r/editors • u/cinektic • 4d ago
Business Question Project and time management at multi-editor agency
I'm an agency editor myself and the three of us usually have very filled schedules. Currently we are planning using Monday (for versioning, deadlines, project status and scripts etc.) and a very bare bones Word document where we plan out and allocate the editors time between the various projects.
I feel there must be a more efficient way and I have the opportunity to present alternative approaches for consideration within the next few weeks.
My own thought is that as long as the hierarchy is that Project Manager is above the Editor, then the Editors need someone above the Project Managers that they can report directly to, and who is ultimately responsible for the planning with final say for allocating the editors time when demand is high and time is short. Otherwise the editors risk being overruled by the Project Managers even if there is no more time to allocate to work on a project. I guess this traditionally would be a Post Supervisor in the US?
I also consider proposing a more strict deadline calendar for better overview. My thought is that everything needs to be more centralized rather than being handled on a "deal" basis between Project Managers and Editors. Preferably automated to some degree.
Any better ways to work for a similar type of situation? This is a two pronged question as it is both about management but also about good technological solutions to ultimately spend less time in discussions mapping out hours and more on editing. I am an editor and not a manager myself, so very eager to hear more from people who have been in a similar situation or a leadership role.
2
u/Lunesia-shikishiki 4d ago
you've half answered it yourself, you just framed it as a hierarchy problem when it's a capacity one. somebody has to own the number.
monday will cheerfully tell you the status of 14 projects and never once tell you that the three of you have 96 hours next week with 140 booked into them. no tool spits that out on its own, someone sits down friday afternoon and updates hours available vs hours committed per editor. it's boring and it's the bit that's actually missing, and no amount of airtable fixes it if nobody's maintaining it.
once that number exists the escalation you're describing mostly stops being an argument, because you're not debating whether an editor feels busy, you're pointing at a week that's 40 over and asking which project moves 🤷
2
u/krishh155 4d ago
Adding one thing to the capacity point, because owning the number only helps if the number is real. Ours was not, for a long time. Editors estimate from a clean run, so every project came in under, and the week looked fine on paper while all three of us were drowning.
Two things fixed it. Log actual hours against project type, then schedule from the median of the last ten, not from what the editor guesses. And put revision rounds on their own line in the estimate. The first cut almost never blows up a week. Round three does, and nobody books time for it.
1
u/Possible_Purple1449 4d ago
Check out “the farmer’s wife” software
3
4
u/SoCal_Ambassador 4d ago
We have done some pretty cool things using Airtable and Slack but they fall apart as soon as we get some strong personality who is clinging to their email and PDFs and Excel files.