Michael is a website designer in the marketing department of a local sporting goods manufacturer. He has been given the task to design the annual product catalog that will be sent to 10,000 customers. His deadline to go to print is one week from today. He started this project 2 months ago but isn’t as far along as he should be. He needs to work with the product manager to get final pricing, but the product manager hasn’t provided it him yet. Michael recently purchased a new iPhone and enjoys trying new apps on it at work. Michael also has a new girlfriend and they enjoy meeting for lunch at least twice a week. Sometimes lunch hours get extended because they are having so much fun. Michael’s sales manager needs to review the catalog at least twice before it can go to print. Michael has still not given him the first draft, so he can edit and identify any needed changes. Michael really enjoys taking the product photos and working with his photo editing software. In fact, he enjoys that task so much that he spends far more time than he should getting the photos for the catalog to look ‘just right.’ What advice do you have for Michael to help him get this catalog project completely done and to his manager for review and to the printer in time?

Identify the time management barriers and give solutions.