Personal Project Management

There are projects that we keep telling ourselves that we’ll someday complete.  How many times have those projects been put on hold or never accomplished?  How many times have you said, “I just don’t have time” or “I’ll take care of that later” or “Nobody supports me, so maybe I’m crazy to think I can complete this project.”

Instead of just fanaticizing about what projects you want to complete, why not turn your fantasy/dreams into a list of actionable steps that lead to an accomplishment of a major life goal.  Whether you want to:  buy a car; fulfill a New Year’s resolution; or complete a project you’ve been holding off for years;  you CAN get it done if you have structure to your plans.

Research what it will take to implement your project

Maybe someone is thinking, “It would be so cool if I were to quit my job and own a business doing what I like.”  When a person has these thoughts, they’re fantasizing about already being in that role and assuming that they’re successful.  What’s not thought about is the actual steps that it takes to become that successful.

For example, if you want to quit your day job so that you can open a fitness business, you can’t quit your day job and start a business tomorrow.  First, you need to keep your day job then understand what it will take to open that fitness business.   You need to answer some preliminary questions:

·         How will I gain expertise in this subject matter?

·         What are the costs of opening a business like this?

·         Will I be able to receive enough income to match my current day job’s income?

·         How will I market my business or get the word out in my community?

Besides these questions, research what it takes to open a business.  What are the steps to reach your goal?  Sometimes, you might have to contact experts (either in person or through social media) to find out how they reached their goals. 

Let’s say you want to lose weight before your wedding.  How is that accomplished?  This presents the following questions:

·         Will I have time to plan an exercise routine?

·         Will I be able to maintain that exercise schedule?

·         Should I join a gym or work out with a personal trainer?

·         Do I have the budget to afford private workout sessions?

It’s great to fantasize about fitting into that great wedding dress but what plan do you have to lose the weight?

Identify potential areas for failure and have a plan to deal with it

Many times people quit on their projects the moment they experience an obstacle.  Worse, they don’t have a plan to persevere and complete the project anyway.

For example, if you’ve finished your draft of a novel you might submit it for publishing.  However, the feedback you get back is that your book is not good enough for publication.  What do you do now?  Do you give up and forget about this goal?  Or did you have a mitigation plan in the event that this very thing happened?

The process of publishing a book does not end when you send out your manuscript for publication.  Your project plan should include a contingency if you don’t get published.  Even the most famous authors were rejected at their first attempts to get published.

It’s not enough for you to research what it will take to complete your project but you also should know where can your project go wrong and what you are going to do about it.  If you have a good contingency plan in place, you won’t get frustrated if your original plan fails.  You’ll know exactly what to do to overcome your obstacle and continue forward toward your end goal. 

Determine what you want to work on first.

If you’ve   selected multiple projects to work on, which one will give you the most satisfaction first?  Beware of executing more than one project at a time as you may become overwhelmed.  If you become overstressed, then you may give up on all your projects. 

Once you have a project selected break it down into what you want to accomplish by weeks, months, or years.  For example, if your project extends beyond a year, you can break it down as follows:

·         Goals you want to accomplish within 1 year

·         Goals you want to accomplish within 9 months

·         Goals you want to accomplish within 6 months

·         Goals you want to accomplish within 3 months

·         Goals you want to accomplish this month

·         Goals you want to accomplish this week.

Most importantly, you need to have this in writing – like a contract to yourself.  This contract needs to be visible where you can see it every day:  near your bed so you can see it every morning when you wake up;  have it as a wallpaper on your cell phone;  paste it on the inside front cover of your organizer;  or tape it to the ceiling over your bed so you can see it even if you’re just resting.

Create specific, time-based tasks and determine where you can delegate

Now that you have an idea of what needs to be done you need to break down your project into an actionable list.  Be careful here not to use statements that are too general.. 

For example, a person who created a project to buy a new car may have a general goal such as:  “Purchase a new car by Friday.”  This is too broad of a statement and there’s no specific list of action items that will accomplish this goal.

Below is a sample to do list for buying a NEW car:

·         Go online and research the car you want – 2 hours

·         Decide on second-option cars in case the first option doesn’t work out – 2 hours

·         Call various car dealerships in your area to compare invoice prices – 4 hours

·         Determine 5 dealerships you plan to visit in case the first dealership doesn’t work out – 1 hour

·         Visit the first two dealerships – 4 hours

·         Visit dealerships 3 and 4 – 4 hours

·         Visit the 5^th dealership – 2 hours

·         Visit the dealership where you decided you’ll purchase the car from (assuming you’ll do financing with this dealership.  If you’re financing through a bank, you’ll need to add additional tasks for that) – 2 hours.     

From here, you need to plan steps to:  get insurance, register the car, etc. 

This is not an exhaustive list on the process of buying a car but I just wanted to include it here as an example.

Estimate the cost of your project/goal

After you have a detailed list of your tasks, you need to estimate the associated costs.  This is necessary in the event that you underestimated how expensive your project was to implement.  Now you can determine if you have the finances to implement this project now or if you need to save up first and implement the project later.  This is a good way to determine when you’ll be able to finish your project.

For example, let’s say you wanted to create a business website.  Some costs may include:

·         Costs of having a web-hosting company host your website.

·         Costs of having someone design your website.

·         Ongoing costs to maintain your website.

·         Costs of adding additional features to your website (i.e. PayPal account, merchant account, email accounts, security features)

Schedule your tasks onto a calendar

You can’t dream about a goal and expect it to happen. Write it down on a monthly calendar so that you can see it every day as a constant reminder that you’re closer to your end goal.  After you’ve broken down your tasks into specific to do items with time estimations, determine when you’ll do each task.

Whether you use a desk calendar, portable organizer, or wall calendar you can see how long your project will take and how close you are to achieving your goal.  Seeing how close you are to your goal will give you motivation to continue.

Action – execute your project

As you execute your project, you may run into one of the following:

·         Procrastination

·         “Not enough time”

·         Unsupportive friends/family

Procrastination

You’re on course to compete your project but something distracts your attention.  For example, you may be logging into Yahoo to check your email and notice news regarding your favorite celebrity.  You click on that link and read about what’s going on.  Then, you click on an associated video that jumps you to the YouTube application.  From YouTube, you see recommended videos regarding your favorite celebrity and begin to click on each of those.  Do you see where this is going?  Remove all possible distractions from your workspace or pick a workspace where you’ll only be able to focus on your work. 

Not Enough Time

I once had a friend, David, who constantly complained about the fact that he didn’t have time to do anything.  He was a father of two and had a very tough job that usually required him to work from 9am to 6pm.  He gave up on any hope of achieving his goals and accepted the fact that he’ll be a “worker bee” for the rest of his life.  When I sat down with him, we discovered areas where he could find time to work on his goals:

·         On the commute into work.  Dave typically took the bus into work and just sat listening to his iTunes.  Instead of just listening to music he could be reading or researching online what needs to be done to complete his project.  The commute was one hour each way to office, so there was two hours of possible productivity here.

·         During the office lunch break.  Dave spent his lunch hour looking for a place to eat then standing in a long line to purchase his lunch.  He spent time with co-workers he had nothing in common with but office gossip.  Here, Dave discovered an hour of productivity by bringing lunch from home and using the café wi-fi to work on his project.

·         Dave sometimes stayed awake until midnight and other times he woke at 5am.  If he stayed up late he’d shut off the TV at 10pm and work on his project until midnight.  Another 2 hours of productivity discovered!  If Dave decided to wake up early, he’d work on his project until 7am. 

·         With above adjustments, Dave added five hours of productivity time that he could dedicate to his projects.  This translates to 25 hours  every workweek and about 1300 hours a year (none of this time counts the weekends!)

Unsupportive Friends/Family

Surround yourself with people who will support you and provide positive energy.  Sometimes, you need encouragement to complete a project.  Many authors dedicate books to people who have supported them throughout their project.  Sometimes, an author will say something like:  “To Drake.  This work wouldn’t be possible without his support….”

Where do you find supportive people?  First, talk to your friends and family and figure out who will support you through your project.  Look at community, state-wide, or national organizations that deal with the similar subject matter of your project.  Maybe they are having a chapter meeting that you can attend?  Maybe there’s a blog where you can post concerns and someone in a similar situation can communicate with you?  Maybe there’s an online group you can join?

“Concentration of effort and the habit of working with a definite chief aim are two of the essential factors in success which are always found together. One leads to the other.”

-      Napoleon Hill