The Basics of Structured Blogging
Project Management is never an easy task. Sometimes, the unexpected happens thus causing someone to lose control over the project. Though there is a possibility for this kind of incident, there are now modern tools which could help in project management.
One of the tools that would be a big help in PM is structured blogging. It follows the usual system of blogging but with the use of templates or forms in the process.
Do you want to know more about structured blogging? Read this article entitled Potential project management tool: Structured blogging inGBwatch and see if structured blogging is worth your while.
10 Meeting Commandments
Meeting is considered as one of the most effective ways to promote dialogue and communication in an organization. In fact, according to the National Statistics Council, meetings are now dominating the American corporate life because 37% of employeee time are spent on meetings.
In regards to that, do you know how to behave in a meeting? I’ve just read the article entitled 10 Commandments of Meeting which is an article showing the basic things that an employee should know during meetings. The article was a reprint from the Harvard Business Communication: A Newsletter from Harvard Business School. The guidelines in the article are presented in a humorous way but the message that it gives is clear.
The 10 Meeting Commandments
- Thou Shalt Always Know What Time It Is
- Thou Shalt Not Forget the Main Reason for Meetings
- Thou Shalt Remember the Golden Rule of Meetings:
Praise in Public, Criticize in Private- Thou Shalt Not Convene Meetings Outside of Normal Business Hours
- Thou Shalt Not Use Group Pressure to Logroll Conclusions
- Thou Shalt Not Use Meetings to Destroy Others’ Careers
- Thou Shalt Keep the Personal and the Corporate Distinct
- Thou Shalt Remember that the Best Model for Meetings Is Democracy, Not Monarchy
- Thou Shalt Always Prepare a Clear Agenda and Circulate It Beforehand
- Thou Shalt Terminate a Regularly Scheduled Meeting When Its Purpose for Being No Longer Exists
The 10 meeting commandments that were given in the article basically shows the important things that employees should consider when going to the meeting. Some of these important things include being on time, knowing the agenda and purpose of the meeting, taking down notes, and seperating personal issues from office meetings. All in all, the commandments that this article show is a very useful guide and the best way to use these guidelines is to follow it.
Personal Time Management for Project Managers
Project Managers should always be focused on the betterment of the team but it does not mean that you have to forget your self in the process. In the article entitled Personal Time Management for Busy Managers written by Dr. Gerard M. Blair, he focused on the importance of personal time management and the way it helps project managers in dealing with problems.
According to the article, Personal time management is more about controlling the use of your most valuable as well as your undervalued resource. The purpose of it is not to solve the problem but rather, reveal it and suggests a way to solve such problems in an organized manner and monitor its progress.
Personal Time Management enables a project manager to do the following things:
- discard wastage
- promote preparedness for meetings
- refusal of excessive workload
- monitoring of project progress
- give needed resources like the appropriate time in accordance to the importance of a task
- able to ensure that long-term projects are not neglected
- plan each day and week efficiently
Aside from that, Personal Time Management also promotes the three effs and ensuring that these characteristics are applied in your team and operational procedures. These three effs are the following:
- Effective
- Efficient
- Effortless