[Project Management Series] Project Management Skills Versus Tools Part 1 (Re-Release EP 209)

In this episode, I explain why building project management skills must come before adopting a project management tool. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with your writing tasks, due dates, or collaborative projects, it’s not because you haven’t found the “right” app—it’s because foundational skills like discernment and time management aren’t fully developed yet. Before you invest energy (and money) in the latest software, you need clarity on how you work and how to support your writing with solid workflows.

Tune in to learn how to build the academic project management skills that will advance your writing and publication projects, allowing you to select a project management tool that works with you, not against you.

Task Management vs. Project Management

I want to clarify the difference between managing to-do lists and effectively managing projects. Task management tools cannot prioritize or schedule tasks for you; this depends on your own academic project management skills. I emphasize that improving your skills will make any tool more effective, rather than just relying on a tool to fill a skill gap.

The 5 Core Project Management Skills for Academics

I outline the essential academic project management skills that you need to develop before any project management tool can be effective:

1. Discernment – Know what to prioritize
2. Time Management – Allocate time and protect your calendar
3. Self-Knowing – Understand how you work best
4. Self-Trust – Make decisions with confidence
5. Systems of Support & Delegation – Build support and share responsibility

Finding Your Workflow

I describe how workflows minimize decision fatigue, simplify projects, and help maintain consistency with less mental effort. I provide examples of weekly and project-specific workflows that you can implement immediately.

“I think that one of the best ways to develop your project management skills is to start with your writing project management skills. Start with writing projects, build your systems and everything there, and then those same skills you learn to manage your writing projects, you are going to be able to use for any kind of academic project.”

“You don’t have to master all five of the project management skills before you look for some kind of project management tool, but I want you to understand that all of them need to be in development and you need to be aware of all of them in order to make a project management tool work for you and to be worth the investment.”

We’ve opened the waitlist for our next cohort of Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap®. Check out the program details and get on the waitlist here.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:

1. Our 12-week Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap® program helps tenure-track womxn and nonbinary professors to publish their backlog of papers so that their voice can have the impact they know is possible. Get on the waitlist here!
2. Cathy’s book, Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing is available in print! Learn how to build your career around your writing practice while shattering the myths of writing every day, accountability, and motivation, doing mindset work that’s going to reshape your writing,and changing academic culture one womxn and nonbinary professor at a time. Get your print copy today or order it for a friend here!
3. If you would like to hear more from Cathy for free, please subscribe to the weekly newsletter, In the Pipeline, at scholarsvoice.org. It’s a newsletter that she personally writes that goes out once a week with writing and publication tips, strategies, inspiration, book reviews and more.

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