How many times have been assigned to or undertaken a large project, only to become overwhelmed at the sheer scope of the time and effort required? If so, you’re not alone – managing long-term, large-scale projects is a challenging prospect, even for those experienced at it. And then consider juggling three or four or even five or more at a time – for many people the mere thought of it is staggering.

And yet, as you look around your workplace, you can probably spot someone who seems to thrive on doing it and actually does it exceptionally well. And while that person may not seem to be any more intelligent or hardworking than you are, for some reason they embrace the challenge while you shy away from it. The underlying difference between yourself and that person is simply this – they understand and practice a very simple concept – Task Management.

Regardless of the actual scope of work involved or the timeframe to completion, every project can be broken down into smaller, easily managed tasks that are readily completed over the short-term. As each task is completed, it contributes towards the completion, in due time, of the project itself. More often than not, each task itself can then be broken down into a fixed schedule, allowing you to steadily and consistently work at it over a number of days or weeks. Depending upon the type of task, it may even be possible to work on several tasks concurrently, by spending a relatively small amount of time on each, every day.

The watchwords of Task Management are diligence and consistency, but tempered with flexibility. A given task may need to be paused if it is dependent upon the completion of another task or an unexpected issue presents itself. With flexible scheduling and a willingness to adapt to these unforeseen barriers, the project itself will continue while you explore options to resolve them.

Those who excel at project management do so because they are able to work  in such a way that each and every day they make some degree of progress on one or more of the tasks involved. This may mean spending as little as 10 or 15 minutes per day or up to an hour on each task.

At different milestones within the project, the amount of time spent each day will inevitably vary. It is for this very reason that project managers are often able to take on multiple projects simultaneously and not become stressed over their workload. Managing several projects at once actually breaks up the monotony of working on one single thing at any given time. It provides a way for you to step back from each project for a short time and then resume it the next day with a fresh perspective.

While we can never lose sight of the overall project itself, by focusing on Task Management, careful scheduling and consistency in how we approach our work, we can easily increase our Personal Productivity without unduly frustrating ourselves or becoming stressed about our workload.