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Let’s face it most of us would rather throw darts at balloons for answers than grab a pencil, dust off a calculator, or open up a spreadsheet and begin looking for solutions through calculations. But ask any experienced project manager and they’ll tell you that math can be a saving grace in nearly every situation. When you can take the step from assigning tasks to your co-workers based off of rough estimates and predictions (seriously to the outside world it seems like your assigning work based off of a ball and a roulette wheel) and start assigning tasks based off of calculated hours available/hours per task, you will begin to see immediate results in both the outcome of your project and the overall respect level of those you are working with.

An added benefit of using math as the basis of your project management other than just providing a more accurate picture of when a project can be completed is that it can also be used to justify your decision making. For example, at some point someone, whether they are a co-worker, boss, professor or girlfriend, will ask you why you assigned a particular task to a particular person. Using math as the basis for your decision making in project management will mean you have a better answer than “well, Steve was sitting next to me and didn’t seem to have much to do”. Embrace math in your everyday project management work and you will quickly discover that not only are you making more sound decisions, you are also instilling more confidence in those around you that the work they are being assigned is on purpose and for a purpose. Don’t let math be the ultimate four letter word in your project management skill set.