Scheduling, planning and follow-through. Some questions

Posted by Hugh
May 18, 2014 at 06:45 PM

It sounds to me as if the issue is less about software, and more about psychology. Managing upwards is difficult; it’s especially difficult if the person you’re managing upwards is failing to manage downwards very well.

If she’s asking you to do too many things, and asking you to do them in too diffuse a way, she’s not managing you properly. One way or another, she needs to be made aware of this - of course with all your charm and pleasantry turned on. And then, crucially, she needs to be asked to choose. What tasks should you give priority to? What are the consequences of this choice? And how should those consequences be handled? To say the least, those aren’t decisions that all managers relish. Nonetheless, they’re implicit in the job description. It’s one reason managers are paid more.

The purpose of software in such circumstances - I’ve found - is to display the commitments, especially time commitments, and the constraints. The software’s role is to bring the manager’s choices starkly to the forefront. Especially for tasks that last several days, I’ve found project planning software, for example MS Project, the best. It’s logical, it’s quite simple, it’s relatively easy for the manager to understand, and it illustrates the potential problems and conflicts of resource usage, such as yours, very well.

Just don’t get bogged down in drawing up beautiful project plans; that’s not what this is about. You want something that says: “These are my working days; you can readily see that it’s impossible to do all that I’m being asked to do in the time available. How should I proceed? Take on less? Do what I do do less thoroughly? Hire additional people?” If she can’t or won’t answer such questions, I’d honestly start to look for a job elsewhere.