I believe Product Managers are mini CXOs - helping companies build products through design thinking and innovation. In that process, we may find ourselves overwhelmed with the number of tasks that come our way.
While we only have limited time on any given day to take on the tasks coming our way. We must put in efforts to prioritize our tasks and find ways to be more productive as we go along in our product management journey.
Following are some of the time management tips that we as product managers can consider using during the product management lifecycle.
Track: Having clarity about the tasks on hand is crucial for any product manager. For this, I recommend creating a Task Tracker - and sorting them into different categories. We can use one of my favourite productivity tools - Notion- to list all the tasks and categorize and prioritize them based on their importance.
Focus: As we go along the journey of building products, we must create blocks of uninterrupted “focus time” every week in our calendars. These time blocks can be used to remain true to the product management journey while ensuring we stay productive.
Limit: We often tend to get overwhelmed with the number of tasks that come our way with varying priorities. While every task needs to be addressed, we must try to keep a check on the number of pending tasks. We should try and limit the numbers that go out of our reach.
Calendar: Having visibility on our time is one of the most important aspects to watch out for product managers. For this, I recommend using the calendar as a to-do list. What I mean by this is to colour code the list of to-do things for easy reference.
Delegate: As we are limited by time, product managers need to build on the skill of work delegation. While not all tasks that are coming our way are best suited for our time and effort. We must find ways to delegate tasks to people who are best suited for those tasks.
Leadership: One of the most essential skills for any product manager is to hone their leadership skills. As product leaders, we should be clear about the ultimate vision which is to build products to solve the customer challenge. In that process, we must say ‘NO’ to things that are not essential for the product. Most importantly - we should be able to take decisions.
Recharge: While we continue the product journey - product managers must be taking breaks to recharge themselves.
I am a product management professional based in Halifax, Canada and I write about technology, innovation, entrepreneurship and business strategy. You can learn more about me at the following link: https://medium.com/@talluri
