From the course: Time Management Tips

Processing long projects with many steps

From the course: Time Management Tips

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Processing long projects with many steps

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- Occasionally, graduates of my time management programs ask me a question about how to deal with projects, things that are going to take a very long time to complete. How should we process something that's going to take months or years to bring to completion? There are two approaches that you can take and both get you to the right destination. As you listen to these approaches, consider which would work best for you. The first is to take everything one step at a time. What this means is that even if you have a project that's going to take a year, you just process one step at a time. This is particularly effective for people, like myself, who get overwhelmed with the thought of completing a long project. This approach also works best for people who are working mostly by themselves, such as a freelancer or a solo business owner. Since others are not dependent upon you to create a long-term plan, you can take everything one bite-sized action at a time. To use this method, consider a large project you're working on. Ask yourself, what is the next thing I need to do to move it forward? Then schedule time to complete that step in your calendar. Later, after you complete that step, process the project again. For instance, if the first step was to research your competitors, the time arrives on your calender and you do that. Then, after you research your competitors, you put the project back into your inbox and reprocess it for the next step. Ask, what is the next step I need to take to move it forward? Then schedule time to complete that step in your calendar. This is an effective way to move projects forward and help you feel less stressed in the process. But that doesn't work for everyone. Some people need to see the big picture. Also, if you're coordinating with other people in a group, they need to see it as well, and we need to figure out how all the moving parts work together. The second approach is to divide and conquer. I recently used this method to complete my book, The Power of Having Fun. It works like this, begin by determining the required completion date. What does the milestone look like for completion? Define it clearly and schedule that final due date in the calendar using the notes field to include details about what the completed project will look like. Then divide the project by asking, what is the midway point between now and that date? For instance, if the completion date is a year from now, at six months from now, what does the milestone look like? Using my book example, perhaps I needed to complete my first draft. Then we go from now to that six month mark and divide in half again. So, the three month mark, what is the milestone that I need to complete three months from now? Perhaps I need to have the first draft halfway completed. I can repeat this process one or two more times asking, what's half the distance between now and the next milestone I've scheduled? Finally, I'll be left with one question, what is just the next step? What's the first thing I need to do this week to move that project toward the next milestone? So, using the book example, I might determine my first step is to create a table of contents. Now I'm ready to schedule a block of time in my calendar to create that table of contents. While the divide and conquer method doesn't schedule out every single action along the way, it creates a useful framework that you can go back to later on and fill in the remaining detail. Long projects may seem more complex, yet, in the end, it's about getting down to just one question, what is the next step? What is just the next action to move it forward? Figure it out, schedule it, and then do it.

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