Project management is a complex endeavor that requires skills, an understanding of complex deliverables , and people management. If project management can be likened to a ship sailing in stormy waters, then a project manager is the ship’s captain.
Project managers need to navigate client expectations while managing resources and meeting deadlines. Project managers chart the course of the project, anticipate and manage crises, deal with complexities, and instruct and motivate the team to keep the project going.
In short, a day in the life of a project manager is nothing short of a thrilling adventure. So, keep reading if you’re curious to learn more about what project managers do, a typical day in their lives, and the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis.
We’ll also share a few practical tips and tricks for project managers and a list of handy tools to ensure your expedition stays on course and achieves its objectives!
What is a Project Manager?
A project manager is a professional responsible for planning, executing, managing, and closing projects. As such, a project manager plays a critical role throughout the project life cycle— specifically in ensuring that the project does not stray from its scope, budget, and timeline.
Roles and responsibilities of a project manager
The roles and responsibilities of a project manager may vary depending on the nature of the project, the industry, the organizational structure, and other such variables. That said, they are predominantly involved in:
Project planning
Develop a comprehensive project plan that outlines the proposals , tasks, subtasks, timelines, and resources. Consult with key stakeholders to finalize details, documenting them in a comprehensive project plan comprising scope, objectives, budget, and deliverables
Team leadership
Assemble a project team to take on the project. Assign team leaders and delegate work and responsibilities to them. Additionally, address broader project-level concerns and keep the team motivated to achieve the business goals
Communication
Ensure seamless and effective communication between team members, project sponsors, and other stakeholders. Share regular updates on the project status, progress, milestones, and setbacks
Risk management
Identify potential risks or issues and develop risk mitigation strategies to address or overcome them; anticipate changes and implement a smooth change management plan to ensure that it does not cause any disruptions
Budget management
Develop a detailed project budget with adequate buffers and margins; match resources to the allocated budget, and monitor expenses to prevent overspending or wasteful expenditure
Quality assurance
Identify performance metrics or formulate guidelines to standardize the quality of project deliverables ; conduct routine and regular quality assessment checks to ensure that the project deliverables adhere to the established and agreed-upon parameters
Timeline management
Develop a project schedule at the project and task levels; identify dependencies and the critical path to eliminate avoidable delays. Maintain this schedule and orchestrate activities to ensure that all tasks are completed on time
Manage and organize projects, and schedule tasks across the flexible Calendar view to keep teams in sync
Stakeholder engagement
Identify and engage with internal and external key stakeholders; address any concerns or honor reasonable stakeholder requests to enhance satisfaction levels
Problem-solving
Resolve issues that may crop up during the project lifecycle; embrace an innovative and problem-solving mindset to identify strategies that can enhance the project value
Testing and evaluation
Test the project to verify whether it meets the prescribed standards or specifications; closing gaps, if any
Documentation
Document every stage of the project development process, from start to finish; share such files, documents, checklists , daily progress report meeting notes, etc., with the stakeholders concerned; prepare a detailed case study of the key highlights and learnings upon project closure
Closure and handover
Ensure a smooth project closure. This includes any handover or knowledge transfer while delivering the project to the owner
A Day in the Life of a Project Manager
As the roles and responsibilities of a project manager vary from organization to organization, the day-to-day activities differ significantly from project manager to project manager.
For instance, a day in the life of a project manager working remotely will vastly differ from that of a manager working in an office.
Similarly, an IT project manager in the software development sector will follow different project management principles than one working in the manufacturing industry. No two days of a project manager may be alike.
A day in the life of a project manager during the planning stage will differ significantly from their daily life during quality assurance. The former will involve team building, strategic decision-making, and coordination, while the latter might involve meticulous performance testing and assessment of project deliverables.
With this background, here’s an overview of a typical day in the life of a project manager:
Morning routine
Mornings are primarily geared toward catching up or updating others
The first portion of a day in the life of a project manager mainly revolves around setting an agenda for the day’s activities, organizing the tasks or activities, briefing the team, and catching up on project-related communications.
As such, your morning routine will comprise:
- Checking all the messages and emails you may have received outside of working hours. Reading through such communications and acting on them—sending replies, adding them to the day’s agenda, forwarding them to team leaders or senior management, etc., and prioritizing the derived action items ### Resource constraints
A lack of or limitations on resources such as time, budget, or team member (talent) can pose a severe handicap in meeting the project demands per the desired schedule
Managing client expectations
Alongside resource constraints, project managers must also balance these against client expectations. They have to stay flexible enough to accommodate reasonable change requests but not too flexible lest it evolve into scope creep
Time management
Project Managers have to play a two-fold role—they have to be influential people managers and proficient time managers. However, managing human resources against deadlines and project schedules can be difficult, especially when dependencies or unforeseen issues arise
Constant communication
As it may be evident now, project management is a high-touch job. It involves constant communication with internal and external stakeholders, and you almost always have to be in an always-on state. Any breakdown in communication can have catastrophic consequences
Burnout
Having to implement continuous process improvement methodologies , sustain communications, ensure regulatory and legal compliance, maintain collaboration, and lend direction can take a toll on anyone—even the best project managers—causing them to experience burnout
Lack of Authority
Although a project manager is at the helm of all affairs, team members may not truly view them as an authority due to a narrow view of things. Such resistance can make it tougher for them to exercise control, influence, and leadership over the team members
Tools and technologies
Adopting the right project management software and promoting it throughout the organization can be difficult. For one, several options are available in the market, and committing to one can be tough. At the same time, post-implementation involves extensive training and onboarding on the platform, not to mention the associated downtime during the learning curve
Bonus: Project Manager Resume Examples !
A Few Tips to Survive the Day as a Project Manager
Smart planning can make every day productive
Surviving and thriving as a project manager involves effective planning, intentional communication, and dynamic agility. Apart from the routine project management tips for managers , we have compiled a few daily tips for organized project management:
- Begin your day with a clear plan in mind and established priorities. The sharper you get at doing this, the more productive your day will be since you’ll focus on what truly matters or requires immediate attention
- Maintain an adequate buffer for the day to accommodate any changes based on changing priorities or new information
- Practice techniques like time blocking, especially while performing deep work, so that you can adhere to prescribed time slots for maximum productivity
- Complement your task management skills .
ClickUp is the ultimate work management and productivity platform developed for project managers.
ClickUp features that make it the one app to replace them all:
Dashboards
Rich, interactive dashboards that present project-related data in different views. Get ready access to all your critical information
The ClickUp dashboard front-loads value right at your home screen
ClickUp AI
Delegate content generation to the powerful ClickUp AI that can do everything—from creating project plans to writing detailed reports
Use ClickUp AI to write a project brief in just seconds
Sprints
Conduct daily sprint meetings with your project team in a few clicks
Sprint Velocity cards to track your progress past the days
Docs
For sharing all your project-related files and documents over a centralized platform
Share documents with ease using ClickUp Docs
Time tracking
Make every second count with ClickUp’s time-tracking feature
ClickUp allows manual or automatic time tracking
Chat
Real-time communication with your team and other stakeholders
Connect with key stakeholders using ClickUp Chat
Whiteboards
For brainstorming, bouncing ideas, collaborative analysis, or strategic decision-making with your team
Carrying out impact analysis on ClickUp using Whiteboard
Templates
Rich project management templates that ensure that you don’t have to start from scratch
Access various project management templates in the ClickUp library
Integrations
Want to make ClickUp a part of your existing tech stack? No sweat, ClickUp offers native integration with all business and productivity apps
Integrate with tools like Google Calendar for increased mobility
All this, and much more. Become a pro at project management with ClickUp!
Making Project Management Easier: One Day at a Time
Successful project managers are not born. They are a result of diligent planning followed by scrupulous implementation.
You can achieve most of the results by following an organized and structured schedule for your day-to-day activities. A day in the life of a successful project manager should start by catching up on all the emails and messages, planning for the daily tasks and deliverables, and catching up with your team.
Then, allow them to work autonomously and pitch in whenever you are needed. While staying available and accessible in the background for support and assistance, orchestrate all the main activities.
Document your day’s results, progress, and findings as the day ends. Collaborate, communicate, and control as and when the need arises.
Naturally, none would be possible without the right set of tools. Rather than opting for a buffet of tools and technologies, which are inefficient and expensive, consider consolidating everything.
A powerful project management tool such as ClickUp can check all the boxes and cater to all your business requirements. Schedule a demo with us to learn more.