In the modern workplace, we all wear multiple hats. Just a few of the hats I’ve worn while holding the official business title of project manager (PM): Supply chain analyst, contract specialist, copy editor, document manager, automation guru, process developer…the list goes on.
As a PM, the challenge of managing competing priorities can be quickly compounded: not only are you juggling your own competing priorities, you’re also managing those of your project team members. Being a good PM means finding a way to do it all.
Project Scheduling: Building a Foundation
To manage competing project priorities well, you need visibility into what’s coming down the pipeline, when it’s likely to hit, and how urgent it will be when it lands. Solid project scheduling is the PM’s first line of defense for answering all three questions.
This isn’t just about dates—it’s about clarity. Understanding the rhythm of work and dependencies across your projects helps you prioritize meaningfully, rather than reactively.
Portfolio Management: Zooming Out
A polished project schedule is a great start, but it only gets you so far if your team is working on more than just your projects. To get a full picture, you need insight into your team’s broader portfolio. What other initiatives are they supporting? What internal or cross-functional work competes for their time? When you understand the full context, your planning and prioritization becomes more realistic.
Resource Management: Who’s Doing What, When?
The next piece of the puzzle to solve for is who’s supposed to do what, when – across the entire portfolio of projects.
Ideally, resourcing is baked into project schedules and rolled up into company-wide projections that account for more than just billable work. A manager with eight direct reports won’t be available 40 hours a week for project tasks. Staff involved in employee resource groups (ERGs) need time for meetings and follow-up actions. These are real commitments, and they deserve to be reflected in your estimates.
Of course, estimates are just that—estimates. If a team member is slated to start a 20–30 hour task in three weeks, but they’re also staffed full-time on another project starting next week, don’t panic. Take it as a signal to start asking questions. Maybe that “next week” project is still awaiting contract signature and won’t launch for a while. Or maybe the task you're waiting on depends on hardware from a vendor known for missing delivery windows.
In short: don’t rearrange your resource plan based on tentative projections. Use the risk management process to flag and assess what might happen – before it’s too late!
Risk Management: A Practical Fire Drill
When something seems like it could become a problem, treat it like a risk. Take the earlier example: you’ve got a task estimated at 20–30 hours starting in three weeks, but the team member you need is slated to start full-time on another project next week. Let’s break it down into a proactive risk assessment:
- Document the risk. Spell out your concern. "If Project X starts on time, and Jane is allocated full-time, Task Y may be delayed."
- Assess the likelihood. Ask questions to better understand the risk. Is Project X actually kicking off next week? Are there known dependencies or delays?
- Plan your response. If the overlap happens, what’s the move? Should Jane prioritize Task Y and delay Project X work? Can another team member be looped in?
When you plan your response before the risk materializes, you remove both the urgency and the stress when issues arise.
Process Optimization
Once your plans, schedules, and resourcing are in place, it’s time to look at how the work actually moves from day to day.
Do documents bounce between 12 different approvers before getting signed off? Do decisions stall because no one’s sure who owns them, or because a meeting is required just to move things forward? Does the final delivery team regularly work overtime because early-stage delays have compressed the backend timeline?
These aren’t isolated annoyances; instead, they’re symptomatic of process inefficiencies that can erode both productivity and morale.
Consistently efficient, predictable workflows reduce unnecessary churn and give teams the structure they need to focus on value-adding work. Streamlining approvals, clarifying decision rights, and minimizing manual handoffs are small changes that create big impact when you’re managing multiple, high-stakes priorities.
Documentation and Cross-Training
Say your team processes 8–10 design packages a month, but only one person is authorized to approve them. When that person is out on vacation or tied up with another project, everything stalls. Risk is inherent whenever critical knowledge or approval rests with a single individual.
Clear documentation and basic cross-training create flexibility. A shared checklist, a recorded walkthrough, or even light shadowing can give others just enough context to step in when needed. It’s not about duplicating every skillset, but rather ensuring work doesn’t grind to a halt when priorities shift or someone’s out of the office for a few days.
Conclusion
Juggling competing priorities isn’t rocket science – it’s project management! With clear schedules, portfolio awareness, thoughtful resourcing, and a few proactive habits, you can navigate complexity with confidence. The goal isn’t to do everything at once. Instead, the PM mission is to know what matters most, and make sure it gets done.