Project Management Tools | The Ultimate Project Management Tool

The Ultimate Project Management Tool

Pay Attention.

That’s it.

Pay Attention.

Our project management tools often do no more than help us pay attention.  They manage the details for us.

Sometimes it becomes too easy to let the tools do all the work for us.  We get lost in the complexity of the tools and processes.   We act without having  first paid sufficient attention.

It is often hard to explain to someone what paying attention is really all about.

Here are some hints:

1. Listen hard. Don’t analyze what you hear, just listen without letting your mind wander.  Hear every word.
2. Look hard.  At the slides, the speaker, the document you are reading.  Again, try to not to let your mind wander.
3. If you are on a conference call, stand up or walk around rather than sitting.  This helps keep you fully alert.  Listen hard.
4. If you are in a meeting,  stand up if you can do it without causing too much of a stir.  Listen and look hard.

The benefits of paying attention include:

1. Coming away with a better understanding of the situation or information – better than a person who is not paying close attention.
2. Being quicker to react to critical information as you hear it or see it – faster than someone who is not paying as close of attention.
3. Acting more appropriately and more effectively on the available information – getting better results than someone who had not paid as close attention.

Paying attention, hard, is something you just have to try in order to understand the benefits.  It is actually not easy to do this for an hour long meeting for example.  I’d suggest you try it for a short period of time – maybe just five minutes to start.

Another benefit is many people will notice that you are paying attention, hard, to what they are communicating.  This will often help you gain their attention, in turn, for things you need.

Paying attention is one of those simple things.  Everyone thinks they are already paying attention.  Just give it a try, hard, for five minutes the next time you have something you really want to follow and understand.  I think you will see immediate benefits from this ultimate project management tool.

Filed Under Personal Practices | 3 Comments

Tagged With Productivity, Project Management Tools, Tracking, Zen

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