PRINCE2 ProjectIt is exciting when you get given a complex new PRINCE2 project that you can really sink your teeth into. Yet, this also brings with it the risk that the work slowly starts to take over your whole life.

How can you do an excellent job without feeling as though you are trapped with this projects 24 hours a day? A few smart ideas can help you to run the piece of work smoothly without any added hassle.

Make the Plan Reasonable and Realistic

The starting point for any PRINCE2 project is with a solid project plan. This methodology puts a lot of emphasis on planning, so that you need to give this task the time and effort that is needed to make the plan as good as it can be.

If you do this well then you will know exactly how long you have to carry out each different phase. Is there enough time there to do everything that you need to do? If not, you need to try and sort this out before you get going in earnest.

Starting a PRINCE2 project with a plan that isn’t realistic is a recipe for disaster. You will soon discover that you end up under a huge amount of pressure to try and keep the whole on track, which can mean working extremely long hours.

Plan Proper Time Off

You don’t want to be stuck in the office every hour of every day, do you? It is easy to get caught up in big projects and forget about the need to have some proper time off from work every now and then.

The best time to arrange the dates for this is right at the start, when you are planning the work. Is there a natural break in the project that you can take advantage of, such as when one phase ends and you will be waiting for another one to start up?

No one should be expected to work all the time without any sort of break. This is when stress levels tend to build up and mistakes can get made.

Use Your Team Wisely

The chances are that you will be allocated a team of project workers to help you with this work. However, this is only a benefit if you know how to use your team wisely to take some of the strain off you.

This means working out how to get the most out of each team member. You could start by looking at their training needs. Is anyone ready to take their PRINCE2 London in order to play a bigger part in your projects.

After that, you need to see what tasks are best allocated to each team members. Use them to their strengths if you want them to develop their own skills and also give you a helping hand.

Don’t Take Your Work Home

An easy mistake to make is that of regularly taking your work home. This is a habit that you may slip into if you are under pressure and there simply doesn’t appear to be enough hours in the day.

Yet, this sort of routine of working day and night will soon see you burned out. It is far better to make sure that you get a complete break from work at the end of each day.

This means working out what has gone wrong so that you don’t have enough time to do the job. Perhaps there is an underlying problem that you need to resolve in order to proceed in a calmer manner.