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Welcome back to Beyond Deadlines newsletter—a free perk for people looking to improve in Planning and Scheduling. Each week, we provide tactics, prompts, jobs and food for thought. We want you to succeed today, tomorrow and throughout the rest of your career.

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🛠️ The Most Productive 2 Hours in Construction

If your weekly coordination meetings feel like a waste of time, you're doing it wrong.

This structure will keep everyone sharp, informed, and two steps ahead.

📝 Pre-Game: What Happens Before the Meeting

Get everyone aligned before they walk in the room:

Send the Agenda + Last Meeting’s Minutes 48 hours out. No surprises.
Subcontractor Progress Reports due 1–2 days before. Include updates, blockers, and a 3-week lookahead.
Update the Master Schedule in P6 with the latest data—actual vs. baseline.
Build Visuals: Updated Gantt, progress photos, lookaheads. Show, don’t tell.
Flag the Big Stuff: Risks, delays, or key decisions that can’t wait.

📅 The 120-Minute Meeting Breakdown

1. Welcome + Meeting Objectives (5 mins)
Chair: PM or Scheduler
Confirm attendance, set goals for the meeting.

2. Safety Moment (5 mins)
Presented by a subcontractor. Sets the tone.

3. Project Status Overview (10 mins)
Live P6 review:

Critical path and milestone updates
SPI and key trends

4. Discipline Progress Reports (40 mins)
Each subcontractor presents:

% complete vs plan
Key wins, issues, and the next 3 weeks
Order: Civil → Mech → Elec → Commissioning

5. Interface Coordination (15 mins)
Coordinate handoffs, work areas, and permits. Avoid clashes.

6. Key Issues + Risk Review (15 mins)

What’s hot and needs resolution?
Risk register updates
Escalations and client decisions

7. Commissioning Focus (10 mins)

Pre-functional/functional checklist progress
System readiness
Dependencies like power, HVAC, fire

8. Actions + Decisions Recap (10 mins)

Review who owns what
Reconfirm deadlines

9. Open Floor (5 mins)
Questions, comments, curveballs

10. Wrap Up + Next Steps (5 mins)

Confirm next meeting
Quick roundtable: was this meeting useful?

✅ Post-Game: What Happens After

Distribute Minutes within 24 hours. Clear actions, deadlines, and names.
Update the P6 Schedule to reflect everything discussed.
Follow Up on Action Items: No task left behind.
Update Risk + Issues Logs: Keep it real and current.

Create Excellent Process

Copy and paste this prompt into ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude.

Act like a senior construction scheduler with expertise in running highly efficient and outcome-driven scheduling meetings.

Objective: Create a comprehensive pre-meeting agenda and content checklist for a weekly construction progress scheduling update meeting. The goal is to ensure the meeting is the most productive two hours of the week by aligning all stakeholders beforehand and surfacing critical issues early.

Step-by-step, do the following:

Start with a clearly defined, bullet-point meeting agenda that is distributed 48 hours before the meeting. Include time blocks for safety updates, schedule review, subcontractor reports, key risks and issues, coordination items, RFIs/approvals, and next steps.
Create a "Pre-Meeting Preparation" section detailing responsibilities for each role:
- Project Manager: Finalize and send the agenda; summarize key risks or items requiring executive decisions.
- Superintendent: Provide updated field progress notes and any known issues impacting the schedule.
- Scheduler: Update the Master Schedule in Primavera P6 with actual vs. baseline comparisons; prepare visual aids like Gantt charts and lookahead schedules.
- Subcontractors: Submit progress updates (completed work, blockers, resource needs), risk flags, and a 3-week lookahead with manloading.
- Owner/Client Reps (if attending): Review the agenda and provide any critical inputs, questions, or upcoming decisions.
- Project Engineer: Ensure all relevant RFIs, submittals, and coordination logs are updated and ready to reference.
Add a checklist format for the project scheduler or superintendent to confirm all pre-meeting elements are complete, including: agenda distribution, report submissions, visual prep, and risk flagging.
Provide a sample email body to notify all attendees. The email should clearly state the meeting goals, summarize required pre-meeting deliverables, attach the agenda and previous minutes, and include a link to the shared meeting folder.
Conclude by explaining how this level of preparation boosts meeting efficiency, encourages accountability, and helps the team identify and resolve scheduling issues before they impact critical milestones.

Take a deep breath and work on this problem step-by-step.

Director of Planning (Pipelines)

Company - Dragen
Location - Houston, TX

Project Scheduler II

Company - Shine
Location - Janesville, WI

Project Controls Manager

Company - Bechtel
Location - Reston, VA

^{We have no connection to these jobs or companies. Our goal is simply to help you land the job of your dreams.}