SARAH LEONETTISr. Project Manager| Randstad Technologies for L.L.BeanWestbrook, Me, United States
What do you do when you have a lull in project activity? I am in an environment where at any given time I may have 3-4 projects, or just 1 (like I do currently). And as we all have experienced, there are times of great activity in every project, and periods that are very quiet. How do you fill the quiet times so that you feel you are being productive? I hate telling my boss that I need more work, and want to find a way to get through the lulls. Would love to hear your thoughts! Saving Changes...
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Eric SimmsSenior Program ManagerBaltimore, Maryland, United States
Downtime is a great time to learn more skills. I'm in the Information Technology field, and when I have spare time I learn a bit more about whatever technology we're currently working with. This enables me to have deeper talks with my Engineers, and they respect me more for being a PM with a bit of technical knowledge, as they absolutely hate dealing with technologically clueless PMs. Learning new skills will allow you to simultaneously benefit the company and your own career. Saving Changes...
Joshua RenderProduct Owner| CognizantHarrisville, Ny, United States
The first thing I try to do is predict the future. I try to figure out what I may need to do in advance, and if it can be done in advance, I do it.
Other than that, take some additional education in your downtime to learn new things, enhance skills you have, or refresh your memory on skills you may not practice often.
Waterfall delivery has peaks & troughs which then encourages allocation to more projects. Agile delivery can help ensure a more levelled workload. Having said that, downtime can be used for investment in oneself as well as working on pet projects and improvement initiatives.
How about create/propose a project that is both beneficial to the organization and fun to you. That way you show that you are proactively filling in downtime, bringing value to the company, and keeping busy and engaged while you do it. Saving Changes...
RAJESH K LProject Manager, PMP| Bharat Electronics, Bengaluru, IndiaBengaluru, Karnataka, India
Hi Sarah,
Agree with points made by Eric, Kiron, Joshua and Sante.
One can plan for the periods with least pressure/activities to upgrade our knowledge Saving Changes...
