You're juggling conflicting stakeholder deadlines. How do you prioritize and manage your time effectively?

The first step is to assess the urgency of each task. Look beyond just the dates and consider the strategic importance and potential impact on your organization. For example, I once faced overlapping deadlines for a product launch and a routine report. By discussing with stakeholders, I realized the launch had a higher priority due to its immediate revenue impact. Another time, I used a priority matrix to rank tasks based on urgency and importance, which clarified my focus. Transparent communication with stakeholders about their expectations also helped me manage their needs effectively, ensuring that critical tasks were completed on time.

Começaria realizando um alinhamento prévio com todos os stakeholders envolvidos no projeto para uma avaliação de urgências e prioridades para o projeto. Seria importante que todos os participantes participassem desse alinhamento para que seja estabelecido desde o primeiro dia, uma comunicação clara e eficaz com todos os membros participantes.

Assessing urgency is obviously key when juggling conflicting deadlines. If you have a lot on - and most of us do - here's a neat trick. List them all out in a spreadsheet. Score each of them for urgency or urgency + importance. Don't overthink the calibration - just get some scores down. Then sort the spreadsheet by that score from high to low. Right away, you'll have a beautifully prioritised list, ripe for selecting the top tasks and deprioritising or even binning the bottom ones. Works quite a lot like magic.

Understanding your own capacity is key to managing your time effectively. Start by taking a realistic look at your workload and estimate how long each task will take. For instance, I once divided a major project into smaller tasks to better gauge what I could achieve within the time frame. If you realize you're overextended, communicate with stakeholders early to discuss possible deadline adjustments or additional support. I remember a time when early communication allowed me to get extra help from a colleague, ensuring the project met high standards without compromising deadlines. By being transparent about your capacity, you can manage your time more effectively and maintain the quality of your work.

Em um segundo momento após a avaliação com os stakeholders, faria uma análise do meu atual workload para entender se consigo estabelecer prazos de acordo com as suas expectativas mas sem prejudicar o meu trabalho e qualidade do mesmo.

If you timebox, you'll immediately have a good sense of your capacity from how your calendar looks for the week ahead. We all also generally carry around with us a pretty good intuition for how busy we are and we should listen to that inner voice, inner wisdom. And if you are too busy, show a colleague your calendar to prove it / convince them. If you're stumped, ask them what they would sacrifice from your workload. This is an utterly reasonable response to anyone that's asking for your time when you're stretched.

Setting clear priorities is essential. After assessing urgency and evaluating your capacity, use a prioritization method like the Eisenhower Box to categorize tasks by urgency and importance. This approach helps you focus on critical tasks first and either defer or delegate less urgent ones. For example, I once used this technique to prioritize a high-stakes client presentation over routine reports. Remember, effective prioritizing also means staying flexible. As new tasks arise or circumstances shift, be ready to reassess and adjust your priorities. This method keeps you organized and ensures that the most important work gets done on time.

I suggest you write your strategy plans in general to increase the achievement of your goals and your brand Then prioritize them and then start your activities with lower risk strategies I suggest you to increase your knowledge more than others by visiting my personal page and reading more time management articles to understand more of this content.

How can it be a plan if it doesn't relate to time? And if it relates to time, why would it no be in your calendar? and if it's in your calendar, this is timeboxing. In other words, planning strategically is more or less synonymous with timeboxing. Building some buffer is smart as well as building in some breaks which you should make the most of by doing what replenishes you most effectively. A well-thought-out plan (a properly timeboxed calendar) is more than just a roadmap; it's a guide for each minute of each day steering you back to the one thing you should be doing at that time.

Após a avaliação de prioridades com os participantes do projeto, é importante manter um cronograma de planejamento semanal de atividades a serem feitas para que o trabalho seja executado de uma forma rítmica e constante.

Keep stakeholders updated on your progress and any potential issues that might impact deadlines. For instance, I once encountered a delay in a project due to unexpected technical problems. By informing the stakeholders early and proposing a revised timeline, I maintained their trust and received their understanding. Effective communication also means discussing potential solutions and adjustments openly. This transparency not only builds trust but can also lead to more flexible deadlines. Keeping everyone in the loop ensures that stakeholders are aware of the challenges and can adjust their expectations accordingly.

Manter reuniões com os participantes do projeto de uma forma quinzenal, mesmo que seja algo pontual em torno de 15 minutos pode ser uma estratégia essencial para garantir um alinhamento entre todos da equipe e para garantir que o time esteja sincronizado com os cronogramas e prazos das atividades.

A shared digital calendar is an efficient system for our personal productivity, of course. But it's also, if it's shared, an efficient way of communicating your capacity without having to actively do anything. If used by colleagues right, they'll approach you less when you're inundated and propose deadlines that are realistic rather than...the opposite. If course to share a full calendar, you need to have trust, psychological safety, and have clearly established ways of working. But this is all doable if you work with decent people. And if you don't work with decent people, see what you can d to get out of there.

1. Don't wait until the last minute to inform others about changes to your schedule. As soon as you anticipate a conflict or need to adjust your deadlines, communicate proactively with colleagues, clients, or managers. Explain the situation clearly and propose alternative solutions or revised timelines. This demonstrates transparency and respect for everyone's time. 2. When setting deadlines and commitments, be realistic about your workload and potential roadblocks. Don't overload your schedule or overpromise what you can't deliver. It's better to under-promise and over-deliver than the other way around. If delays are unavoidable, communicate proactively and explain the revised timeline with a clear rationale.