Long-term project “group think”
(www.myorganizedbiz.com) - Are you among the many people who have great ideas that get started and never completed? Before you get harsh with yourself about what a slacker you are, just know that this is a super normal thing. Go easy on yourself.
I bring up this topic because long term projects are a part of every business. We all have marketing ideas, product ideas, and a gazillion other things on the back burner that we’d like to do someday. The fact that they get started at all is remarkable considering how busy life is!
A client recently asked me how she could track these long term projects she dreams up. She’s super visual, so we talked about ways that she could remind herself to take the next step. After a great conversation, we came up with a great solution and she’s jazzed to try it out.
And it made me wonder, how do you tend to track long term projects? What works really well for you? Where are the places and times that you get stuck?
Everyone’s got their own unique approach to managing long-term projects. Would you share yours?
Tags: business, office, Organize, planner, planning, project management, small business, systems, Time ManagementRelated Stories
POSTED IN: ADD, Systems and structure, Time Management
2 opinions for Long-term project “group think”
Ann
May 7, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I find I don’t often get long-term projects done unless deadline-driven; the old Urgent v. Important struggle.
A perfect example is that I’d like to have an “editorial calendar” for my blog, a written schedule for posts. Never happens; I’m always choosing a topic and madly typing my posts at night.
I should go re-read The Now Habit and see if I can stop procrastinating on this!
OM
May 9, 2008 at 8:32 am
I have a very large document. Within it are groups of similar things. I have sections for personal development goals, goals by major hobby, goals by location (like front yard garden, storage shed) and so on. Within each project I try to list the tasks in order that need to be done for the next step. All the ideas thoughts and possible projects go into this document.
I schedule some time to work on projects by group each month. I will decide to spend 8 hours on gardening projects, or 8 hours on personal development and schedule it in my calendar. When the time comes I look at my list, and see what project I can do the next task on. Some get dropped after I look at them for a while and some get expanded but at least I make progress each month on long term goals. As I start a task I enter in the date started and when I finish one I enter in the date finished and use my word processor to put a line through it as “checked off”. Seeing the crossed off things keeps me motivated and seeing when I started something keeps me on track to continue.
I also have 2 separate timelines. In the past one I have each year and the major events that got done that year. I also have a forward looking one with major projects to be completed over the next 1,3,5 and 10 years. I even have a very short list of what I hope to see if I came back here in 100 years.
Each year when I do my year end filing, shredding and closing of books and stuff I make a copy of this file, Delete all the things not done. Change the crossed out stuff to regular fonts and the printout the list of what I actually got completed. I also update my ongoing timeline of major projects completed.
I’m often surprised at how much really does get done over the course of a year.
Keeping the list in a simple word processing file is easiest. I’ve tried various time, idea and project management software packages but simple files are more portable, easier to edit and I don’t have to think about the software to edit and update it so it actually gets done.
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