PMcrunch

I have found the practice of having an "ADMIN DAY" is a great valuable and necessary one. But what is "ADMIN DAY"? How does it work and how does it provide value?

I read sometime ago in a book about developing CEO skills, that it is a good practice to set aside one day every month to take care of your various and miscellaneous administrative tasks. The fact of the matter is that, these tasks can build up quickly and it is important to keep them under control. At the same time, in the day to day hustle and bustle of taking care of our priorities in business, oftentimes, the administrative tasks get put aside.

Administrative tasks are somewhat of a conundrum. On one hand, they are of lesser importance and tend not to be critical to the major initiatives and objectives of the project or program. On the other hand, if they are not done regularly and handled properly, they can cause any project or program to unravel and get out of control.

This is where "ADMIN DAY" comes in. Yes, the project team may very well have much of the project admin under control. However, as a project or program manager, we often do not have time in the day to day to take care of these things. So, setting aside a day a month to simply handle these admin tasks can be a great practice. I personally try to set aside a day, but usually do not exactly stick to that. What ends up happening for me, more often than not, in my current schedule, is I have two or three partial "ADMIN DAYS" over the course of the month.

These days are valuable for a few different reasons:

1. They help get the administrative tasks out of the way.
2. They help to free the mind to focus most of the time on the most important priorities.
3. They provide a short-term period where everything else can be nearly shut out, and these tasks can be handled with a single minded focus. Not only can the benefits stated in 1 and 2 be achieved, but it is a great empowering and motivating feeling to get these tasks done rapidly. I find that it actually gives me confidence in my ability to handle more.

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John Reiling, PMP
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