Project Planning Primer, Part 1
I’m a planning and productivity coach, but I’m not interested in teaching you how to do MORE and MORE and MORE.
I want to help you show up fully and powerfully present to the tasks in your day—yes, so you can reach their goals, but also have time for what matters most—family, friends, reading, art, music, love, nature, cooking… all that. That is what gets me really excited.
When you take time to plan, you can live your life as beautifully as you want to.
So, spin-outs. These happen when someone doesn’t fully consider everything the project will entail. She might start by putting something on her to-do list. She keeps adding it to the list each week and takes futile stabs at it, but it’s too big to tackle and the needle never moves. She may have too many projects going at once and never get momentum on any of them. She ends up frustrated, tries to do it all herself, and spends way too much money and late nights pulling her hair out. Ugh.
I love project planning, so over the next few weeks, I’m going to walk you through some of the steps I use to keep my projects moving forward so I can meet my goals—and also have a life!
Let’s say your big project is to make a video series to promote a new program.
OK. Start here. Your first step is to DEVELOP YOUR IDEA. And it’s where you consider Time-Money-Quality.
1. Time:
How many videos do you want to make? How much time do you think making the videos will take? How much time do you have to give the project? Do you need help to expedite it? Do you figure in time to write a script or are you comfortable using notes?
2. Money:
How much is the video series going to cost? How much are you willing to spend? Will editing or incorporating text to your videos be necessary? Do you need to use a professional studio and videographer or can you shoot at home?
3. Quality:
Ask yourself: How good does this have to be? Is “good-enough” ok?
For instance, I just launched a beta run of my Magic of Productivity class, and each module includes several videos. I could have spent a lot of money and time making these videos perfect. I could have hired a scriptwriter, a videographer, or a make-up person. But when I looked at scope of this project it was simply to teach material to my beta-testers, so I made the videos myself. My expense for recording was exactly $0 and I kept time under control by not letting myself excessively re-record if I stumbled on a word or thought. I jotted down what I wanted to cover in each, fluffed up my hair, and turned on my iPhone to record. Then I had my VA title each video, organize them and post them on the class page. That was it. That was enough.
Look at the impact you want to make with this project and then assign your time and money to it. I promise this is going to save you in the long run.
Got it?
Next week, we’ll look at how to actually start planning out the phases of your project.