project management tool. This way, you have the information predictably at hand, saving you a ton of time and confusion.
Now, remote teams will often need some information right away while they’re in the middle of a task, so instant messaging comes in handy. However, this is really a blind silo, so any important decisions should be copied directly to your task card.