As you are setting goals, it is important to make a plan to achieve those goals.  This project planner is designed to help students and adults have a tool to break projects and goals into major action steps and smaller tasks.   In the following article, Dr. Davenport explains how to use this tool.

Download the Project Planner and Take These Five Steps

The project planner is designed to help you identify the major steps required to be successful at completing your projects and achieving your goals.

To use the project planner, take these five steps:

Brainstorm 3 to 6 MAJOR STEPS Required to be Successful

First, ask yourself two questions

• How can I make this idea a reality?

• How can I change “what if” to “what is”?

Ideas usually come into your head in random order.  Express and capture all thoughts in random order and plan to figure out what to do with them in a later step.  The keys to brainstorming are:

• Don’t judge, challenge, evaluate, or criticize ideas.

• Go for quantity, not quality.

• Don’t analyze or organize the ideas yet.

Capture your ideas so you can move on to the next idea.  When you capture an idea once, you can let it go of it and think of the next idea.  Each idea captured reminds you of another one.  If you try to hold on to them in your head, your working memory gets overwhelmed and you eventually stop thinking of ideas.

The main point is to get the information out of your head and onto paper, a whiteboard, a PDA, a smartphone, or a computer.  There are a lot of ways to capture your ideas:

• Write down a list of ideas as they come to you and plan to go back and organize them later.

• Capture each of your ideas on 3×5 cards or “sticky-notes.”  Then when you are ready to organize your thinking, spread them out, see the structure, and figure out what’s missing.

• Use a graphic process called mind-mapping.  Download a brainstorming worksheet and start with the core idea in the center with associated ideas growing out around it.  For more graphic organizers, check out www.inspiration.com.

No specific method is better than the other.  Which works best for you depends on a lot of factors including your personality and creative style.

Organize the 3 -6 MAJOR STEPS

Start with the Natural Organization of Ideas.  If you have done a good job of emptying your head of all the things that came up during brainstorming, you’ll start to notice that a natural organization of ideas starts emerging.  You’ll start to notice natural relationships and structure.

Think of Time Sequence. Organizing happens when you put the components, sub-components, sequences, events together in a time sequence answering the questions:

• What are the most important steps to ensure the success of the project or goal as I have defined it?

• What are the main steps of the project over time and how do they relate to one another?

• In what order must they occur?

• Can any steps be dropped without sacrificing the overall vision?

Once you get the basic structure, your mind will begin to fill in the blanks.  Identifying key actions will cause you to think of more key actions when you see them all lined up. 

Identify the TASKS Required for Each Major Step

Ask yourself these questions to break your Major Steps into smaller TASKS.

• What’s the first task for each of the steps or stages of the project?

• Once that task is complete, what comes next? and next? and next? etc.

• Have I thought everything through enough?

• Is there any way to break these tasks down further?

• When does each task need to happen?

• What is the best order for completing these tasks?

This is also the time to answer these questions:

• Am I serious about doing this?

• Is this task/project too big for the amount of time I have?

• Do I need to narrow my focus?  If so, see the narrowing worksheet.

• Do I need to complete this in stages?

• Do I need to find someone to help me complete this project?

• Who is that person and what actions can they complete?

Establish a Timeline

There are two ways to establish your timeline.

(1) If possible, estimate the time needed for each task rather than for the project as a whole.

• Think about how long specific tasks have taken you to complete during projects in the past.

• Build-in time for unexpected events requiring problem-solving.  Multiply your original time estimate by 2 (double your time) to plan for the unexpected.  If you don’t need the time, use it as a reward of freedom!

(2) If you have a due date for the entire project, work backward to figure out due dates for each step. 

• Using your planner or calendar, write down the date your project is due.

• Count the number of weeks or days available* between the current date and the due date.

• Divide the total number of days by the number of steps: this is the number of weeks or days between the due date for each step.

• Record due dates for each step on your calendar in pencil.

• Think about how long each step will likely take and make adjustments to the due dates as needed.

* If you have other tasks (including vacation, parties, etc.) scheduled that will take away from the time you have to complete this task/project, be sure and not count this toward your time to complete the task.

Make Time to Complete the TASKS and STEPS in the Project

On your calendar or “block schedule”, be sure to make regular time in your week to complete the steps in the project.

Based on when specific steps are due and how long specific tasks will take, figure out when you need to start those tasks, and use the following ideas for task initiation.

Need Help Applying These Concepts?

Contact us to make an appointment.

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(c) 2012-2019, Monte W. Davenport, Ph.D.