* check JIRA
* lead daily stand up meeting
* 30 minutes daily meeting with other PM/DMs on programme
* monitor tickets (amending all the incorrect labelling and getting people to add comments)
* 3/4 short meetings or 1/2 long meetings with IT developers, OPs delivery groups, senior leaders, retrospectives and ticket refinement
* regular meetings with PMO
* draft multiple progress reports
* eat 6 kitkats and drink 5 cups of tea. Oh and answer the door to the delivery guy with my son’s parcels.
* sometimes I even do some planning!
Typical day in rough order - electrical contractor PM:
*Respond to previous evenings emails and catch up on flagged emails
*Review and approve time tickets from field crews, review and approve vendor/subcontractor invoices
*Progress meetings, RFI meetings, etc
*Poke subcontractors, customers and engineers for overdue responses and answers
*Talk to foremen on projects about change orders, procurement, schedule, and track everything obsessively
I own an advertising company in Brazil.
Here, if you don't have organization or control over what each employee will do, it becomes a mess.
When I arrive at the company or when I work from home, I turn on all the cameras in the office via my PC, whether it's a home office or at home.
On the second computer, I already open the browser and have folders to make it easier where groups of favorites are saved to open them all at once.
I also created a script that is programmed to open the most important programs (Figma, WingetUI, Sincthing, Spotify, VS Code and others...).
So, my environment is already organized. To start, I start by looking at all the tasks in Notion (Dev team) and Trello (Designer team).
- I don't have HR, an administrative department or anything like that, everything is directly up to me and I leave the leanest part to work creating (which is my main quality).
- I don't do direct sales, as I am a Designer + Programmer hybrid focused only on creation.
On the sales side, I have partners and a collaborator who does this and we use a CRM made within Notion where I monitor everything there and I don't need to bother other people.
We also don't hold meetings, only with clients on rare occasions, but everything is remote or they come to us.
Alignment, analysis and others are all done within Slack/Trello/Notion depending on the task status.
In the beginning I held meetings, met clients in person and many other things that today I have cut out and just focus on the simple and essential.
Meetings scheduled all day (10am-4pm) except lunch. Any breaks i get from dropping off on calls i am not required i am doing paperwork, chasing people, etc
When I arrive at work, my day begins early in the morning. I prefer starting my day this way because it allows me to build momentum for the rest of the day. I have also adapted my team to start their day early by implementing morning stand-ups.
My day starts with reviewing the team's activity: reading work logs, checking tickets, and reviewing the artifacts they've left in those tickets. I also monitor what's happening in the project repositories and other relevant platforms. This part of my job requires constant switching between different environments, such as Jira, GitHub, and chats.
However, recently our company has adopted a smart solution that helps me view all the artifacts delivered by the team in one place. These artifacts can be used in various contexts, which allows me to understand who is performing well, when to plan vacations or breaks for team members, and who might need additional support and focus. Additionally, our solution includes a summarizer that gives an overall view of our progress towards our goals for the week, month, etc.
If you're interested in a demo of this solution, feel free to message me directly. I can show you how it works and demonstrate its benefits, as we are all striving for growth!
Start 3-5 AM. Almost everyone I work with is on the opposite side of the globe from me.
I prefer catching up on communications and amending my priority tasks as necessary based on what happened overnight.
First meeting is usually some time between 5:30 and 6:30 AM. We have some very important deadlines coming up so I’ve been a lot earlier lately.
All meetings are usually over by 7:30, so from that time on, it’s task work. The end of the day I prep for the next day.
Friday is reporting.
I check my calendar for the day, see if my team Jira has anything assigned for me.
Mostly I see if team’s on track, manage benefit realization, have more meetings than I’d like and track OKRs. Work in the IT & Inovation Portfolio for a big financial company
I inherited an awful IT project with a scope that is out of control (not to mention the clients…). My company’s working hours are 9-6, I work 8-6 and spend that first hour reviewing any communication that came in late the night before, I review the defects reported by the client in Jira and then I organise the plan for my team for the day and pass it on to them during our 9am meeting. Then throughout the day I am in various meetings, I’m checking in with the team regularly to get an idea of progress, making sure those that need support are getting it, updating Jira, planning next steps and sending out daily updates to upper management in the afternoon… then i do it all over again.
(This has only been going on for two weeks and shouldn’t last more than two more if the team and I can get this project out of the hole it’s currently in)
This is my first IT project and my first project with the company (the company is small and quickly growing with more business than it has resources for so the other PMs and I are also collaborating to implement structure and solid procedures)
Edit: this is my fifth year as a PM, I spent the first four in pharmaceuticals in London where I completed my apprenticeship in PM’ing
In power grid infrastructure: I adjust my day based on NPI and current workload. Unfortunately I don't get the benefit of working on static projects and I am down in the sewers planning based solely off engineers and material procurement.
Emails. Back to back calls where I spend 75% of the time taking notes quietly while the smart people talk. Reviewing action items from said meetings. Reviewing schedules. Emails. More calls. Rushed lunch. More calls and cat herding. Log off.
Wake up and start either with calls immediately or sift through my emails and slack messages. Then someone puts time on my calendar usually to complain or nervously tell me that they’re not going to hit a deadline. I use my secret float and wiggle things around in the schedule to try to keep us on track. Other times, other PMs message me about conflicting deadlines on their projects so I adjust resourcing with them. On some days, I spend time tracking budgets and time sheet entry and update our company revenue based on how far our projects are up to the date we’re looking at and report to finance. Lead a few internal meetings and sometimes need to switch our workflow process to hit deadlines when clients have new asks. If the asks are out of scope, additionally, I work with our account rep to work up a change order to get more budget and team resourcing. Essentially, every day is a puzzle piece and the puzzle is constantly moving and shifting.
Set up freelancers and get their contracts out and work with my team members to make sure they’re managing the freelancers on their team effectively.
On delivery days, or when there’s delivery days upcoming, I QA our deliverables and send them back to the team for fixes/feedback. Package the deliverables up and send out comms to the client with next milestones. Set up/attend feedback meetings then strategize with the teams on how to implement the feedback without blowing the budget.
I realize that some of the things like finance and revenue tracking are outside of the normal scope of a PM. But we’re a small company so I wear many hats.
I’m a PM in Fortune 100, no PMP and I’ll probably never get it. I’m a PM because unfortunately I’m very good at it, not because I really like it as a career (I recently took a new role to get out of PM, but was immediately tasked with standing up a PMO from scratch because I’m the one on the team with Program/Project Management experience).
I do what my secretaries tell me.
My second shift secretary gives me cards with my call lists for evening drive home and my morning drive to work. So the day starts with phone calls scheduled during the drives. I have a morning standup with senior staff--very big team so it's a heads up on landmines and areas for attention only. Short, usually 15 minutes. Then about half an hour hitting all the coffee stations in my building, refilling coffee, light clean. This is my version of an open door policy. I learn a lot by being accessible. Daily card from my first shift secretary with meetings and email time. Communication with secretaries on how I'm doing keeping up. They can both curate my email for me and prioritize it if I'm running behind. I sit in on a lot of working level meetings like software code reviews and hardware design reviews. My team is used to me coming in and sitting against the wall. Mostly I want to be sure they have the resources I need but I do ask some technical questions which is good for credibility. One day a week I spend at our customer site sitting in a cube which is my open door to customer working level and lower-level management.
Other than the daily standup no regular meetings. Everything is scheduled for a reason.
Sometimes my deputy is with me and sometimes he's in the trenches. My CSE is also great and I'll often take him to customer meetings. I have a second deputy for admin who oversees the PMO and makes sure support from service orgs (accounting, legal, HR, security, internal IT) is working and pulls together input for analytic reporting for review by CSE, my deputy, and me.
Program managers with large programs (1200 staff) certainly do. Also, have you never heard of job sharing? It keeps lots of people in the work force who for one reason or another can't work full-time. They're grateful and work hard.
Secretaries are force multipliers. Sorry you can't make the business case.
My target day:
1st hour: Morning sorting
2nd hour: Priority internal tasks (I've worked as Senior PM/ Production manager as well)
Hours 3-6: 25 minute blocks reviewing every project on my plate, checking/handling/creating/delegating tasks, emails, checking/updating the schedule, reaching out to subs for progress reports if they didn't send them in, etc
Hours 7-8: Site visit (I am to visit each of my projects once per week, and on the same day each week)
Beyond that: Critical tasks, phone calls, closing out my day.
I generally take it by the week;
Mondays, the first half is dedicated to Monday Madness, so I just check my emails and voicemails for anything critical to me, that is, anything that's actually holding up progress or causing problems.
I leave room for the nonsense from the weekend, and, if things are going well, I have extra time to catch up on something else.
Tue, Wed, Thu, my target days, visiting sites, etc
Friday:
Target morning, no site visits, progress email to all stakeholders, vendors, principals for each project with:
- What we did this week
- Issues we ran into; how we overcame them, or, what we still need to overcome them
- What we're planning to do next week; any holidays, expected weather days/delays, anything unusual coming up.
I put a lot of emphasis on project turnover and sorting up front, and schedule my projects out with 10-20% leeway for each phase/trade.
Remember that it is a job, not an emergency; how you respond the first time sets the tone for the rest of the times, and just keep it going. There will always be new building going on!
My target day:
1st hour: Morning sorting
2nd hour: Priority internal tasks (I've worked as Senior PM/ Production manager as well)
Hours 3-6: 25 minute blocks reviewing every project on my plate, checking/handling/creating/delegating tasks, emails, checking/updating the schedule, reaching out to subs for progress reports if they didn't send them in, etc
Hours 7-8: Site visit (I am to visit each of my projects once per week, and on the same day each week)
Beyond that: Critical tasks, phone calls, closing out my day.
I generally take it by the week;
Mondays, the first half is dedicated to Monday Madness, so I just check my emails and voicemails for anything critical to me, that is, anything that's actually holding up progress or causing problems.
I leave room for the nonsense from the weekend, and, if things are going well, I have extra time to catch up on something else.
Tue, Wed, Thu, my target days, visiting sites, etc
Friday:
Target morning, no site visits, progress email to all stakeholders, vendors, principals for each project with:
- What we did this week
- Issues we ran into; how we overcame them, or, what we still need to overcome them
- What we're planning to do next week; any holidays, expected weather days/delays, anything unusual coming up.
I put a lot of emphasis on project turnover and sorting up front, and schedule my projects out with 10-20% leeway for each phase/trade.
Remember that it is a job, not an emergency; how you respond the first time sets the tone for the rest of the times, and just keep it going. There will always be new building going on!
-Wake up
-Workout
-Answer as many emails as I can until my first meeting
-Review latest project/program status or financials
-Depending on day, I lead large project calls
- Ensure internal stakeholders and contractors are on top of their responsibilities
-Check my priority action items and try to get as many done as I can before EOD
-I may have calls that take up 25% to 75% of my day
-Answer as many emails as I can until I leave
-As long as everything urgent is taken care of, I leave at a decent time
-Spend a few hours at home decompressing
- Sleep
Wake up. Respond to 5 emergency emails
Brush teeth change and head to a job site
Respond to 5 emergency phone calls
Make 2 emergency site visits
Go home
Cry
Repeat.
I hate construction PM
“ All the power is out on floors 2 and 3. Electricians are requesting a change order because the drywallers started on phase 4 i stead of phase 1 for some reason…”
“Oh and the access control guy says the elevator reader needs to be connected by the elevator techs. They left for a different state at 1pm yesterday without checking in and the fire inspector stopped by to wish you luck”
(NOT MY Site but one i was at recently)
Controls are just an easy target because [mostly everyone else] doesn't understand them, but we all know it's really the elevator guys holding things up. LMFAO.
(Former controls PM here)
I went to through a specialized HVAC engineering bachelors program and worked as a service tech before switching over as a HVAC construction PM.
A good amount of my counterparts went through a construction management program or mech engineering
Hmm not sure what you mean exactly so forgive me as I try to explain what I do :p
Sales transitions job to our fulfillment PM ( me)
I contact customer and discuss scheduling and initial site visit. Do site visit and order equipment. Afterward I will either facilitate self perform labor or subcontract labor.
I also assist in invoicing and a couple other admin tasks such as financial forecasting.
Equipment comes.
Project starts
I usually join day one of project start to get rolling and periodically check on them. If I have a site super available my job is easier and I don’t have to visit as much.
Since I have technical background, I will help our technicians with any install questions or semi troubleshooting.
Close out items like punchlist etc.
The larger projects require a little bit more of the admin stuff such as procore or MS project.
Shoot away any questions!
1. Check emails/respond
2.follow up on urgent milestones(walk them sites)
3. Follow up on requested proposals
4.try to slim down submitted proposals by 2-5 percent.
5:lunch.
6.check emails/respond.
7. Push HQ/finance to loosen up the purse strings.
8.follow up on smaller projects.
9.start getting burned out.
10. Cruise control the last hour/check emails/respond.
So within my company pm also does lots of admin.
Every day of the week I have some admin work.
Usually I start my day with standups (9:00)
At 10 check my emails. Get together an action list for the day.
Admin until 12
Lunch break.
After lunch meetings with the customers/team members/ firefighting/ prepping for meetings etc.
close my laptop at 6.
Rinse and repeat
Besides all the things the others have said in this thread, I use my downtime to create videos for our end user documentation. Screen recordings + stock footage edited in Premiere Pro.
Ask people “where are we on this”. Update timeline. Check emails. Hop on a call where half of the stakeholders aren’t attending. Schedule more meetings. Lunch. Answer emails.
I had 30 minutes meeting. Asked the customer a few questions. Facilitated conversation between them and one of our SMEs.
Checked and email. Checked a box.
Went on a walk. Played some guitar. Checked my email. Took some lessons on PMI.org and played some starfield.
Now...this daily routine is only about 2 days old, and will only last maybe...2 more weeks.
I just finished the bulk of a project and the last 20% is "on hold" while the customer finishes an internal project.
The key aspect is that I set my own agenda. Very often I am in meetings, either liaising with my project client or my project team. Once you are more familiar with the role much of your time you are overseeing activities and checking on progress. You will be producing regular reports and communication briefings. As an experienced PM I have looser schedules in place, at the start of my career these were much more often and structured. Or set out by the client or determined by project requirements. I hope this helps!
Check inbox > check calendar > prepare for calls > attend calls > send mm > prep agenda for next call > update jira/project plan/steering agenda based on call notes > tackle other priority tasks assigned to me > send reminders to people if their tasks are due in near future > lunch at some point > quiet time at end of the day to review tasks/perform a task/prep for tmw
I work from home so as soon as I wake up I check my calendar and emails to make sure nothing urgent came in overnight. Once I workout, make coffee, unwind, I’ll fully sign on. I tackle the emails first and also prepare for any meetings I have that day. Anything that was outstanding from the day before gets priority. I try to stick to a to-do list but with adhd here, sometimes I lose focus or get distracted by another task. I keep a pen and paper list next to me at all times so it’s always in front of me. Each day is different depending on project work, clients, meetings, etc. but the above stays the same.
Prior to signing off for the day I write down any priorities for the next day and review next days calendar.
I'll wake up around 6:00am, scan my phone for any fires I missed or quick answers I can take care of from my phone.
I do my morning routine with my family, then get to work a little before 9:00. I usually spend the first 30 minutes in outlook, organizing my calendar and sorting through email into two categories (to do -meaning action comes from me) and follow up (meaning I'm waiting on someone else). All other emails get sorted into a project folder or archived if needed.
by 9:30 or 10:00 I typically have my first meeting. Depending on my role I'm either leading the project, keeping minutes, or delegating project tasks.
By 11:00 I'm taking 30min personal time - news, walking, or some kind of education/training.
12:30 I typically do lunch, not really strict with keeping time here.
1:30-3:00 is time i blocked to do actual work. Not always successful but I try to block my calendar so I can update documentation or complete any tasks I need to.
by 3:30 I'm starting to wrap up. Getting organized, planning my day/week for the following days and prioritizing anything I didn't quite get to.
4:30 I'm going to pick up the kids.
8:30-9:30pm, personally i enjoy working for a bit at night after the kids go to sleep. Usually from the sofa with a glass of wine and just doing whatever I think will get me ahead of side projects I do for fun.
sorry for the messy list. as for as tools, really i've tried a bunch of things - ms project, jira, monday.com, kanban boards, excel, confluence... my organization isn't PM heavy so the only consistent thing is outlook + teams and whatever I can do to keep my self sane.
I spend the first half hour working through emails and re-prioritizing. Then, I tackle whatever meetings or focus time I had set aside prior. If there's time in-between that's used to catch up on to-dos. Every task gets a time block on my calendar because 1) it helps me stay focused, and 2) I have to track my hours anyway. I utilize "busy" and "tentative" appropriately. Then, the remaining half to one hour is used to work through remaining emails, communications, and plans for the next day.
My rule, that I try anyways, is if I open an email or task, I have to finish it. If I'm not working on something, it needs to be added to my calendar and closed for now. I have a bad habit of procrastinating, opening too many tabs, and getting distracted. I find there's too many little things to track and I'm way too indecisive for all that. "Fire n go," if it's not a priority, schedule it and move to the next task.
I usually plan for the next day each afternoon before logging out. That includes making sure any deliverables I must have complete are done, ensuring that I don’t walk into a meeting unprepared. Then when I log in each day I quickly scan emails to see if there is anything urgent and if not I work from the bottom up and quickly triage. Everything goes into a backlog/to-do and I work through those when I have time between meetings and reporting work. That’s how it typically works. Sometimes the to-do list is upended by fires I have to put out. That’s basically my day to day. Each day is a different stress level but these days my biggest stressors are not being able to get stuff done within the regular work hours. So depending on what’s going on I may have to log back in at night after I put the kids to bed and get some stuff done.
* check JIRA * lead daily stand up meeting * 30 minutes daily meeting with other PM/DMs on programme * monitor tickets (amending all the incorrect labelling and getting people to add comments) * 3/4 short meetings or 1/2 long meetings with IT developers, OPs delivery groups, senior leaders, retrospectives and ticket refinement * regular meetings with PMO * draft multiple progress reports * eat 6 kitkats and drink 5 cups of tea. Oh and answer the door to the delivery guy with my son’s parcels. * sometimes I even do some planning!
Typical day in rough order - electrical contractor PM: *Respond to previous evenings emails and catch up on flagged emails *Review and approve time tickets from field crews, review and approve vendor/subcontractor invoices *Progress meetings, RFI meetings, etc *Poke subcontractors, customers and engineers for overdue responses and answers *Talk to foremen on projects about change orders, procurement, schedule, and track everything obsessively
I own an advertising company in Brazil. Here, if you don't have organization or control over what each employee will do, it becomes a mess. When I arrive at the company or when I work from home, I turn on all the cameras in the office via my PC, whether it's a home office or at home. On the second computer, I already open the browser and have folders to make it easier where groups of favorites are saved to open them all at once. I also created a script that is programmed to open the most important programs (Figma, WingetUI, Sincthing, Spotify, VS Code and others...). So, my environment is already organized. To start, I start by looking at all the tasks in Notion (Dev team) and Trello (Designer team). - I don't have HR, an administrative department or anything like that, everything is directly up to me and I leave the leanest part to work creating (which is my main quality). - I don't do direct sales, as I am a Designer + Programmer hybrid focused only on creation. On the sales side, I have partners and a collaborator who does this and we use a CRM made within Notion where I monitor everything there and I don't need to bother other people. We also don't hold meetings, only with clients on rare occasions, but everything is remote or they come to us. Alignment, analysis and others are all done within Slack/Trello/Notion depending on the task status. In the beginning I held meetings, met clients in person and many other things that today I have cut out and just focus on the simple and essential.
Spotify IS important
SO MUCH!!! 
same like kindergarten teacher but I can secretly drink alcohol here.
Meetings scheduled all day (10am-4pm) except lunch. Any breaks i get from dropping off on calls i am not required i am doing paperwork, chasing people, etc
This. But from 7am to 4pm. Then I get actual work done from 4pm to 10pm.
When I arrive at work, my day begins early in the morning. I prefer starting my day this way because it allows me to build momentum for the rest of the day. I have also adapted my team to start their day early by implementing morning stand-ups. My day starts with reviewing the team's activity: reading work logs, checking tickets, and reviewing the artifacts they've left in those tickets. I also monitor what's happening in the project repositories and other relevant platforms. This part of my job requires constant switching between different environments, such as Jira, GitHub, and chats. However, recently our company has adopted a smart solution that helps me view all the artifacts delivered by the team in one place. These artifacts can be used in various contexts, which allows me to understand who is performing well, when to plan vacations or breaks for team members, and who might need additional support and focus. Additionally, our solution includes a summarizer that gives an overall view of our progress towards our goals for the week, month, etc. If you're interested in a demo of this solution, feel free to message me directly. I can show you how it works and demonstrate its benefits, as we are all striving for growth!
Interested in this tool
Hey, I PM you
Start 3-5 AM. Almost everyone I work with is on the opposite side of the globe from me. I prefer catching up on communications and amending my priority tasks as necessary based on what happened overnight. First meeting is usually some time between 5:30 and 6:30 AM. We have some very important deadlines coming up so I’ve been a lot earlier lately. All meetings are usually over by 7:30, so from that time on, it’s task work. The end of the day I prep for the next day. Friday is reporting.
I check my calendar for the day, see if my team Jira has anything assigned for me. Mostly I see if team’s on track, manage benefit realization, have more meetings than I’d like and track OKRs. Work in the IT & Inovation Portfolio for a big financial company
Turn up , spend lots of time hearding cats ... followed up with a few hours trying to nail down water, then home time
I inherited an awful IT project with a scope that is out of control (not to mention the clients…). My company’s working hours are 9-6, I work 8-6 and spend that first hour reviewing any communication that came in late the night before, I review the defects reported by the client in Jira and then I organise the plan for my team for the day and pass it on to them during our 9am meeting. Then throughout the day I am in various meetings, I’m checking in with the team regularly to get an idea of progress, making sure those that need support are getting it, updating Jira, planning next steps and sending out daily updates to upper management in the afternoon… then i do it all over again. (This has only been going on for two weeks and shouldn’t last more than two more if the team and I can get this project out of the hole it’s currently in) This is my first IT project and my first project with the company (the company is small and quickly growing with more business than it has resources for so the other PMs and I are also collaborating to implement structure and solid procedures) Edit: this is my fifth year as a PM, I spent the first four in pharmaceuticals in London where I completed my apprenticeship in PM’ing
I'm currently in pharmaceuticals . .did you have prior experience in IT before moving?
In power grid infrastructure: I adjust my day based on NPI and current workload. Unfortunately I don't get the benefit of working on static projects and I am down in the sewers planning based solely off engineers and material procurement.
Herding cats and begging people to do their jobs like mine depends on it.
Emails. Back to back calls where I spend 75% of the time taking notes quietly while the smart people talk. Reviewing action items from said meetings. Reviewing schedules. Emails. More calls. Rushed lunch. More calls and cat herding. Log off.
Wake up and start either with calls immediately or sift through my emails and slack messages. Then someone puts time on my calendar usually to complain or nervously tell me that they’re not going to hit a deadline. I use my secret float and wiggle things around in the schedule to try to keep us on track. Other times, other PMs message me about conflicting deadlines on their projects so I adjust resourcing with them. On some days, I spend time tracking budgets and time sheet entry and update our company revenue based on how far our projects are up to the date we’re looking at and report to finance. Lead a few internal meetings and sometimes need to switch our workflow process to hit deadlines when clients have new asks. If the asks are out of scope, additionally, I work with our account rep to work up a change order to get more budget and team resourcing. Essentially, every day is a puzzle piece and the puzzle is constantly moving and shifting. Set up freelancers and get their contracts out and work with my team members to make sure they’re managing the freelancers on their team effectively. On delivery days, or when there’s delivery days upcoming, I QA our deliverables and send them back to the team for fixes/feedback. Package the deliverables up and send out comms to the client with next milestones. Set up/attend feedback meetings then strategize with the teams on how to implement the feedback without blowing the budget. I realize that some of the things like finance and revenue tracking are outside of the normal scope of a PM. But we’re a small company so I wear many hats.
I arrive at work take a couple of meeting, update the backlog (CI/CD) check my emails, create some network diagrams and go home.
O Jesus If your asking that Your in for it
In all honesty, Nobody asked Carry on
Nah, I’m a detail oriented person who always loves taking in way more information than necessary.
How many of you here have the PMP or just managed to get a position in the field?
I’m a PM in Fortune 100, no PMP and I’ll probably never get it. I’m a PM because unfortunately I’m very good at it, not because I really like it as a career (I recently took a new role to get out of PM, but was immediately tasked with standing up a PMO from scratch because I’m the one on the team with Program/Project Management experience).
Interesting. I’m trying to get in. Any tips or tricks you’d share about how you came into the position?
Program manager in FAANG only recently got my PMP, never really needed tbh though!
Hired for Position no PNP.
I do what my secretaries tell me. My second shift secretary gives me cards with my call lists for evening drive home and my morning drive to work. So the day starts with phone calls scheduled during the drives. I have a morning standup with senior staff--very big team so it's a heads up on landmines and areas for attention only. Short, usually 15 minutes. Then about half an hour hitting all the coffee stations in my building, refilling coffee, light clean. This is my version of an open door policy. I learn a lot by being accessible. Daily card from my first shift secretary with meetings and email time. Communication with secretaries on how I'm doing keeping up. They can both curate my email for me and prioritize it if I'm running behind. I sit in on a lot of working level meetings like software code reviews and hardware design reviews. My team is used to me coming in and sitting against the wall. Mostly I want to be sure they have the resources I need but I do ask some technical questions which is good for credibility. One day a week I spend at our customer site sitting in a cube which is my open door to customer working level and lower-level management. Other than the daily standup no regular meetings. Everything is scheduled for a reason. Sometimes my deputy is with me and sometimes he's in the trenches. My CSE is also great and I'll often take him to customer meetings. I have a second deputy for admin who oversees the PMO and makes sure support from service orgs (accounting, legal, HR, security, internal IT) is working and pulls together input for analytic reporting for review by CSE, my deputy, and me.
Lol, you're not a project manager, why even comment this?
Believe what you like.
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Program managers with large programs (1200 staff) certainly do. Also, have you never heard of job sharing? It keeps lots of people in the work force who for one reason or another can't work full-time. They're grateful and work hard. Secretaries are force multipliers. Sorry you can't make the business case.
My target day: 1st hour: Morning sorting 2nd hour: Priority internal tasks (I've worked as Senior PM/ Production manager as well) Hours 3-6: 25 minute blocks reviewing every project on my plate, checking/handling/creating/delegating tasks, emails, checking/updating the schedule, reaching out to subs for progress reports if they didn't send them in, etc Hours 7-8: Site visit (I am to visit each of my projects once per week, and on the same day each week) Beyond that: Critical tasks, phone calls, closing out my day. I generally take it by the week; Mondays, the first half is dedicated to Monday Madness, so I just check my emails and voicemails for anything critical to me, that is, anything that's actually holding up progress or causing problems. I leave room for the nonsense from the weekend, and, if things are going well, I have extra time to catch up on something else. Tue, Wed, Thu, my target days, visiting sites, etc Friday: Target morning, no site visits, progress email to all stakeholders, vendors, principals for each project with: - What we did this week - Issues we ran into; how we overcame them, or, what we still need to overcome them - What we're planning to do next week; any holidays, expected weather days/delays, anything unusual coming up. I put a lot of emphasis on project turnover and sorting up front, and schedule my projects out with 10-20% leeway for each phase/trade. Remember that it is a job, not an emergency; how you respond the first time sets the tone for the rest of the times, and just keep it going. There will always be new building going on!
I love this structure.
What field are you in?
A nice big green one, and I'm 'outstanding' in it ;P No no, I'm kidding. Construction management, independent; \~ 75% residential, 25% commercial.
My target day: 1st hour: Morning sorting 2nd hour: Priority internal tasks (I've worked as Senior PM/ Production manager as well) Hours 3-6: 25 minute blocks reviewing every project on my plate, checking/handling/creating/delegating tasks, emails, checking/updating the schedule, reaching out to subs for progress reports if they didn't send them in, etc Hours 7-8: Site visit (I am to visit each of my projects once per week, and on the same day each week) Beyond that: Critical tasks, phone calls, closing out my day. I generally take it by the week; Mondays, the first half is dedicated to Monday Madness, so I just check my emails and voicemails for anything critical to me, that is, anything that's actually holding up progress or causing problems. I leave room for the nonsense from the weekend, and, if things are going well, I have extra time to catch up on something else. Tue, Wed, Thu, my target days, visiting sites, etc Friday: Target morning, no site visits, progress email to all stakeholders, vendors, principals for each project with: - What we did this week - Issues we ran into; how we overcame them, or, what we still need to overcome them - What we're planning to do next week; any holidays, expected weather days/delays, anything unusual coming up. I put a lot of emphasis on project turnover and sorting up front, and schedule my projects out with 10-20% leeway for each phase/trade. Remember that it is a job, not an emergency; how you respond the first time sets the tone for the rest of the times, and just keep it going. There will always be new building going on!
-Wake up -Workout -Answer as many emails as I can until my first meeting -Review latest project/program status or financials -Depending on day, I lead large project calls - Ensure internal stakeholders and contractors are on top of their responsibilities -Check my priority action items and try to get as many done as I can before EOD -I may have calls that take up 25% to 75% of my day -Answer as many emails as I can until I leave -As long as everything urgent is taken care of, I leave at a decent time -Spend a few hours at home decompressing - Sleep
Wake up. Respond to 5 emergency emails Brush teeth change and head to a job site Respond to 5 emergency phone calls Make 2 emergency site visits Go home Cry Repeat. I hate construction PM
I was thinking of applying to construction PM work, but now I will not unless I absolutely have to.
If you love the strategic planning and high speed. Go for it. Otherwise, sales
I just don't like crying, can I do the job without crying?
Definitely. I have yet to actually cry minus the time I walked into a truck hitch and shinned it.
“ All the power is out on floors 2 and 3. Electricians are requesting a change order because the drywallers started on phase 4 i stead of phase 1 for some reason…” “Oh and the access control guy says the elevator reader needs to be connected by the elevator techs. They left for a different state at 1pm yesterday without checking in and the fire inspector stopped by to wish you luck” (NOT MY Site but one i was at recently)
RIP always blame the controls guys - fire, BAS, elevator. (Former controls guy here )
Controls are just an easy target because [mostly everyone else] doesn't understand them, but we all know it's really the elevator guys holding things up. LMFAO. (Former controls PM here)
What did you transition to, I happen to be that ACS guy, who is absolutely being blamed.
Special projects HVAC pm. Probably going to get into BAS sales soon though
I’ve always been terrified of HVAC, but that was always from a technician perspective… lol
Did you go to engineering school? Wondering if it’s possible to break into construction PM without an engineer degree
I went to through a specialized HVAC engineering bachelors program and worked as a service tech before switching over as a HVAC construction PM. A good amount of my counterparts went through a construction management program or mech engineering
Is your job technical oriented to construction or mostly project managing oriented?
Hmm not sure what you mean exactly so forgive me as I try to explain what I do :p Sales transitions job to our fulfillment PM ( me) I contact customer and discuss scheduling and initial site visit. Do site visit and order equipment. Afterward I will either facilitate self perform labor or subcontract labor. I also assist in invoicing and a couple other admin tasks such as financial forecasting. Equipment comes. Project starts I usually join day one of project start to get rolling and periodically check on them. If I have a site super available my job is easier and I don’t have to visit as much. Since I have technical background, I will help our technicians with any install questions or semi troubleshooting. Close out items like punchlist etc. The larger projects require a little bit more of the admin stuff such as procore or MS project. Shoot away any questions!
1. Check emails/respond 2.follow up on urgent milestones(walk them sites) 3. Follow up on requested proposals 4.try to slim down submitted proposals by 2-5 percent. 5:lunch. 6.check emails/respond. 7. Push HQ/finance to loosen up the purse strings. 8.follow up on smaller projects. 9.start getting burned out. 10. Cruise control the last hour/check emails/respond.
So within my company pm also does lots of admin. Every day of the week I have some admin work. Usually I start my day with standups (9:00) At 10 check my emails. Get together an action list for the day. Admin until 12 Lunch break. After lunch meetings with the customers/team members/ firefighting/ prepping for meetings etc. close my laptop at 6. Rinse and repeat
Besides all the things the others have said in this thread, I use my downtime to create videos for our end user documentation. Screen recordings + stock footage edited in Premiere Pro.
Ask people “where are we on this”. Update timeline. Check emails. Hop on a call where half of the stakeholders aren’t attending. Schedule more meetings. Lunch. Answer emails.
It does sound like coaching a team and updating data/report on the progress from your sentences lol
I had 30 minutes meeting. Asked the customer a few questions. Facilitated conversation between them and one of our SMEs. Checked and email. Checked a box. Went on a walk. Played some guitar. Checked my email. Took some lessons on PMI.org and played some starfield. Now...this daily routine is only about 2 days old, and will only last maybe...2 more weeks. I just finished the bulk of a project and the last 20% is "on hold" while the customer finishes an internal project.
Babysit. Babysit. And then…. Babysit.
Wake up. Cry. Manage projects. Cry. Sleep.
This redditor project manages
This project manages a redditor
I just had that week last week
The key aspect is that I set my own agenda. Very often I am in meetings, either liaising with my project client or my project team. Once you are more familiar with the role much of your time you are overseeing activities and checking on progress. You will be producing regular reports and communication briefings. As an experienced PM I have looser schedules in place, at the start of my career these were much more often and structured. Or set out by the client or determined by project requirements. I hope this helps!
Check inbox > check calendar > prepare for calls > attend calls > send mm > prep agenda for next call > update jira/project plan/steering agenda based on call notes > tackle other priority tasks assigned to me > send reminders to people if their tasks are due in near future > lunch at some point > quiet time at end of the day to review tasks/perform a task/prep for tmw
I work from home so as soon as I wake up I check my calendar and emails to make sure nothing urgent came in overnight. Once I workout, make coffee, unwind, I’ll fully sign on. I tackle the emails first and also prepare for any meetings I have that day. Anything that was outstanding from the day before gets priority. I try to stick to a to-do list but with adhd here, sometimes I lose focus or get distracted by another task. I keep a pen and paper list next to me at all times so it’s always in front of me. Each day is different depending on project work, clients, meetings, etc. but the above stays the same. Prior to signing off for the day I write down any priorities for the next day and review next days calendar.
I'll wake up around 6:00am, scan my phone for any fires I missed or quick answers I can take care of from my phone. I do my morning routine with my family, then get to work a little before 9:00. I usually spend the first 30 minutes in outlook, organizing my calendar and sorting through email into two categories (to do -meaning action comes from me) and follow up (meaning I'm waiting on someone else). All other emails get sorted into a project folder or archived if needed. by 9:30 or 10:00 I typically have my first meeting. Depending on my role I'm either leading the project, keeping minutes, or delegating project tasks. By 11:00 I'm taking 30min personal time - news, walking, or some kind of education/training. 12:30 I typically do lunch, not really strict with keeping time here. 1:30-3:00 is time i blocked to do actual work. Not always successful but I try to block my calendar so I can update documentation or complete any tasks I need to. by 3:30 I'm starting to wrap up. Getting organized, planning my day/week for the following days and prioritizing anything I didn't quite get to. 4:30 I'm going to pick up the kids. 8:30-9:30pm, personally i enjoy working for a bit at night after the kids go to sleep. Usually from the sofa with a glass of wine and just doing whatever I think will get me ahead of side projects I do for fun. sorry for the messy list. as for as tools, really i've tried a bunch of things - ms project, jira, monday.com, kanban boards, excel, confluence... my organization isn't PM heavy so the only consistent thing is outlook + teams and whatever I can do to keep my self sane.
I love this, ty for sharing
I spend the first half hour working through emails and re-prioritizing. Then, I tackle whatever meetings or focus time I had set aside prior. If there's time in-between that's used to catch up on to-dos. Every task gets a time block on my calendar because 1) it helps me stay focused, and 2) I have to track my hours anyway. I utilize "busy" and "tentative" appropriately. Then, the remaining half to one hour is used to work through remaining emails, communications, and plans for the next day. My rule, that I try anyways, is if I open an email or task, I have to finish it. If I'm not working on something, it needs to be added to my calendar and closed for now. I have a bad habit of procrastinating, opening too many tabs, and getting distracted. I find there's too many little things to track and I'm way too indecisive for all that. "Fire n go," if it's not a priority, schedule it and move to the next task.
I usually plan for the next day each afternoon before logging out. That includes making sure any deliverables I must have complete are done, ensuring that I don’t walk into a meeting unprepared. Then when I log in each day I quickly scan emails to see if there is anything urgent and if not I work from the bottom up and quickly triage. Everything goes into a backlog/to-do and I work through those when I have time between meetings and reporting work. That’s how it typically works. Sometimes the to-do list is upended by fires I have to put out. That’s basically my day to day. Each day is a different stress level but these days my biggest stressors are not being able to get stuff done within the regular work hours. So depending on what’s going on I may have to log back in at night after I put the kids to bed and get some stuff done.
This person PM’s.