A lot of people are waiting for Cyber Week Shopping the whole year. We delay to buy electronics and clothes, we don’t buy toys and accessories and wait for the time when the price will be 50%-80% lower. So, this time is coming very soon. But as professional project managers we have an interesting choice – to use or not to use the project management knowledge to get the most from this week. And most of all I mean the planning skills. And we need to decide fast to have enough time to do everything.

1. Create the list of choices and alternatives
Most of the people google for the shopping stuff in 10 minutes before the end of the Cyber Week. This is the main reason why many people don’t get what they really want. So, as a project manager you may use your skills to plan your shopping strategy. What exactly you need to do is to create make a list of the online retailers with the links to the products. Setting priorities will be very helpful as well. Create a list using your task management soultion.

2. Complete the list with “holiday wishes”
There are two types of things one plans to buy: the things that we really need and the things that we want to have. If you are a rational person you understand that you can’t get everything you want. But Cyber Week is also a miracle time when prices are being cut dramatically. You need to have the “holiday wishes” in your wish list but with lower priority. Also don’t just plan to buy things for yourself but gifts you could actually give to your friends, parents or other nice people in your life.

3. Use all sources of information available
The issue is that retailers spread the information about their discounts and promotions differently. Some limited discounts are distributed through social networks – Twitter or Facebook or even YouTube. You need to set the alerts to be informed about the new publications from your favorite retailers.

4. Get a bonus for your efforts
Add something useless and funny for yourself or your family. Choose something extraordinary to get it for less than a half of a price. Do a surprise as people like to be surprised – so, plan to buy something additional, something not from your initial list.

And good luck to have the best Cyber Week this year!