Are You Managing Project Life? Heed This Wake-Up Call

George Freeman, PMP, is a seasoned IT project manager and leader who has worked in the software industry for nearly four decades, including over 25 years of project management. He has significant experience and expertise in enterprise information systems, data, and business architectures, and is an advocate for “business and technical architectural awareness” among all project team members. Mr. Freeman has international and remote team experience, and has a passion for meta-modeling, domain-driven design, and “all things architecture.”

  Career Development  

A few years back, while working late, a friend introduced me to the Japanese term “Karoshi,” which means “died due to overwork.” It was an intriguing conversation as we shared our invincibility and superpowers to work ghostly hours to benefit our projects.

Unfortunately, even though I knew this type of project work ethic was intrinsically unhealthy, I felt that I escaped its grip as I was mindful of my activities and had a proven (or so I thought) work/life balance that had kept me afloat in this mode for over four decades.

But life is rarely static, and new circumstances and environments can take something previously manageable and familiar—and slowly turn it upside down without you even noticing until one revolution is complete. Then, the spin cycle begins, and we wonder how in the world we got there.

Such is the case with my recent wake-up call, which begs the question, relevant to us all: Are we managing project life?

Eyes wide open
It doesn’t matter how many decades you have traversed in your career; life can catch up to you with no or little notice, smack you across the face, and present you with a project life status report stating, “You have prematurely entered the project closure phase and are en route to your post-mortem.”

With your eyes wide open, you observe the flurry of medical personnel rushing your …

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