After a 10-year hiatus, I've recently re-entered the building trades industry, and am now the production manager for a large exteriors remodeling company (windows/doors, siding, roofing, etc.). I'm responsible for everything after the sale; customer liaison, materials take-offs/ordering/verification, delivery scheduling, assigning jobs to in-house and sub crews, sourcing/hiring/firing, scheduling jobs, first point of contact for warranty claims, getting punchlist items assigned so we can close contracts and get paid, and a host of other small and not-so-small details.

On any given day, I arrive 30 minutes before my crews in order to have my mind around the projects before people show up looking for assignments. Many days, guys are continuing jobs from yesterday, and don't need much attention. Other times, we need to go thru a job folder to discuss the scope of the work etc. Mornings are very busy, then usually a brief lull between the crews departing and the day REALLY taking off!

I intend to start ordering materials for upcoming projects right away, but usually get waylaid by any number of interruptions. Most of them seem to be legitimate "right now" requests. Quick questions on a job schedule, a phone call from a customer (some brief, others LONG), an installer asking for clarification on what to do in a unique situation, a sub needing additional unforeseen materials at a jobsite (I have runners for this, but need to "wheel" the situation), a salesman walking into my office to discuss an upcoming or ongoing project (and my additional involvement in a situation), etc. etc. etc. All of these seemingly small items can quickly snowball into an avalanche, though.

I'm looking for creative input into how those of you in similar high-demand/multi-faceted jobs juggle the demands of the day. Is it best to compartmentalize my attention into blocks of time that are safeguarded, as much as possible? Do you keep all open tasks on the same list that ends up being a mile long, or break it into a dozen lists that are easy to lose focus of? I use task reminders for follow-up in my CRM program, but it's easy to spend too much time entering data and not enough time accomplishing things. Some days I feel like I came out ahead, but many days I feel like I fall further behind. Much of the shit-show is due to the prior PM not being methodical and thorough, so I spend a lot of time putting out old fires, which doesn't help. Things like longer lead-time items being incorrectly ordered (or not ordered at all), minor punchlist items not being corrected, some larger QC issues usually related to subs which my own staff needs to rectify. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he bombed it; that's why they hired me. The company owner, and several other key staff have remarked that I've been a breath of fresh air, and how thankful they are that I'm aboard, and enjoy watching the progress. But, I'm not a patient man and want to get my head above water much sooner than later. Any ideas? Thanks SF!

-Chris

IT / Technology PM for many years, myself. A few thoughts:

* as is often the case, part of the problem is that your employer has saddled you with some combination of too many responsibilities and too few assistants, the combination of which is often the root cause of many day to day challenges. I'm constantly working to correct this, by educating the employer/client on such realities and working to get extra help as I save them money in other areas, all under the idea that it should have been done differently from the beginning. Ergo - a large chunk of your problems aren't your problem. Never stop working to address this, otherwise they'll just keep piling shit on you.

* carve out blocks of time so you can get your other shit done, otherwise people will never leave you alone and will confuse a sincere open door policy for an invitation to interrupt any damn time they want to, which is a recipe for disaster. I have blocks carved out to make calls, receive calls, work on reports, and all manner of things which require my undivided attention. Set clear boundaries, make sure those who you interface with know the difference between what constitutes a legitimate reason to interrupt those carved out time blocks and what doesn't, and get better at scheduling their work and assigning those tasks so that everyone else is tied up long enough doing meaningful work so that they're not sitting there waiting on you. This often involves assigning tier 2 and 3 tasks for them to revert to in the event they encounter a stoppage on a tier 1 task that they can't resolve for a few hours because you're not available 24/7.