How to buffer the work against the force of time

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the demands of time. As a manager, you want to ensure efficient progress — and that, funny enough, also includes routinely hitting the pause button to check in on the team’s progress.

Here are three ideas, drawn from our own experience, to help the team manage the force of time:

• Schedule a weekly planning meeting to discuss what’s in the pipeline, and track the progress each person is making. That way, if a task or team member is falling behind, you can figure out how adjust accordingly as a team.
• Have the team share the work, even when it’s still in draft or prototyping stages. Early feedback helps prevent false starts. And sometimes, when someone’s stuck, talking through the problem is all that’s needed to find a solution.
• Ask team members to set their own deadlines within the timeframe of the larger project. Owning your deadline keeps you accountable.