Three morning habits, from a PM, that keep work from stalling

After arriving, I first check email and Slack. I look through everything, and for what I can answer on the spot, I reply as quickly as possible. Even when I can’t reach a conclusion right away, rather than leaving a message be, it’s important to reply, “I’ll check and get back to you.” For the other person, the longer they go without a reply, the greater their anxiety. Rather than producing a perfect answer immediately, I prioritize first conveying “I’m looking into it” and not letting communication stop.

Don’t let messages pile up. Reply by the time you promised. When someone consults you, move as quickly as you can. These small accumulations lead to a sense of assurance: “tell this person and they’ll properly move it forward.”

After checking messages, I open the project-tracking tool and go through the projects I’m responsible for one by one. What I look at isn’t only my own tasks.


・What I myself should do today
・What work each member is planning to do
・Whether anything is waiting on a review
・Whether anything needs a reply from the client
・Whether there’s anything to hand off to someone so the next step can proceed


Looking across the whole project, I find the parts that are about to stall — “this check still isn’t done,” “is it even proceeding as planned?” In that case, I contact the person in charge or the client and create the next move in the morning. The busier you are, the more you tend to think “rather than organize, I want to push the work in front of me.” But by surveying the whole once,

・you can advance several tasks together
・you can consult someone else
・by checking ahead, you can speed up later work

— more efficient ways of proceeding come into view. Even just 10 minutes, looking at the whole first is, in the end, the greatest shortcut.

Once I’ve checked the whole project, I set the day’s priorities. What should come first is the task that, by my not handling it, holds up the next step or someone’s work. A project isn’t something you advance alone. Even a single day’s delay in my response can ripple out across the whole downstream process. When setting priorities, beyond the nearness of a deadline, I check these two things:

・Whose work moves forward if I act now
・How far the impact spreads if I put this off

On the other hand, planning that needs time to think through, or tasks I want to work on while organizing my thoughts, I sometimes leave for later. Using “is someone waiting on my reply or work?” as the criterion makes it easier to see, for the whole project, the work to move now.

If you’re not good at organizing tasks, try starting with these three.

1. Open the project tracker first thing

About 10 minutes is fine. Look not only at your own tasks but across the whole project, and check whether anything is stalled.

2. Don’t leave what you don’t know unresolved

If the schedule or who’s in charge is vague, check it first. For things you’ll need to confirm later on Slack, setting a reminder is also effective.

3. Set priorities by “who you’re keeping waiting”

Start with what, by your not handling it, holds up the next step or someone’s work. Rather than moving your hands before organizing, pause once and act after seeing the whole. That alone greatly changes how your day proceeds. The busier you are, the more you want to take up the work in front of you before organizing. But pausing once, even for just 10 minutes, and surveying the whole project makes it easier to see what to move now.

Especially when busy, it’s tempting to dive into the work in front of you before organizing. But pausing once, even for just 10 minutes, and surveying the whole project makes it easier to see what should move now.