Ever feel like boundaries are for everyone else, but not possible for you?

As project managers we often feel like we have to:

You are a project manager when you manage projects.

This means:

If you are thinking about pivoting to project management, before you make the leap please have actual conversations with experienced project managers in the industry you are targeting.

I’ve heard from several folks recently who have pivoted and ended up unhappy.

Almost daily I hear from people who want to make the transition from full time to freelance.

What is the number one reason people tell me they want to be freelance project managers?

Out of curiosity, I went through the first 100 open, remote FT Project Manager jobs on LinkedIn to understand more about PMP certification requirements in job postings.

🔍 Here’s what I discovered (unique, recent jobs only):

There are project managers out there who can run circles around me when it comes to theory or technical knowledge.

➖ My spreadsheets aren’t fancy.

One of the hardest parts about breaking into project management is figuring out how to frame past experience as “project management.” 

This is a key element to landing a project manager role, but often becomes a roadblock to aspiring project managers.

Interestingly, by the time we reach adulthood many of us already have experience managing some sort of project, whether personally, professionally, or academically. 

“I want to be a freelance project manager, where do I find work?”

Before you get lost in the sea of online freelance work platforms, let me give you a piece of advice:

Creating and enforcing boundaries as a project manager can be challenging, because:

Aren’t we the ones who are supposed to get along with everyone?

I ask a lot of simple questions as a project manager.

For the record, simple does not equal “dumb.”

Sometimes we confuse the two.

Questions like:

Project frustration, it happens to every project manager. When your project isn’t progressing quite like you hoped it can be easy to fall into a less than ideal mindset.I’ll tell you what doesn’t help make this better:

One of the best ways to avoid scope creep is by talking about scope creep.I like to bring it up to my stakeholders at the start of the project.A simple conversation covering the following topics does wonders for keeping a project in check:

My projects almost always go smoothly when there is a confident decision maker at the lead. 💪🏻

Because I want to be a confident decision maker myself, I've observed what these individuals do differently and here's what I've come up with:

Do you have “no meeting” days?

I see a lot of posts on LinkedIn about how important this is for productivity, but...

Many of us struggle to implement meeting-free days simply due to the nature of our work (project management is largely communication).

I was asked a good question yesterday.

"How do I know if an in-the-moment task is urgent enough for me to stop what I'm doing and focus on it instead?"

Story of our lives, right?

Here is my suggestion for how to filter those tasks (inspired by the Eisenhower Matrix):

Big project, lots of moving pieces, short timeline...

How do you handle it? Where do you start?

Here's what NOT to do:

There seems to be a fixation in the project management community on the title “Project Manager.”

And to some extent, I can understand that.

I'm knee deep in a big project.

It's reached that point where the initial excitement has worn off and now it's crunch time.

Staying focused is a top priority, so here's what I'm doing to help with that:

I used to spend a large portion of my time trying to avoid any of the following:

❌ Sending messages that have typos.(omg the horror if people were to learn I'm NOT PERFECT!!)

❌ Asking a "dumb" question.(omg what if people think I'm stupid!!)

❌ Being anything but uber cooperative and "nice."(omg what if people think I'm a bad person!!)

One of the most common questions in get in my DMs is:

➡ "How can I become a freelance project manager?"

First things first: I would like to point out there are quite a lot of angles to this question. If this is something you are pondering, I suggest you get more targeted with your question to produce the answers you are seeking. 

Second, the journey looks different for everyone! There is no magic formula. It takes time and work.

Here are some things I would encourage you to consider: