Organize A Project With Five Easy Steps
 
 
I’m not going to try to guess what type of project you’re wrestling with. Do you have more than one? You probably do. Today, I’ll talk about a way to organize—and simplify—a project that doesn’t involve managing other employees. The Group Project will be covered as another topic.
 
Think of 1 project you want to do. What if I said to you, “Right now, write a list of what needs to be done to perform this project beautifully?”  Would you sit in front of your computer with your fingers paralyzed, perched over the keys? If so, you may have the Perfectionist’s Dilemma—you may be expecting to see a neat, perfectly arranged document appearing on your screen. Don’t worry—in this case, you’re normal.
 
Wouldn’t you feel better if I directed you to type up a very rough draft of what needs to be done? And I’d promise that no one else will be able to look at it. Is the paralysis gone?  And wouldn’t all this be more doable if I gave you Five Easy Steps to follow? Good! Here are the Five Easy Steps.
 
1.  Define the Goal – What’s the end product you want to achieve? What’s the goal date? Give yourself a little leeway by establishing an Almost Goal Date. This is the date you’ll aim for—knowing you’ll have a few extra days for polishing or basking in your early success.
 
2.  Outline the Big Steps — Leave space below each one for step # 3. Put an End Date on each of the Big Steps.
 
3.  Outline the Little Steps that are contained in each of the Big Steps above.
 
4.  Keep a Running File on everything. Save information in computer files or paper files in case you’ll be doing a similar project another time, or in case you want to document your success in the workplace. Yes, you do want to do that!
 
5.  Put the Next Step on your To-Do List each day. Refer to my tips on writing your To-Do List. Remember each one has an action included.
 
 
 
Tip of the Week:
 
You know that Running File I mentioned as part of #4 above? Well, you can use that for 2 purposes that will benefit you in the long run. First, you may need to do this same project another time. Of course, it will be because people realized you did such a great job the first time! Think about how much easier it will be the second time. You’ll have your outline, timeline, and the necessary backup materials in your Running File for that project. Easy! Now the second reason is that you may want look forward to the day that you can give—ah, delegate—this project to someone else. That’s what leaders do! And leaders also have a responsibility to see that their delegates are organized and productive. Well, you’ve already performed a big part of your future responsibility.
 
Doesn’t that make you think leaders have it easy? I hope you get the opportunity to see that it’s true!
 
 
 
Be sure to visit our site, www.WomensMedia.com to get Expert Advice for Working Women.
 
 
 
Further Reading:
 
Website, WomensMedia, by Natalie R. Manor, Leadership & Confidence
Many Women Are Competent, but Lack Confidence
 
Website, WomensMedia, by Ramona Creel, How to Delegate More Effectively
 
Blog, Women’s Lunch Talk, by Nancy Clark, A Busy Working Woman Needs To Prioritize Her To-Do List  —Take These 5 Steps For A To-Do List That Keeps Your Priorities In Mind or listen to it here.
 
Podcast (always about 5 minutes), Working in Heels, by Nancy Clark, Leadership & Delegation —By Delegating Tasks You Can Save Time And Boost Your Leadership Status or read it here.
 
Blog, Women’s Lunch Talk, by Nancy Clark, Power For Women —Successful Women Use Power Differently Than Men or listen to it here.
 
Website, WomensMedia, by Debra Pestrak, If You Want to Succeed, Attitude is Everything
 
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Tags: women, business, career, management, project, leadership, organizing

Take These 5 Steps For A To-Do List That Keeps Your Priorities In Mind
 
 
If you’re a working woman, chances are you want to be a success in your job and you want to
be a success with your family and your friends, and you want some time for yourself as well. Talk about a full bucket!
 
Well, there’s only so much time available in that bucket—we aren’t allowed to make it bigger. So the quantity of tasks we put into this bucket each day is limited. You know you could easily fill it tomorrow with any 1 of these categories:
 

• Job
• Family
• Friends
• Yourself

1.  First, you need some research. You need to know what works best for other working women. Our audience members at www.WomensMedia.com have tested our ideas and have saluted the one I’m about to tell you. Most of these women have agreed with us that they’re near a computer and would like to use it for their lists. We agree. This does make it nice and easy—and it looks good too! Aesthetics are important. Well, actions are too.
 
2.  Now you need to know how to format any item on your To-Do List. It can’t be something difficult to do in one sitting, like “Prepare the Marketing Report.”  You might have a file for the Marketing Report. If you’re one of those Super-Organized Women, you probably have an outline of the steps that need to be taken—and the steps are in order! Nah, I’m not one of those women either. So, just think about the Marketing Report and decide what is one physical action that should be taken first. It might be an action such as, “Email, phone, or visit Jan to get her data.” That’s still not quite right. You have to state the exact action you’re going to take—OK, OK, I’ll email her.
 
3.  You remember those 4 categories I mentioned, Job, Family, Friends, and Yourself? (You might want to add others, such as Church, etc.) Well, start with each of these separately, putting To-Do items—just a few—under each. When you’re a working woman it’s tough to decide which category is more important—so don’t do that yet!
 
4.  At the left of each item put:

• “H” for high priority
• “M” for medium priority, or
• “L” for low priority. 

You have a column of priority levels, then tab over, and you have the tasks listed. Look over the items you’ve listed as High Priority. Now think about the direction you want your career to take. Are you missing a task that will lead you there? This only takes a minute, but it’s a minute you should give your To-Do List each day. Now put your tasks into priority order, and see why using a computer is so helpful.
 
Here’s the customization decision only you can make:  Do you want to see 4 categories on your To-Do List separately or do you want to lump them together? Either way, keep the total number of tasks low. You want this to be a Doable To-Do List for the day.
 
 
5.  At the end of the day, put an “X” in front of the tasks you’ve completed. Congratulate yourself for doing a good—or pretty good—job! In fact, why don’t you give yourself a little reward? Why not? It reinforces this good behavior—and it adds to the “Yourself” category that’s probably not seeing much activity.
 
I have 2 Tips of the Week to give you. I know I’m going overboard.
 
Tip #1:
 
Working women use those computers! Is there a chance down the line that you’ll want to compile a list of completed tasks to show someone else? Or for your own use? In that case, save the file with the date and use the untackled tasks—don’t feel bad if there are some—to start the next day’s list. When you’re assigning the high, medium, or low priority to these reappearing tasks, add the letter to the front of the line. This way you can quickly see if you’re avoiding an item—there’ll be a double or a triple letter there. Ooow, sounds bad. You’re right; it’s not good. My advice is to uncover the problem. Is this something someone else should be handling? Is there an unpleasant side to this task that you need to commit to handling? What will happen if this task is never handled? Hmmm, maybe that’s an incentive.
 
Tip #2:
 
Here’s another customization decision you must make:  Do you think it will help you to put approximate times next to some of the items? For example:
 
·         “I’ll do this before 11 am.” – or
·         “At 2 pm I’ll drop everything else and I’ll do this task” – or
·         “Before I go into the meeting I will do this. And I mean it!”
 
If so, put this in parentheses after the item. In fact, I list it in blue ink instead of black. Aesthetics, you know are important—almost as important as actions.
 
Now, go out there and act on your To-Do List. It’s a great stress reliever!
 
 
Further Reading:
 
Website, WomensMedia, by Susanna Palomares, Setting Goals:  The 6 P’s of Goal Setting
 
Website, WomensMedia, by Randy Siegel, Use Communication Strength in Business
Must You Sacrifice Some Likeability For Authority?
 
Blog, Women’s Lunch Talk, by Nancy Clark, Multitasking:  A Gift Or A Curse?
—Save Time By Reducing Multitasking or listen to it here.
 
Podcast (always about 5 minutes), Working in Heels, by Nancy Clark, Looking for Female Leadership At The Top Of Companies? —What You Should Add To Your Resume To Be CEO-Ready
 
Blog, Women’s Lunch Talk, by Nancy Clark, Challenging Gender Stereotypes —Speak Up When You Hear Gender Stereotypes or listen to it here.
 

Tags: women, business, career, to-do, list, priorities, organizing