Author: ITCL

Project manager is an interesting, multitasking, and challenging profession. Professionals with extensive experience and those who are just starting to build a career in project management can face many different challenges. These include the nuances of risk management, problems of effective communication with other team members, and disturbed work and life balance.

We have collected 5 most common problems that project managers face and prepared some tips on how to deal with them.

Table of Contents

• 1. Communication Challenges
• 2. Creating a Closed Working Environment
• 3. Stress and Professional Burnout
• 4. Ineffective Time Management
• 5. Technical Savvy
• Conclusion

1. Communication Challenges

The work of a project manager 99% of the time consists of communication – not only with team members, but also with clients and management. Lack of clear and quality communication leads to misunderstandings, conflicts and even mistakes in the project.

Professional manner of communication of a project manager is his business card. A classy specialist has well-developed communication skills, clearly communicates his point of view to stakeholders, is able to communicate openly and charismatically in any situation, calmly reacts to stressful moments, and assesses any risks coolly and without panic.

For example, acting as a mediator during an internal conflict among team members, a project manager should listen to each team member and make a compromise decision, giving a full explanation of his actions. Or, for instance, if a project manager keeps silent about changes on the project to the customer, the expected results do not coincide with the real ones. As a consequence, conflict arises.

To fix this, develop your communication skills. Regularly communicate with your team and stakeholders in a comfortable and transparent format. Use convenient and accessible communication tools. Organize regular meetings that will help you stay in touch and keep you informed of any changes to the project.

2. Creating a Closed Working Environment

Working on a project is a collaborative process, and all team members must be involved in participation and discussion. If the project manager fails to create a comfortable environment that fosters effective and efficient communication, the project will not succeed.

Each employee has their own unique qualities, skills, experience, and work culture. But the project team cannot function in isolation. All participants come together and contribute to the success of the project. The project manager, as the liaison, needs to create a comfortable, communicative environment where all participants feel useful and can share suggestions without restriction.

Use modern communication tools, such as Slack, instead of emails and phone calls. Ensure an open and transparent culture by allowing all participants to speak up without exception. Listen and hear your colleagues, and find compromises in case of possible intra-team conflicts. Get rid of micromanagement of your colleagues and allow them to develop their own professional skills and thus gain experience.

3. Stress and Professional Burnout

Being a project manager, both in IT and in any other field, often entails chronic stress and professional burnout. It all starts when a specialist’s balance between personal life and work is disturbed.

Overwork, finishing tasks on weekends, overload of tasks, tight deadlines, inability to say “no”, constant changes in projects are the other side of the coin in the work of a project manager.

Good salary, cool projects, and meeting new people are all great, but over workload can have a negative impact on your health and productivity. Project managers have to keep a balance between personal life and work, and if they don’t know how to do that, they need to learn it like any other skill.

To help yourself prevent burnout, start by developing your work schedule so that you have time to complete your tasks and don’t have to do them outside of work hours.

Also practice taking a break every hour, during which you can go outside to breathe, eat your favorite snack, read a couple of pages of a book, or meditate. Taking regular breaks will help you recover and relax.

Another important tip concerns your weekend relaxation. Just as you schedule appointments and calls on your calendar, schedule your favorite hobbies, or time to get together with your family. Turn off your phone notifications, don’t check your email regularly – allow yourself to rest and recharge.

4. Ineffective Time Management

A project manager often works in multitasking mode, but the inability to prioritize negates all work efficiency.

Projects, especially in the IT field, are often rushed, creating chaos and overload. The challenge is that it can be difficult for project managers to properly prioritize tasks and effectively allocate time to complete them.

Here are some important tips:

• Use Time Management Techniques: To pump up your time management skills, use various time management techniques such as the Pomodoro Method, GTD (Getting Things Done), and Eisenhower Matrix.
• Learn to Plan: Additionally, pay special attention to planning. Making a clear work plan for the day or week will help you with this. You can also structure your plans in such a way that they can be easily modified.
• Prioritize Tasks: Properly prioritize the tasks, and go for the most urgent and critical ones for the project.
• Don’t Be Afraid to Delegate: Delegating tasks not only allows you to focus on the more important tasks at the moment, but also increases trust among your team members. Don’t try to do everything yourself. Offer to perform tasks to colleagues whose skills are most relevant to the task. The main thing is not to overdo it and take into account the current workload of your colleagues.

5. Technical Savvy

A IT project manager often has to deal with a lot of technical aspects on projects. The situation is exacerbated by complex terms, specific developer jargon, and ever-changing technologies. If a project manager has a poor grasp of technology and is unable to adapt quickly, interaction with the team and customers becomes difficult.

So how does a project manager combat this problem?

First and foremost, be flexible and learn on the go. Yes, you will have to learn the basics of a new field if you have a team member with an unknown function. You will have to ask clarifying questions to developers over and over again. Learn basic technical skills, get project management certifications and attend training. Understanding the technical side of the project will help you communicate effectively with your team and stakeholders.

You may be interested in: https://itcreativelabs.com/blog/10-best-project-management-certifications/

Conclusion

Becoming an experienced project manager requires a lot of skills and abilities. Don’t be discouraged if you encounter problems, take it as a valuable experience.

With the right approach and up-to-date solution methods, you will be able to successfully deal with any difficulties and successfully close projects. We hope that our tips will help you become an even more successful and effective project manager.

Remote work is no longer a rare occurrence and has become a standard option for workers across the globe. Traditional in-office meetings have been replaced by online calls, where a team can be scattered across different parts of the world while still efficiently tackling collaborative projects.

Although many companies have adapted to the remote work format over the years, some challenges remain (such as communication difficulties and different time zones). In addition to a range of qualities that team members must possess, such as responsibility, flexibility, and time management, a remote team must also use various tools and services that help them work efficiently and cohesively.

Whether you’re already working remotely or planning to do so, this article could be of great use to you. We’ve compiled 11 essential tools that will help your distributed team stay on track and successfully complete each project on time.

Table of Contents

• 1. Trello
• 2. Jira
• 3. Slack
• 4. Zoom
• 5. HireQuotient
• 6. Google Meet
• 7. Google Drive
• 8. Miro
• 9. Figma
• 10. Toggl
• 11. Wellness Tools
• The Bottom Line

1. Trello – Efficient Task Organization

Trello is a visual project management tool designed to help remote teams stay on top of tasks and projects. With a board-and-card system, Trello is ideal for teams that need a quick, intuitive way to organize tasks without the need for advanced customization or detailed tracking.

Its intuitive system of boards, lists, and cards allows for easy tracking of progress. Team members can assign tasks, set deadlines, and create checklists, ensuring everyone knows their responsibilities. 

Integration with other apps, like Slack and Google Drive, further enhances productivity, keeping everything in one place.

2. Jira – Task Management and Tracking

Jira is another convenient and popular tool for organizing and tracking tasks, particularly for teams that work with Agile methodologies. 

Jira offers powerful features for creating and managing workflows, tracking progress, and collaborating on complex projects. With customizable dashboards, detailed reporting, and support for sprints and backlogs, Jira is ideal for remote teams handling software development or technical projects.

The main difference between Jira and Trello lies in their complexity and intended use.

• Jira is designed for more complex project management, particularly for software development teams and those following Agile or Scrum methodologies.
• Trello, on the other hand, is simpler and more user-friendly, focusing on visual task management. 

Essentially, Jira is suited for larger, more complex projects, while Trello is perfect for lightweight, visually-oriented task management.

3. Slack – Team Communication and Collaboration

From task tracking tools, let’s move on to platforms that facilitate seamless team communication and collaboration. 

Slack is one of the most popular platforms for remote teams, offering real-time messaging, file sharing, and integration with various other tools. 

Available as a web version and as a mobile app, Slack helps teams stay connected through organized channels, direct messaging, and video calls, ensuring smooth collaboration, no matter where team members are located. 

Slack’s ability to integrate with project management tools like Trello and Jira further enhances its functionality, making it an indispensable tool for remote teamwork.

4. Zoom – Video Conferencing for Remote Teams

Zoom is a widely used video conferencing tool, especially for remote teams that need to conduct regular meetings, webinars, or one-on-one calls. 

Zoom offers high-quality video and audio, screen sharing, breakout rooms, and the ability to record sessions. 

With its ease of use and stable performance, Zoom ensures that remote teams can maintain face-to-face interaction, which is essential for building rapport and ensuring clear communication. 

Additionally, its chat feature allows team members to send messages during or outside of meetings, making it a versatile communication tool for remote collaboration.

5. HireQuotient – Recruitment Automation Platform

HireQuotient is an all-in-one platform that equips HR professionals and hiring managers with smart tools to streamline every step of the recruitment process. Designed for the challenges of remote teams, it offers efficient, easy-to-use solutions such as EasySource and Resume Parser.

EasySource is an AI-powered tool that simplifies candidate sourcing and engagement, ensuring you find the right talent quickly and effortlessly. It saves time while improving hiring quality by matching candidates to job requirements seamlessly.

Resume Parser eliminates the hassle of manual resume screening by automatically extracting key information, allowing HR teams to focus on selecting top candidates. It’s especially useful for remote teams managing large volumes of applications. HireQuotient offers free, unlimited bulk resume parsing powered by AI, allowing you to extract candidate data directly into Excel for streamlined selection.

These tools boost efficiency and help secure top talent, making them essential for today’s remote HR teams.

6. Google Meet – Seamless Video Meetings

Google Meet is also a reliable video conferencing tool that integrates smoothly with the Google Workspace suite, making it ideal for teams already using Google tools like Gmail, Calendar, and Drive. 

Google Meet has simple, user-friendly features such as high-quality video calls, screen sharing, and live captions.The service also supports large meetings, allowing up to 250 participants, making it suitable for both small team check-ins and larger webinars or internal training. 

Tight integration with Google Calendar simplifies meeting scheduling and joining: you can set up phone notifications, for example, 10 minutes before a call starts. If a meeting is canceled, you’ll also receive an email notification via Gmail. These features provide an extra level of assurance that remote teams can collaborate efficiently without disruptions.

7. Google Drive – Centralized Cloud Storage and Collaboration

The second handy service from the Google ecosystem is Google Drive. Google Drive provides cloud storage with real-time collaboration on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

You can share project folders with team members and provide links to documents with specific permissions — whether for full editing, commenting, or view-only access. This makes managing projects and controlling file interactions straightforward and efficient.

The convenient offline mode allows you to make changes to documents or spreadsheets even without an internet connection, ensuring continuous productivity.

Google Drive also offers powerful tools for file search and organization, integrates seamlessly with other Google services like Gmail and Google Calendar, and is accessible from various devices, including mobile phones and tablets. This makes it an indispensable tool for remote teams aiming for effective and organized workflows.

8. Miro – Versatile Virtual Whiteboard

Miro is a powerful online whiteboard tool, where remote team members can work together in real time, brainstorm ideas, plan tasks, and collaborate visually. 

With Miro, team members can create and organize ideas using a variety of tools such as sticky notes, text boxes, shapes, and arrows. The platform supports a range of templates for different purposes, including mind mapping, flowcharts, and project planning. This makes it easy to visualize complex processes and organize thoughts in a structured manner.

9. Figma – Collaborative Design and Prototyping Tool

Figma is a cloud-based design tool that facilitates real-time collaboration for teams working on user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) projects. Firma is a comprehensive platform for designing, prototyping, and sharing design projects, making it ideal for remote teams involved in product design and development.

Key features of Figma include real-time collaboration (multiple team members can work on the same file at the same time), reusable design systems and libraries, prototyping, and comments directly on design files.  

Since Figma is cloud-based, all updates are saved automatically, and files are accessible from anywhere.

10. Toggl – Simple Time Tracking

As a popular time tracking tool Toggl helps team members monitor how they spend their work hours. It’s especially useful for remote teams that need to keep track of time spent on various tasks and projects, ensuring efficient time management and improved productivity.

Toggl’s intuitive interface makes it easy to start and stop timers, categorize tasks, and generate detailed reports. The tool integrates with many project management platforms like Trello, Asana, and Slack, making it seamless to track time directly within your workflow.

11. Wellness Tools – Promoting Well-Being

Employee well-being directly impacts productivity, creativity, and job satisfaction. When remote teams feel supported in managing stress and balancing work with personal life, they are more engaged and effective.

Wellness apps help remote workers prioritize mental and physical health, fostering a positive work environment. For instance, Headspace offers guided meditations, mindfulness exercises, and stress-relief techniques to promote mental well-being in their daily work routine.

Calm is another popular wellness app focusing on meditation, sleep, and relaxation. It offers a range of features like breathing exercises, sleep stories, and music for relaxation. The Wellable platform offers personalized fitness and wellness challenges, mental health resources, and educational content. It encourages healthy habits through gamification and incentives.

The Bottom Line

With modern mobile apps and platforms, you can significantly streamline communication within remote teams, enhance coordination on tasks, and boost overall productivity. Choosing the right tools is crucial to ensure that your team can work efficiently, stay connected, and achieve their goals effectively.

Work-life balance matters for any worker. Unfortunately, many of us struggle to juggle work responsibilities with personal life, often working on weekends or staying up late to finish reports long after the workday has ended. This issue became particularly pronounced after COVID-19, when the mass transition to remote work blurred the lines between professional and personal spaces, with many employees finding themselves working from their bedrooms or kitchens.

Achieving a good balance between professional and personal tasks makes the overall physical and mental health better. Individuals should maintain a balanced life to avoid burnout, reduce stress, and also enhance productivity and job satisfaction.

This balance is especially challenging for those managing teams, such as project managers. Their role often requires prioritizing work tasks over personal life, dealing with unexpected calls, urgent tasks, sudden errors needing immediate fixing, and numerous client inquiries — all often occurring outside of regular working hours.

Table of Contents

• Why It’s Important to Keep a Balance Between Work and Life for Project Managers
• Tip #1: Prioritize Tasks
• Tip #2: Delegate Tasks
• Tip #3: Utilize Project Management Tools
• Tip #4: Take a Break
• Tip #5: Set Boundaries
• Conclusion

Despite the deadlines and urgency of their work, project managers can adopt several effective techniques to maintain a work-life balance. This article offers a list of tips specifically for project managers, although they are also applicable to most office workers who feel they are losing the boundary between work and personal life.

Why It’s Important to Keep a Balance Between Work and Life for Project Managers

Maintaining work and life balance among project managers prevents stress that can arise from task overload and a lack of time for rest and personal activities. The negative impact of stress on health is so significant that some experts equate it to the damage caused by passive smoking.

Project managers often face high-stress situations with deadlines, complex tasks, client expectations, and team management responsibilities. Stress resulting from these reasons tends to accumulate, leading to burnout, characterized by chronic exhaustion, reduced performance, and disengagement.

This burnout affects not only the individual but also their team, resulting in emotional and physical exhaustion, depression, insomnia, decreased motivation, and reduced productivity.

The main causes of stress for project managers include:

1. Frequent project changes in requirements, budget, or deadlines;
2. Lack of clarity in communication with the team or clients;
3. Short deadlines and high-pressure situations;
4. Pressure to meet or exceed high client expectations;
5. Team management challenges (handling conflicts, motivating team members, and take control under their responsibilities);
6. Unexpected issues that require immediate attention and can disrupt plans;
7. Overworking and the need to manage multiple projects simultaneously;
8. Lack of resources for completing and closing projects (budget, staff, or tools).

Beyond professional burnout, high stress also has psychological consequences. Project managers may begin to doubt their soft and hard skills, find it harder to work with their team, struggle with decision-making, experience anxiety, and lose sight of future prospects in the company. It’s no surprise that stress is one of the leading reasons why workers quit.

So what should a project manager do to achieve the work-life balance? Let’s look further.

Tip #1: Prioritize Tasks

Balancing work and personal life for IT project managers greatly benefits from effective task prioritization.

Firstly, it works well when both the team and the manager know which tasks need to be completed first and which are less critical at the moment. This principle helps the team work cohesively even under heavy workloads.

Secondly, project managers themselves will benefit from organizing their personal workday and prioritizing tasks. For example, set specific times for checking emails, responding to messages, and client calls.

There are various techniques for prioritizing tasks for project managers. Some of the most popular include:

• Eisenhower Matrix: Categorize tasks into four quadrants based on urgency and importance.
• ABC Method: Assign priority levels to tasks (A for high priority, B for medium, C for low).
• MoSCoW Method: Divide tasks into Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have.
• Time Blocking: Allocate specific time blocks for different tasks throughout the day.

Tip #2: Delegate Tasks

Delegating tasks can help lighten your workload and give you more time to focus on other important responsibilities. However, if you’re used to handling everything yourself and not leaving any issue unattended, delegating might initially seem like a difficult task.

It’s important to understand the undeniable benefits of delegation: by reducing your to-do list and assigning part of it to other team members, you, as a project manager, can perform your job more effectively by focusing on fewer tasks rather than being spread thin across numerous responsibilities. Moreover, delegation unites the team, builds trust, and provides an opportunity for team members to showcase their soft and hard skills.

To delegate effectively, start by identifying which of your current tasks can be delegated to others and which ones you should keep for yourself to focus on their completion.

Tip #3: Utilize Project Management Tools

Using project management tools can greatly assist in automating tasks and streamlining your workflow. These tools help project managers to perform their duties more efficiently, keep track of progress, and manage deadlines.

There are numerous project management tools available, each offering a variety of features such as task assignment, progress tracking, communication, and document sharing. Popular tools include:

• Trello: Visual task management with boards and cards.
• Asana: Task tracking with project timelines and integrations.
• Jira: Advanced issue and project tracking, particularly for software development.
• Basecamp: Simple project management with to-do lists, file sharing, and scheduling.
• Monday.com: Customizable workflows and project tracking.

As a project manager, try to implement these specialized tools into your daily routine to enhance productivity, and, as a result, maintain a healthier work-life balance.

Tip #4: Take a Break

Regular breaks are essential for maintaining productivity and mental well-being. Project managers often find themselves literally sinking in their work for extended periods, leading to fatigue and decreased efficiency.

By taking short, frequent breaks throughout the day, project managers can recharge, refocus, and return to their tasks with renewed energy and a fresh perspective.

How to implement this tip:

1. Schedule Breaks: Set specific times for short breaks, for instance, 5-10 minutes every hour.
2. Step Away: Move away from your computer screen, stretch, and take a walk across the room.
3. Hydrate and Snack: Use breaks to drink fresh water and have a healthy snack (bananas or nuts are good choices).
4. Mental Pause: Give your mind a break by deep breathing, listening to music, reading a few pages of a book, or meditating./li>

Tip #5: Set Boundaries

As previously mentioned, project managers often face constant stress due to various factors: managing the team, meeting deadlines, dealing with different time zones, handling urgent tasks, resolving conflicts, and overworking.

To mitigate this stress, it is crucial to set clear boundaries. Define specific start and end times for your workday, and try to stick to this schedule, except for truly high-priority and critical tasks that cannot be put off until the next day. If working from home, set up a specific area for work to physically separate your work and personal life.

Avoid taking on tasks during weekends or vacations; allow yourself to rest and be offline. For example, plan activities in advance for your days off to avoid being distracted by messengers and constantly checking your email.

Conclusion

Achieving a work-life balance for a project manager is an ongoing process that requires consistent effort. By delegating tasks, setting personal boundaries, managing time effectively, being flexible, and prioritizing their physical and mental health, project managers can separate their work and personal lives without allowing tasks to spill over from one realm into the other.

Being a project manager without experiencing stress is, unfortunately, an impossible combination. However, it is important not to let stress become a routine due to work pressures and to prevent it from encroaching on personal life. Planning activities during weekends and vacations can help manage this. Taking care of oneself aids in enhancing stress management strategies and preventing burnout.