Thako Harris has developed practical strategies for turning information overload into organized action.
It's 9:17 AM. Your coffee is already cold. Three Slack channels are demanding responses, your inbox is bursting, and you have a stakeholder meeting in 13 minutes. Sound familiar? For the average project manager, this scenario plays out daily, leading to countless hours spent just trying to stay on top of information. In fact, 91% of project management professionals say their organizations face project management challenges, with information management being a key issue.
To break free from this cycle, we turned to someone who's been there. Thako Harris, a seasoned project manager, is familiar with these challenges. Through years of experience managing complex projects and teams, Harris has developed practical strategies for turning information overload into organized action.
Remember the last time you had to dig through three different platforms to piece together a status update? You're not alone. With 54% of project management professionals reporting they lack effective collaboration technology, getting communication channels right is crucial.
The foundation of managing information overload lies in creating clear communication structures. But as Harris points out, it's not enough to simply use different tools – you need a system that directs different types of communication to their appropriate channels:
"We removed email from our internal communications workflow. Internal comms were only on Teams, and if you needed direct action, you had to be specifically added. You couldn't make a blanket reply all. You had to provide context in your message about urgency or timeline impact."
This structured approach offers several advantages:
Start by creating a simple communication matrix. Map out your current channels and what information flows through them. You'll likely spot redundancies and opportunities for streamlining immediately.
With 85% of project managers running multiple projects simultaneously, getting ahead of information flow is crucial. That early morning quiet might be your most valuable asset.
Starting your day right can make the difference between feeling overwhelmed and staying in control. Harris describes his approach: "I come in early to get through the high-level items in my inbox, prioritizing based on the urgency of the requests. I make to-do lists and physically block off time on my calendar for focused work."
This systematic approach to morning triage helps:
Of course, manually triaging messages across multiple platforms can eat up precious morning hours. That's where tools like QTalo come in, helping you reclaim that valuable time by consolidating your messages and updates into one unified feed. Instead of jumping between apps, you can quickly sort items into Do Next, Dismiss, or Done categories. The platform even gives you a head start, using intelligent filtering to surface important, urgent, or blocked items that need your attention.
The goal isn't to clear every inbox, but to ensure you've captured and prioritized what matters most – whether you're doing it manually or with smart tools to streamline the process..
Use a priority matrix (AKA an Eisenhower Matrix or 2x2 matrix) to prioritize your daily activities based on urgency and importance.
With information flowing constantly, protecting your time becomes crucial. Harris elaborates on his time management strategy:
"The unstructured time is meant for rapid fire tasks, while focus time is reserved for higher level strategic work, like campaign or project planning, scoping, or creating alignment among stakeholders."
Effective time blocking requires:
Remember, your time blocks should work for you, not against you. Don't create too-rigid schedules that leave no room for emergencies. Build in buffer time for unexpected issues.
Block your calendar for next week right now. Start with just two one-hour focus blocks per day.
In today's project management environment, context switching is inevitable. The key is managing it effectively. Harris shares his approach:
"It's critical how you leave your work when you have to switch contexts. I keep my frequently used tabs open for context. I usually work in spreadsheets, so I'll have a workspace with related items like the spreadsheet, timeline in Smartsheet, and Harvest for capacity tracking. That's a little package of information that hangs together, allowing me to pick up context from where I left off more easily, once I return to that thinking."
This organized approach to workspace management means:
The investment in organizing your workspace pays dividends in productivity and reduced stress.
Create project-specific browser workspaces today. Most browsers allow you to save groups of tabs for quick access.
Managing information overload isn't about processing every piece of data that comes your way. It's about creating systems that help you capture, prioritize, and act on what matters most. By implementing structured communication channels, strategic morning routines, effective time blocking, and organized workspace management, you can maintain control over your information flow while staying focused on what matters most: delivering successful projects.
Start small, be consistent, and adjust as needed. Your future self will thank you for the organization and clarity you create today – and maybe you’ll be able to actually enjoy your coffee hot again.
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