4 Key Habits That Will Make You a Better Product Manager
Do you know someone in product management you admire for their ability to get results? How are they seemingly able to do so much more with their time?
These four habits that set successful and productive product managers apart, tell the story.
1. They Set Goals (And Timelines)
Setting a goal without a timeline is like hitting “snooze until someday” on a dream.
In other words, it’s never going to happen.
Successful product managers break down objectives into clear, actionable, time-bound deliverables that get assigned to appropriate team members.
This creates accountability, keeps projects moving along, and reduces wasted time. Without a deadline, perfectionist team members will endlessly edit and revise while procrastinators just won’t do it at all.
2. They Work on Their Priorities
Product managers are bombarded daily with an impossible amount of items to complete. Many joyfully check off smaller items on their to-do list because our hedonistic brain rewards us when we do.
But certain tasks are more important and lead to exponential results. They're the ones that make everything else easier, and they're the ones that should be tackled first.
Call them your A tasks, daily frog, or whatever else you want; it doesn't matter. As highly productive product managers will tell, what's important is getting them done—even if it's at the expense of several less essential tasks.
3. They Regularly Take 5...Or 17
Workaholics put in extreme hours on the job thinking the more they work, the more will get done. But the truth is they aren’t as productive as they seem.
And that’s because we’re not machines! Our bodies need rest. If you think you can work continuously and produce quality work, you’re only fooling yourself. Studies show the most productive people work 52 minutes and break for 17 minutes.
You may scoff—or fear getting fired— at taking a 17-minute break—but we're not talking about mini-siestas every hour. Unless you work in that kind of place!
Take a five-minute break every hour by getting up, stretching, and rehydrating your parched, caffeine-laden body. Then switch to something less taxing for a few minutes before going back to your A task.
You can only do focused work for so long before your productivity significantly drops. You’ll be able to do more, for more hours a day, if you take periodic breaks.
4. They Have Laser Vision
What? Laser vision?
Maybe not literally, but their focus on singular tasks is so high they might as well have laser beams coming out of their eyeballs.
Those product managers accomplishing a mind-boggling amount of things daily know that concentrating on one task at a time means work gets done faster and better. And they make it a habit to do it every day.
Great Habits Are the Foundation to Success
It’s crucial to cultivate winning habits that propel you forward and turn you into your best self. Because when you can do that, the results trickle down. Then, get ready for you and your team to accomplish more than you ever thought possible!
(Feature image via Pexels)