In this post, I’m going to talk about how to make a project plan. This is key if you intend to take action on your dreams!
Starting from scratch on a project plan can take some work, however, once you have a project plan in place, you can reuse it with some tweaking for each scenario. A project plan is a process to bring an idea from concept to life through planning and organization. As an example, when I first started thinking about writing my book, I wanted to create an online course along with it. So, I started researching the book process and assumed I would figure out the course process later, resulting in two separate projects.
1. When you’re clear on what you want or need, this is when you identify your project, which is the main focus of the plan.
2. Start with outlining the project – what are the steps? Are there different categories within the project? In my example, I wanted to write a book and create an online course based on the book. So, I started with the book, this was the first project. What tasks need to happen to complete each step? In my case, I chose to write the book draft first in order to use the content of the book to create the course.
3. If you can, set dates for the completion of the steps and add these into a calendar. Start with the most important dates in the plan and think about when you need these steps to be completed in order to start or complete the other steps. When I decided to write a book, I naively assumed that it would be finished quickly. Although the course I took did take me through the writing process quickly, over one weekend, the reality was that what I ended up with was a pre-rough, rough draft! It was going to need a lot of work and time to complete and many additional steps before being ready to publish.
4. Next, consider who is going to get each step done if it’s not you. Do you need others to assist you with some of the steps? Who are the key players? For example, I needed a website to host my blog, my online courses and provide a place for clients to find me and my book. I don’t know how to create websites and so I was actively thinking about how I was going to get this task completed when I listened to one of my favourite podcasts and the guest that day was someone who knew how to do websites, blogs and online courses! A coincidence? I think not! This was my intuition in action! Enter Dustin Reichmann at Simple Success Coaching who helped me get set up with everything I needed for my website, blog and courses.
5. Next, you want to finalize the outline, the steps, organize, coordinate and schedule who’s involved with which tasks and any other additional tasks, details or dates you need.
6. Review the plan now that you’ve laid out all the steps, does it flow? Are there any gaps in the process? Do you want to go over the plan with someone else who has done what you’re doing already? Is there anything that needs to be added to the plan?
7. Next, start the project! As you go through your plan, you may need to add steps, details or people and you might need to extend dates depending on how those steps change. If you have an outcome in mind, you know you are making progress as long as you are still working on the plan.
8. Review and repeat! How did the plan go? Were your dates realistic? Did it need to involve more people, tasks or details? Now that you’ve got the steps and structure of a project plan, you can reuse it. What a great time saver!
The great thing about a project plan is that you can use it for every goal or dream and each project that fulfils your dream. You can use it to create a project, an agenda or an itinerary. Although your big dream or goal may be really high level, taking small steps, broken into small projects will help you take inspired action and feel successful as you focus on the action you are taking. Take a look at my post about my dream to complete the Ironman World Championships triathlon in Kona, Hawaii. That was a high level project – get a spot – with a continuous series of steps with unknown timing. Nonetheless, I continued to take action as though I would succeed.
I’d love to hear if this project plan helps you! What are you working on currently that could use a project plan? If you’d like to learn more about how I could help you create the life of your dreams using your intuition, book a call with me today!