It’s a challenge many procurement pros face at this very moment: Do more work in less time.

That’s because time management has never been more critical in keeping supply chain and procurement efforts on track and aligned with your company’s overall needs. It used to be that if someone gave you a week to finish a task, one of three things would happen. You could think of it as the “Goldilocks” theory:

• The porridge is too hot: It takes a full week to complete the project — but the actual work took less than a week, and the effort expanded into filling the void of leftover time
• The porridge is too cold: It takes a full week to complete the project — which was actually slammed together at the last minute, blowing off the first four days, or
• The porridge is just right. The project would take a full week and it would be finished on time, with little or no time to spare.

Your goal for Procurement staffers or even for yourself is to make your project “porridge” just right. The next time you’re facing a tight deadline, this four-point strategy could help find the-just-right approach:

• Map out a plan for how you’re going to finish the project on time, at or under the deadline
• Make sure the deadlines you set for yourself or Procurement staffers are reasonable and attainable
• Set time limits for how much attention you can afford to devote to each part of the project, so you don’t get stuck on one piece too long and then play hurried catch-up, and
• Challenge yourself by trying to “beat the clock” in executing specific segments of the project.

Tags: deadline, procurement, supply chain