Time Management
The Purpose of this Section
This section explains the importance of how to properly allocate time for projects and how to manage your time in order to ensure profitability.
Why This is Important
Time management is fundamental to becoming a successful PR and marketing agency executive.
Critical time management elements include:
It is critical to understand the following factors before taking on a project:
The Purpose of this Section
This section explains the importance of how to properly allocate time for projects and how to manage your time in order to ensure profitability.
Why This is Important
Time management is fundamental to becoming a successful PR and marketing agency executive.
Critical time management elements include:
- Understanding and appropriately planning for how long things take
- Knowing how one project or activity may affect another
- Learning how to most efficiently schedule your workload during a day, week, month and quarter
- Mastering highly effective work habits
- Accurately tracking time to measure gaps and training requirements
It is critical to understand the following factors before taking on a project:
- How long should this take?
- What are the guaranteed results?
- What is the deadline?
- What are the assets we can use – both from the client as well as internal (e.g. Trainer templates, best practices, etc.)?
Estimating Time Required on Projects.
Trainer intends that every project we undertake is profitable, and profitability is measured by a blended team rate – please check with your manager on that rate. At this writing, our blended rate is $202.00/hour and currently our rates range from $116.50 per hour for an account associate to $385.00 per hour for the CEO. Hourly rates are calculated based on compensation and a formula for profitability. For simplicity purposes Trainer uses a blended rate. This means that if we bill a project at $1,000.00, we expect it to take just under five hours for the average professional. It will take longer for more junior staff and likely less time for senior staff. It is critical that everyone in the agency practice accurate time tracking, which is recorded in Workamajig /Trainer Connect.
Knowing how long a project is expected to take will help gauge your schedule for the project. It’s also important to consider outside factors, including the external approvals required – so that time can be built in for those processes. Another way to develop a personal timeline is to look at the guaranteed results associated with the project – this means we have to schedule around the activities associated with each project. The final gating factor that affects the time associated with the project is the status of the assets required to complete a project. For example, if you are pitching a case study, has the client’s customer agreed to work with the media? If you need to factor in time for customer interaction / media approval, it may take significantly longer than pitching and securing a case study with a customer that has already approved participation in the project.
Interdependencies Between Projects. To successfully plan, you must know the interdependencies between projects. For example, if you are responsible for tracking coverage for a launch and creating an end of month summary, you must know that understanding the coverage that has happened comes first – so that you can create an impressive summary at the end of the month that incorporates the results the client is waiting for! If you are assigned these assignments for a launch, it’s critical to know which comes first:
a) Develop spokesperson briefing pages
b) Create a media list for the launch
c) Research the new product’s expected market size for the pitch the account lead is creating
Note: the correct order is b, c, a
Proper ordering of the tasks to facilitate the workflow of the project is an essential element. Ask your account lead to show you the project timeline so that you have an understanding of the order and can appropriately schedule your tasks.
Knowing how long a project is expected to take will help gauge your schedule for the project. It’s also important to consider outside factors, including the external approvals required – so that time can be built in for those processes. Another way to develop a personal timeline is to look at the guaranteed results associated with the project – this means we have to schedule around the activities associated with each project. The final gating factor that affects the time associated with the project is the status of the assets required to complete a project. For example, if you are pitching a case study, has the client’s customer agreed to work with the media? If you need to factor in time for customer interaction / media approval, it may take significantly longer than pitching and securing a case study with a customer that has already approved participation in the project.
Interdependencies Between Projects. To successfully plan, you must know the interdependencies between projects. For example, if you are responsible for tracking coverage for a launch and creating an end of month summary, you must know that understanding the coverage that has happened comes first – so that you can create an impressive summary at the end of the month that incorporates the results the client is waiting for! If you are assigned these assignments for a launch, it’s critical to know which comes first:
a) Develop spokesperson briefing pages
b) Create a media list for the launch
c) Research the new product’s expected market size for the pitch the account lead is creating
Note: the correct order is b, c, a
Proper ordering of the tasks to facilitate the workflow of the project is an essential element. Ask your account lead to show you the project timeline so that you have an understanding of the order and can appropriately schedule your tasks.
Scheduling your workload for the day, week, month and quarter.
Planning around key dates and deadlines is a very important skill to develop. If you understand when deliverables are due, the components associated with each deliverable, and the external factors, you can plan an efficient work day. For example, if you have been assigned to schedule briefings for a media tour on the East Coast, you’ll know that your task of media/analyst outreach needs to be scheduled early in your day if you are a California resident, as the East Coast targets you are contacting close up by 2 pm pacific time. In general, when you need to get approvals, or critically reach someone, it’s best to start trying to reach that person early in the day – to give them more time to get back to you if they are not available when you call.
Mapping client deadlines to the physical calendar is really key. Trying to schedule a press tour around a major holiday can cause colossal failure! Alerting your client to the fact that spring break overlaps with a key email campaign can drastically affect open rates of the emails and define the difference between success and failure. Actively map client projects to a calendar to ensure you are not interfering with key dates (e.g. a major trade show, Hanukah dates change each year).
Highly Effective Work Habits. The key to managing workloads in a timely and efficient way is communication. Ensuring your progress is kept up to date in Trainer Connect, using the team alias to communicate to your team about changes in the schedule or progress you have made is critical so that they are in alignment with what you are doing. It is also important to update clients as milestones are met, progress is made, or obstacles are encountered. Surprises are never a good thing in the PR and Marketing agency environment. Finally, time tracking will ensure you get the help you need to be successful in delivering projects and that the agency remains profitable.
Mapping client deadlines to the physical calendar is really key. Trying to schedule a press tour around a major holiday can cause colossal failure! Alerting your client to the fact that spring break overlaps with a key email campaign can drastically affect open rates of the emails and define the difference between success and failure. Actively map client projects to a calendar to ensure you are not interfering with key dates (e.g. a major trade show, Hanukah dates change each year).
Highly Effective Work Habits. The key to managing workloads in a timely and efficient way is communication. Ensuring your progress is kept up to date in Trainer Connect, using the team alias to communicate to your team about changes in the schedule or progress you have made is critical so that they are in alignment with what you are doing. It is also important to update clients as milestones are met, progress is made, or obstacles are encountered. Surprises are never a good thing in the PR and Marketing agency environment. Finally, time tracking will ensure you get the help you need to be successful in delivering projects and that the agency remains profitable.