“Jeannette, what do you do all day?” I’ve gotten this question a bit throughout the years. So many occupations—like doctor, mailman, etc. are self-explanatory, but sometimes people wonder what an IT project manager does all day. So in this blog, I’ll let you into my little world and how I accomplish the daily and weekly tasks that are part of every project manager’s responsibilities. While you may organize your time differently, if you’re like me, you’ve found what works for you. Here is what has worked successfully for me in my many years of IT program management experience.

Good Morning!

Like most professionals, I am greeted every morning by a slew of emails. I get emails about everything, from technical specifications to requests for status updates to inquiries from the accounts payable department. The role of a project manager is very centric; we are expected to know about everything, or at least to be able to point someone in the right direction to get the answer. I handle the inquires I can, and forward other notes to people who can help the inquirer..

I could spend my day replying to all these emails, but instead, I limit myself to an hour in the morning answering as many as I can. I don’t answer in the order that they are received; instead, I scan and prioritize them. I answer the urgent ones first and plan to answer the rest later that day.

In the Groove…

I reserve most of my day, from before lunch to the time after lunch, for meetings with individuals, teams, and managers. It is there in those meetings that I receive progress updates, troubleshoot problems, motivate the team, and ensure everything is on schedule. 

My meetings take all forms. Some are standing meetings with a team, held daily or weekly, at a certain time. Others are spontaneous meetings to discuss a new idea for a solution or urgent meetings to head off trouble. Regardless of the type of meeting I am in, I am always conscious of everyone’s time. I always try to keep meetings to no more than 30 minutes. If an issue is too complicated to resolve in that amount of time, it goes to the “parking lot,” which is the industry term and fictional holding place for all matters yet to be discussed.

Not only does the “30-minute/parking lot” approach save time, but it can save money for the total project cost. When the project manager is not involved in the initiation of a project and the hiring of a vendor, the budget must be watched with extra care. For example, some vendors have it in their contract that a five minute call can be charged as a half hour. As a project manager, part of my role is managing those vendor resources to maximize costs without impacting budget. 

Other meetings are with the CEO or the C-suite, to report on our progress. These take place at their discretion, usually bi-weekly or quarterly.

Often I work with professionals who wear two hats—operations as well as project functions. I often have the challenge of working around their schedule and supporting them so they get everything done and need to do to perform their dual role.

Late Afternoon

When the meetings of the day start to wane, I return my focus to my ever-expanding email inbox. While I may have taken a peek throughout the day, I have answered only the truly urgent ones. Now, I take a dedicated hour or two to reply to them all and clear my box for the night. I make sure I do not let more than 48 hours go by for low priority emails.

Finally, I plan for the next day and have a solid strategy before I head home. Sometimes this is at 5:00 at night, but other times it is at 9:00, depending on the deadline for the project!

TGIF

I try to concentrate my meetings between Monday and Thursday. That leaves me Friday to plan for the next week and give status updates to all stakeholders in the project. When I do have to hold meetings on Fridays, I try to keep them in the morning so I have some clear time on Friday afternoon to finish all my needed planning activities.

I also find Friday an excellent day to work on the tracking of invoices. As the project manager, I must make sure that any invoices that come in correspond to work that has actually been completed, and by the agreed upon fee. I have reviewed many incorrect invoices where a vendor billed my client a full fee for a service that had been negotiated at a much lower rate, or even for free!

So in a nutshell, there you have a day (and week!) in the life of Jeannette Collazo. I must admit that I enjoy every busy, varied, and unpredictable day I have on the job as an IT project manager. Monday through Friday, morning through evening, it’s a wonderful role that challenges and encourages people, while helping a client company grow.