You could very easily just turn on the “Out of Office” Auto-Responder, close the door behind you and decide to worry about it when you come back. However, this will probably cause you to walk straight into a crisis on your return. Therefore you’ll want, and need, to keep your Projects on track while you are away.
This isn’t the ideal situation to be faced with after a relaxing holiday. You should prepare your projects in such a way that while you’re away they are protected. In addition to helping keep your Projects on track during your Holidays our tips, outlined below, will hopefully reduce the number of times you think about work while you are away. So, what should you do before you switch to holiday mode?
6 Tips to Help Keep Your Projects on Track During Your Holidays
1. Check your commitments:
Before you book your holidays it is important that they aren’t overlapping with any prior commitments. So check your diary carefully.
2. Update:
Make sure that your project plans and schedules are all up to date with the correct information.
3. Upcoming Milestones:
Have a quick look further down the plan and see what tasks and milestones are coming up. Make sure that all your team members understand fully what is expected from these tasks and milestones while you are away.
4. Communication:
Communicate to the project team and project sponsor of your holiday plans. This would help a situation arising where a number of key project team members are away at the same time. Also, an important point under this heading is your “out of office” message. Configure your auto-responder so that the sender is made aware that you are currently on annual leave and that you will return on a certain date. All these points ensure that expectations are set.
5. Handover:
Nominate one person to direct the handover towards. Brief them on the current status of the project and on any issues that may come to light while you are away. This handover ensures that they are prepared with the necessary information in case there are any issues or if a crisis arises.
6. Leave yourself a “To-Do” List:
At the end of your last day, before you depart on your holiday, write a To-Do list for when you return. While it is clear in your head, it would be a good idea to write down all outstanding tasks because when you return, there is a chance that some of the items will have slipped your mind. Overall it will make things a lot clearer.
To see how Cora PPM can help keep your Projects on track during your Holidays watch our recorded demo at stg-corasystems-stage05apr23.kinsta.cloud/tour/
