For many Project Managers the holidays are light (potentially very light) in terms of work load. If youâre lucky you can take the time off while things are so slow. However, depending on your companyâs holiday policy, minimum resourcing requirements and your own holiday time left for the year, you may be stuck holding down the fort. Holding down the near empty fort that is on holiday-change-lock-down, with little to no resources to do any work anyway or any stakeholder to communicate with, either.
If youâre in this situation, make sure to plan for it. Use this time wisely! Slow or down time comes so seldomly in project management.
Here are 7 areas to concentrate on during slow periods on projects:
- Upskill
- Either get yourself and/or your team members on training courses (in-person or online).
- Assign topics to each team member to learn something new (reading, training, researching) and create a training session for the rest of the team when everyone returns.
- Get organised
- Organise everything. Things have been slipping and you know it. Be honest and do it. Tackle physical filing, email filing, e-copy filing, folder structures, record keeping, archiving and configuration management.
- Get ready for the first day everyone is back so you and your team can hit the ground running. The stationery cupboard is stocked, the latest software and virus protections are loaded, calendars for the new year are up, holiday decorations are taken down (at least by the last day of the year), etc.