Life is busy…. it’s a circus. But there is one thing that can bring some clarity to your life, some grounding, some focus – and that’s the calendar.
In biblical times, back when people used paper to write things down, there existed a phenomenon called ‘diaries’ and people would map out their day’s appointments, meetings and tasks in this ‘diary’ to keep on top of everything. Today, we have similar technology, but it’s widely available online.
For those who don’t know, my career was in Events and Project Management before I took the dive to pursue my deep love for technology. I was 17 when I hosted my first event, which naturally was a total flop, but great lessons to be learned from that story, and I’ve had the fantastic experience of working on Trinidad’s biggest event for the year, Soca Monarch.
Recently, I had the pleasure of guest lecturing for the Creative Media Production final year class, and the topic was project management. And I was tasked with giving a brief overview since that particular unit was around project design, implementation and evaluation. So I’ve taken my notes from that class and adapted them for a great blog post.
It’s important to define exactly what can be considered a project, because you might have tasks which you’re thinking are projects:
“A project is an endeavour in which human, material and financial resources are organised in a novel way to deliver a unique scope of work of given specifications, within constraints of cost and time, so as to achieve a purpose defined by both quantitative and qualitative objectives.” – Rodney Turner
Basically, a way to GET THINGS DONE (GTD).
There are several benefits of project management, many of them are obvious, but I’ll just name a few:
How can you identify a project from a task?
Properly planned projects deliver within cost/budget, scope, time, and quality.
Here are some definitions of terms I will use in this article:
Like all things in life, project management is ruled by a few laws, but I’ll mention the most notable of them all:
(Source: Wikipedia)
There are three main phases to simple Project Management:
There are more in-detail phases, but I thought that I’d just mention the most important of them all, and they really sum up project management quite nicely too.
The planning phase is the most work. A well planned project will go more smoothly than one not properly planned, but such are all things in life. The key is to plan, plan again, and again until you have a plan A, B, and C. You have to remember that Murphy loves it when you have projects, because it means that he has something to do… But you have to be prepared for him.
The next phase is execution. If you have a properly planned project, execution should be smooth, with a few bumps in the road which you took into consideration with your plans B & C. This is where the extra planning comes in handy. What do you do when a deliverable is late, or has run over budget? What do you do when a venue you booked was double booked? How do you mitigate these potential project-ending disasters? You have two contingencies, within which you catered for these things to actually happen, so now, it’s just a matter of executing something in plan B or C.
Evaluation has to be one of the most important parts of project management in moving forward. You have to look at what went wrong, and how you could have handled something better, or even how you could have planned better.
I’ve outlined some steps to follow to make your project management processes a lot easier.
Step 1: Define the Project Objective – What is the project looking to achieve? Define your aims, goals, and objectives.
Step 2: Define the Deadline and Time Scope – When do you need to finish this project by? How long do you have or giving yourself to finish your project?
Step 3: Define the work involved (Scope of the Project) – What must be done to make this project successful?
Step 4: Can you make that deadline with this project of this quality and scope with your workload AND your lifestyle? (If yes, skip step five) – Be realistic. Don’t try to set a project timeline what you know from now you cannot achieve by any means, because you will end up either with a half-baked project, or an incomplete one.
Step 5: Re-Evaluate the project until step four can be met.
Step 6: SWOT Analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) on new project idea – make certain you know what your weaknesses and threats are. This will help you decide if you need to refine your objectives or your timeline.
Step 7: Define your priorities – What is critical to completion and what is not? Where are your trade-offs? What are you willing to “shed” off as “dead weight” when it comes to crunch time?
Step 8: Determine who is doing what, when, where, how and why (Human Resource Scope) As long as you have other people involved in your project, you need to clearly define this so everyone will be on the same page.
Step 9: Create the schedule A (Work Breakdown Schedule) – This is your “if all goes well” plan. Remember to be realistic.
Step 10: Plan for the worst (schedule B) (Risk Management – Contingency plan) – This is for when Murphy pays you a visit. Remember to take all possible worst-case scenarios into consideration.
Step 11: Plan for the Zombie Apocalypse – This is when Murphy brings a friend or few. Make certain that you have everything that can possibly go wrong in here. This is for when core elements in your project go haywire. So like when a venue for an event is double booked, or a caterer suddenly cancels on you.
Step 12: Determine your means of communication – choose your method and stick to it. Email is generally the best since it leaves a reliable paper trail but in this age of technology, WhatsApp groups seems to be gaining popularity. Just remember to keep a backup of your conversations.
Step 13: Create a project plan and all team members must sign it and have copies – once you sign something, you agree with it. Your signature is on that agreement, and you’re now responsible for getting that element of the project done.
Step 14: Get executing; you’ve wasted enough time!
Planning tips:
Step 1: STICK TO THE SCHEDULE
Step 2: Communicate every step of the way
Step 3: Communicate every step of the way
Step 4: Communicate every step of the way
Step 5: Ensure all project objectives are met
Tips for PM:
If you answer all these YES, then you’re flawless and should be the best project manager in the Universe.
So, something went wrong. Let’s figure that out.
There are thousands of templates online for project charters, project plans, WBS’, SWOT analysis, etc. All you need to know is the basics, and how to use Google and you’re pretty much on the right track, to getting the initial resources together. It doesn’t matter what system you use, as long as the project is done on time, within budget, scope, and quality.
Evernote, traditionally, is a note taking application, but it can be used for many other things if you’re creative. One such way is budgeting.
But how can one use a note taking app for budgeting?
I’m glad you asked. Because I do it. I dislike having to use too many applications to do stuff, simply because I forget to use them. And that’s much more normal than I’d like to believe. So to combat that, I simplified my life by simplifying my applications.
I’ve been a big Evernote fan since I discovered it about three years ago, but it’s only in the last year or so I’ve been really using it, and now, I’m a premium user, because I use it literally for everything now.
Please note that I’m using Evernote for Mac for this article.
Recently, I moved all my Amazon wishlist items to my Evernote, with some help of the Evernote Clipper for Safari. I was amazed by all the stuff I’d like to purchase, but completely forget to because I don’t really use my Amazon wishlist.
So now I have all these items in a notebook called ‘Wishlist’. I even have stuff that I find in local shops in there using Evernote’s quick shot and location services. If I wanted to get something at the end of the month I’d just add a reminder to it.
Which brings me to monthly budgeting…
So by now you’re probably wondering how this fits into budgeting. It’s really simple. Some like to plan months in advance, others (like me) prefer a month-to-month plan.
Create a notebook called budget (just so that it’s separate from everything else); this is where all your monthly budgets will live. Name them by the month they are for (January, February, etc. ). I just have one note which gets recycled every month, but everyone works differently.
Set a reminder to that budget’s note for the first of the month it’s for. This will ensure it’s always at the top of your Evernote when you’re viewing all notes (great for getting to it quickly) and if you’re using multiple budget notes then it will be in order of date. If you use Evernote for work and other things, it will be separated from everything else in Notebook view.
So, I have a checklist for all the monthly fixed expenses (rent/mortgage, utility bills, car loan, etc.). Make sure this is at the top of the list, because that is what you have to pay first. Then your second tier of priorities will come in.
Remember all those notes you saved in your wishlist? This is where they come into play. Go to your wishlist and select the notes containing the items you’d like to purchase for this budget. Click create table of contents note. Now go to that note, select all, and past it under your checklist in your budget note. Then highlight that second tier list and add checkboxes to it. You can even rearrange them into an order of priority, and add a numbered list (even with the checkboxes).
Now you have your monthly budget plan done. Complete with checkboxes (stick that to Excel spreadsheets!)
In terms of calculating figures, you’ll have to do that manually. Evernote does not have functions for its tables (yet!). I just have a cost next to the item on the note. If you want, at the top of the note you can put in your income figure, savings figures (because you need to save money for a rainy day), and expense total figures. This will give you a brief summary of what you have to spend that month.
When you’re using one note for budgeting, it’s important that you separate the second tier of priorities by month. Around the 20th of the month, I’d (try to) sit down and plan my second tier of expenses under my current month’s budget and put in a horizontal line so I won’t mix it up.
This is helpful because some months, I can afford to get something from the list I have for next month. Most months, I’m just bad with spending regardless of what budget tactics I use. This does help me, but only to a point; after that, it’s entirely up to controlling my impulsive shopping habits (I NEED that additional *insert random tech/gaming thing here* because it will *insert stupid excuse I will regret at the end of the month here*).
Note: when you get something from your wishlist, remember to delete it from your wishlist. By leaving it there, it will do is clutter your notebook which will then become less efficient to use, and you might just stop using it altogether.
Like Excel you can track your expenses in Evernote too. To do this you need to create a table.
I am not the best at math, not even with a calculator, so don’t sue me if the total figures are wrong.
This is helpful, especially if you like to see how much you really spent and how much you saved against your income. It’s an eyeopener for a lot of people.
Now the most important factor, with all tools, is remember to use it, and use it often. If you’re not an Evernote user, then this post would not make a difference to you. But you can apply the same concept to another application and get similar results. The point is, whatever you use, you have to use it efficiently for it to be effective.
If it wasn’t completely obvious, I use Evernote a lot. And with using Evernote a lot, you get to develop a lot of tricks to keeping yourself organised.
At the time of writing this, I have 1800 notes in my Evernote. It’s not a lot because I delete a lot of notes when I’m done with them (I’ve got over 1000 in the trash right now) and no longer need them (like published blog posts). I use Evernote to help me plan my days ahead, and projects. The native reminder system is very good for that.
While I’m writing or working, I remember little things that I have to do, or article ideas, or things I need to follow up on. Instead of stopping what I was doing, looking for a pen and notepad to write these things down (I’m usually on my laptop) I just use the Evernote Helper and it goes straight into my Evernote, without having to close any programs.
More so, I use the global keyboard shortcut for it to increase efficiency.
Also, while I’m reading on Feedly or the web, I clip/share things to Evernote all the time. From articles, to clippings of articles I want to blog-response about, to items I want to purchase, everything gets clipped and set to the green elephant for sorting.
You must think my Evernote is a mess! Actually it isn’t. I created a notebook called ‘@inbox’ as my default folder which I sort through every day. For each note, I make any further notes, add reminders if they need to be actioned, delete them if I already did them, and move them to the appropriate notebook.
I use Evernote for work, blogging, school, budgeting, personal planning, wardrobe ideas, et cetera. Each of these are actually a notebook stack, each comprising of various notebooks of subset topics. It’s like inception: a note in a notebook in a notebook stack. Once you start using Evernote more, you’ll see the benefit of this model, but that’s the catch 22: in order for it to be useful, you have to use it often.
Within each of these notebook stacks or aspects of my life, I have an ~Inbox: *insert stack name*. This contains the stuff which needs to be done; it’s high rotation, meaning, stuff in there usually gets deleted when the task is done. When I notice that I have a lot of tasks for one thing in particular (say, website maintenance) then I’ll create a notebook just for that, under the appropriate stack.
This should help you visualise my madness:
So, if the note in @inbox has a task which is personal, it will get put into my personal stack’s ~Inbox, and if it’s work related, the work stack’s ~Inbox.
The @inbox folder is not inside of a stack, it lives alone. The purpose of the ‘@‘ sign is to ensure it’s at the very top of the list at all times. Remember that Evernote sorts things alphanumerically, so special characters are up top, then numbers (0-infinite), then letters (a-z of course).
I’m Désiré, a professional writer and marketing expert. I run an creative agency called TILT Creative, specialising in content creation and managed solutions for social media, blogs and websites.
Here I publish blogs, articles and book snippets.
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From TILT Creative