What is a project?

• I define “projects” very broadly as outcomes that can be finished within a year that involve more than one action. David Allen
• A project is essentially a miniature goal, something that can be finished and marked off as “done.” David Allen
• Management,  Plan your day and week,  Time management,  Effectiveness,  Productivity,  Teamwork

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Create a list of all your projects

• A project is any desired result that requires more than one action step. David Allen
• A complete and current “projects” list is the major operational tool for moving from tree hugging to forest management. David Allen
• Make a list of all your focus projects. Schedule time for each in advance. Make sure each gets enough time to make progress. If there’s not enough time in your schedule to include all your focus projects, you’re doing too much. Drop something! Stever Robbins
• At least one of your top three projects should be related to your One Goal so that you are always moving that goal forward. Leo Babauta
• The best tools you use for managing this level is a Projects list — one simple list of all of your projects, one per line, or one per page. David Allen

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Have clear outcomes for each project

• Have an outcome in mind. How will you know when your project is complete? Visualize what the project will look like when you’re done. Then write this down in a sentence or two. Leo Babauta
• Visualize your successful outcome in great detail. Leo Babauta
• Have you envisioned wild success lately? David Allen

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Split projects into small action steps…

• You don’t actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it. When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it “done.” David Allen
• The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting with the first one. Mark Twain
• Great acts are made up of small deeds. Lao Tzu
• Break complex projects into smaller, well-defined tasks. Focus on completing just one of those tasks. Leo Babauta
• Don’t be a time manager, be a priority manager. Cut your major goals into bite-sized pieces. Each small priority or requirement on the way to ultimate goal become a mini goal in itself. Denis Waitley
• Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs. Henry Ford
• Start with just one small task from the project, instead of trying to tackle everything at once. Leo Babauta
• Break things down into small tasks that can be accomplished in an hour or less – even better would be twenty to thirty minutes, or even ten to fifteen minutes. The smaller, the better, because then we’re more likely to actually get them done. Leo Babauta
• Small tasks are always better than large ones. Leo Babauta
• Replace ‘This project is so big and important” with ‘I can take one small step. Neil Fiore
• When you’re feeling overwhelmed by a large project or goal that you need to tackle, make your action steps smaller and easier. One clue that will let you know that you need to break your goal down into smaller chunks is that you find yourself procrastinating. Procrastination is often caused by the feeling of being overwhelmed.  Marelisa Fabrega
• A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. Anthony Trollope
• Action steps,  The power of small steps

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… and chunks

• Work in baby chunks, small time blocks where you go in seeing the other side. Stever Robbins
• Over the years I’ve learned a lot about “chunking.” A chunk is a manageable bit of writing, like the sections in this book, which are each about 800 words in length. I don’t have an 80,000 word book to write, only a nice, easy daily chunk. I don’t remind myself that I have several books with looming—and simultaneous—deadlines lined up. I don’t look ahead to the revisions that’ll be needed. I only think that today I have a small chunk to do. Today I have this tiny thing on my plate, this perfect appetizer. Eric Maisel

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Don’t tackle too many projects at one

• The top three projects on your Projects List will be your entire focus until you finish all three, and then the next three projects you move onto this active list will be your focus. Leo Babauta
• Focus

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During implementation, focus just on today and the task at hand

• When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day’s work is all that I can permit myself to contemplate. John Steinbeck

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Be clear on what the next physical action is for each project

• Things rarely get stuck because of lack of time. They get stuck because the doing of them has not been defined. David Allen
• Until you know what the next physical action is, there’s still more thinking required before anything can happen. David Allen
• By asking myself, “What’s the next action on this?” I have generated more creative thinking, tough decision-making, critical conversations, innovative ideas, clarity, and motivation than by using any other specific technique I’m aware of. David Allen
• Without a next action, there remains a potentially infinite gap between current reality and what you need to do. David Allen
• Understanding is knowing what to do; wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is actually doing it. Tristan Gylberd
• Wisdom is knowing what to do next. Skill is knowing how to do it. Virtue is doing it. Thomas Jefferson

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Set deadlines

• Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. C. Northcote Parkinson
• Parkinson’s Law dictates that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion. Timothy Ferriss
• Shorten schedules and deadlines to necessitate focused action instead of deliberation and procrastination. Timothy Ferriss

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Review your list of projects regularly

• Once a week in a regular one-to-two-hour executive session with yourself to tune up your awareness of the status of all your projects. David Allen

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More thoughts on project management

• How does a project get to be a year late? One day at a time.  Frederick Brooks  
• I don’t work on a project unless I believe that it will dramatically improve life for a bunch of people. Dean Kamen  
• After two weeks of working on a project, you know whether it will work or not. Bill Budge  
• My philosophy is, don’t take no for an answer and be willing to sacrifice your entire project for freedom. Tim Robbins  
• I always believe it’s better to have 30 imaginations working on a project, rather than one imagination telling the other 29 what to do. Trevor Nunn
• No matter how good the team or how efficient the methodology, if we’re not solving the right problem, the project fails. Woody Williams
• A {specification, design, procedure, test plan} that will not fit on one page cannot be understood.  Mark Ardis  
• Being a Project Manager is like being an artist, you have the different colored process streams combining into a work of art.
• The P in PM is as much about ‘people management’ as it is about ‘project management’. Cornelius Fichtner
• Trying to manage a project without project management is like trying to play a football game without a game plan. Tate
• To get a project off the ground, tell a colleague it was their idea. They will put their heart and soul into making it successful. T. Wouhra
• A project without a critical path is like a ship without a rudder. D. Meyer
• You can’t keep it all in your head. Project control tools are an absolute necessity for the control of large projects. Louis Fried
• A project is complete when it starts working for you, rather than you working for it. Scott Allen
• Rewards and motivation are an oil change for project engines. Do it regularly and often. Woody Williams
• Projects progress quickly until they become 90% complete; then remain at 90% complete forever. Edwards, Butler, Hill and Russell

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On a lighter note

I am such a pessimist that every project has surpassed what I envisioned.  Colin Mochrie  

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