- List out five – ten tasks that will move your project forward.
- Now give each one a due date and work towards hitting it.
- Put it in your planner or calendar or to-do list or whatever you use.
- Be sure to mark it off when it is complete.
- Review as needed!
New Series: How to get a stalled project moving again, round V: Planning & Tracking
Long term projects can be hard because we can’t see the finish line, but we have to keep moving if we want to get there. Imagine what it was like for the craftsmen who built cathedrals in the middle ages, they knew they wouldn’t live long enough to see the project finished! So, we break down our project into discrete tasks that can be (realistically) done in the time available, and we track our work. If you are writing a new sales training module that will have 40 parts, break the parts down and assign them to specific days / sessions, and track your progress. That way, when you are feeling like you are spinning your wheels and getting nowhere, you can review your tracking sheet and see that you have completed three modules in the last ten days, and you know what your next task is so you can sit down and do it. For that matter don’t wait until you feel bad to review your progress, look at it fairly often so you can see that each day you are getting closer to the finish line, that feels great. When all else fails, just think of the one next concrete task you can get done, then do that.
