If 2020 was the year of work-from-home, 2021 will gradually be easing into what the future of the office will look like: a hybridized home-and-office requiring the use of many different workflow tools. The reason this term casts such a wide net is because everyone’s situation will be notably different. Some businesses will return in full force (once they’re able to) and will resume the office life that they formerly lived, while other organizations may never have a formal office again.

What if I told you there was a simple way to increase productivity and communication within your organization? To create more connections and relationships that will improve your work environment, bring in mentorship. When it comes to mentorship, the connections made by a mentor and mentee goes well beyond just a connection.

Workflow automation is the process of simplifying your business processes and making them easier to manage. It can help you streamline your repetitive tasks while helping you focus on the important things. In other words, you can do actual work instead of toiling away on administrative chores.

The scene: You’re working on a task when a question comes up. “Ask the PM,” says your co-worker. But which PM are they talking about? Depending on your company or the project, it could refer to the program or the product manager. But what’s the difference between them? However similar the titles might seem — these roles are not universal and can change at each organization.

In theory, the world of integrations is designed to make our life easier. By bringing systems together, teammates can share information more quickly, and managers can have more oversight over performance, deadlines, and budgets. But what happens when this individual software and system integrations become too unwieldy or complicated to manage?

Generally speaking, people aren’t good at assessing risk. They let their biases sway their judgment or let their emotions clog decision-making processes. And this is why it’s so important for project managers to learn to analyze risk quickly and effectively. Risk management is an essential part of any project. Project managers must simultaneously prevent accidents and predict outcomes to ensure their team completes projects without incident.

How many hours a week do you work? While most workplaces say that they average around 40 hours, it’s not uncommon to hit 50 or 60 hour weeks, and maybe even 80, depending on your field. There’s still a perception that working long hours is synonymous with productivity and hard work, even as we see data that proves the opposite. Modern-day work environments have asked for more and more of their teams, but at what cost?

Its time to find the solution that’s just right. Maybe your team had a project management tool that you updated to keep track of what you were doing. Maybe you knew you needed a tool, but never really committed to signing up for one, or the one you chose kind of just sat there and collected dust. Then 2020 hit. If you didn’t have a tool then, you almost definitely have one now.

How many projects do you have on your plate right now? We live in a world where, at any given moment, we could be working on five things at once: team projects, matrixed projects, individual projects, and more. When you’re trying to keep all of the balls in the air, what’s a straightforward simple thing that can minimize stress and have a positive impact? Centralized communication.

Every project manager has experienced this — things are running along smoothly in your workflow when you receive an email with the subject: “URGENT — need ASAP.” And just like that, an ad-hoc project falls into your lap. Ad-hoc projects or requests are unexpected and can catch you off guard.