Throughout Season 6 we’ve covered a lot of material on project management.
Free and amazing trainings!
Free Podcast Course: Learn how to create and launch your podcast!
Your Big Idea: Discover Your Big Idea in less than an hour!
A finale on project management
What is project management, how to get started, top tools you can leverage, what to do when something goes wrong with your project, and some specific examples of how to manage things like mindset, your side hustle, growing a team and overwhelm.
I want to wrap up with giving you full permission to step into the project manager role in your business. You don’t always have to be the project manager, but in order to make progress and grow your business in an efficient way, you have to be willing to roll your sleeves up and get to work.
So as we close out Season 6, let’s package everything up so you know exactly what to do next.
You role as project manager
Before we get into the individual steps required to start your project, let’s recap what your role is as project manager.
As project manager you’re responsible for:
- Making sure the project has a clear vision / goal,
- Identifying the deliverables and steps required to accomplish that goal,
- Hiring help where necessary,
- Setting and managing deadlines with potential team members, and
- Overseeing all the moving pieces to ensure things are getting done on time.
Not a super easy role, right?
But it is a fun one once you realize that this responsibility equals progress and forward movement for you and for your business.
Starting your project
Now that we’re clear on your responsibilities, let’s start an actual project.
Evaluation Phase
You might remember this step from Season 6 Episode 3, where we talked about the importance of only taking on projects that are meaningful to you and your business.
Sometimes we jump into projects without really thinking about the time commitment or the outcome. So make sure before diving into a project that you know it fits in with:
- Your overall business goals,
- Your current available bandwidth, and
- The priority you’re willing to give your idea.
Brainstorming Phase
Now, it’s time to brainstorm your project.
Take out a piece of paper or open up Workflowy or a Google Doc – it’s time to let it all out!
During your project brainstorming session you want to get as much down on paper as possible. Ask yourself questions like:
- What is my desired outcome or goal?
- What are some of the major deliverables?
- What steps will I need help with?
- What timeline will I gives myself and my team for this project?
Planning Phase
Next comes your planning phase, and this is when it’s time to start organizing everything and diving into way more detail.
Take everything you wrote out during your brainstorming phase and start organizing it:
- What are each of the deliverables?
- What are the individual steps required to make those deliverables happen?
- Given my goal date, when will each of the deliverables have to be accomplished to stay on track?
- Given the help I need, where / when / how will I find that help?
During your planning phase it will be incredibly helpful to use a tool like Asana to document everything. When you start logging everything into Asana, you can assign due dates, reminders, and even assign specific tasks and deliverables to other team members.
Managing Phase
Now that you have your plan in place – meaning your deliverables and due dates are clearly defined, and you’ve hired the help you need to accomplish your goal – it’s time to manage it all.
Make sure you’re checking in on things like due dates and recognizing when a dependency might be holding things up.
And be resourceful. If something goes wrong – you miss a deadline or you’re having trouble finding the right help – don’t get discouraged. Keep your focus ahead and try to find other areas in the project where you can make up for lost time.
Completion Phase
If each of the phases above go well, you’ll make it to your completion phase: congratulations!
This phase feels AMAZING, and I can’t wait to hear that you’ve successfully managed your first project from idea to finish.
But before you go celebrating and sprinting off to the next project, make sure you take time to reflect.
- What are some lessons learned from this project?
- How can you use those lessons to avoid future setbacks?
- What are some things that worked really well you can duplicate in the future?
Hiring a project manager
You might be finished up this episode and all of Season 6 thinking, WOAH. I definitely need a project manager! I don’t blame you :)
If you do feel like hiring a project manager is the right move for you and your business, and you’re in a place where that’s actually doable, then go for it! Hiring a project manager will be what finally frees up the time you’re spending working IN your business instead of ON your business.
But make sure the project management position is right given the workload you’ll be delegating. You might find that a virtual assistant is better suited for the job.
I recently tuned in to one of Amy Porterfield’s episodes on this exact topic, and she explained it beautifully: typically, a virtual assistant follows direction and works on individual tasks in order to help with the day-to-day operations of your business, while a project manager executes all the planning and implementation in order to deliver an outcome.
She probably said it much better than me, but hopefully you get the point.
Before I officially say good-bye to Season 6, I want to share with you the #1 tool I use for managing my time most efficiently so that when I’m working on projects, I know I’m going to stay on schedule.
It’s The Mastery Journal, and I use The Mastery Journal every single day to help me stay focused and make real progress on the projects that matter most in my business.
If you feel like you could use a little help with mastering productivity, discipline and focus, then head over and check out The Mastery Journal today: it is definitely for you!
Until next season!
