4 Keys to Building Outstanding Work Timelines

Let me start by asking you this question:

Would you rather have your best employees firefighting countless daily issues that arise from a poorly constructed timeline and process, or have them using their skills to solve larger complex problems that continuously improve your business?

I would choose the latter. To me, showing respect to employees is setting them up for the best use of their talents, not sending them scrambling to and fro trying to keep broken systems running. The four tips I will share here will make work processes and timelines efficient and streamlined thereby preventing stressful firefighting and actually freeing up significant amounts of employee time to focus on more important activities that improve business profitability! Let's put those fire extinguishers back on the wall and quit using them every day.

1. Minimize any and all waiting time.

Don't look at your timeline linearly, building one task at a time. Instead, look for tasks you can start on simultaneously. Figure out which tasks are dependent on one another and which aren't. You can really optimize your schedule this way.

2. Standardize wherever possible.

Is there a repeatable task within a specific job or a task that repeats job to job? Figure out the optimum approach for that task, and standardize it. Document and communicate that standard. This will increase your efficiency drastically!

3. Allow for wiggle room.

If you plan for too tight of a timeline, you'll run into issues. Build in time that will allow you to react to any uncontrollable upsets. Contingencies are typically what these are called. If you don't need them, awesome. If you do need them, better to have built in contingency time up front!

4. Communicate your process timeline to your stakeholders.

I love organized and clear Gantt charts or something similar. Communicating those to clients or managers shows your organization and dependability. Update them on progress according to your timeline regularly. You'll build rapport and trust, as well as get ahead of "status update" questions.

© 2017 by The Process Maven