Week 16 Focus – Project Management 101
Focus Question: What are the projects you are involved in with your business and work right now?
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Description
As small business owners we will often be managing a series of projects. Not all of us are trained in the areas of project management. Quality of a project is determined by a balance of Time, Cost and Scope. If one of these qualities change, there will be an impact on the other two elements.

Projects may be as big as a book creation which is scaled over several months or years, or as discrete as writing a newsletter.

• Certain elements are key in managing projects
• What are the main tasks?
• What do you need to ensure you get done?
• Who is responsible for what?
• What are the tasks which are required?
• What will success look like?

Story - Project Management 101
As a former project manager my world was always framed in program starts, mid-points and end of project reviews. Spending time on end-of-project review helps us reduce learning and mistakes in a second iteration.
Regardless of how big or small the project is it can be useful to talk stop and pause and see how things are going.
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Some of the questions at the midpoint could include:

• What's working well?
• What changes are needed?
• What resourcing needs to change?  (Think: human resource is, IT, other resources…)?
• Who else can we learn from?
• Are there other projects with have experienced a similar status?

In the world of project management, we want to make sure that projects are on time, on scope, and on budget. This is often known as the triple constraint and in any given project these three elements are interdependent. Think about a triangle.
If time changes, the budget or scope needs to change. For example, if you had originally ear-marked 6 months to have a book published, and all of a sudden it needs to be ready in the next 3 months, you will need to explore:
Adding more resources – paying for rush service, or bringing other people on board to help
OR perhaps you need to make the book shorter, so instead of having it be 20 chapters, publishing it as a 10 chapter book this year, and aiming to publish Part 2 of the book as a follow-up next year. 

There is a whole slew of project management tools available. Tools to explore include Asana, Trello, or other apps. 

Activity
Consider a project you are working on. What is the time, scope and budget?
Break things down into project tasks and activities.
What are the major milestones?
What needs to be done by when?
What do you want to do each month or week of the project?  Map it out/create a timeline.
Who are the key stakeholders you need to engage with and keep updated?

​Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Every month use Monthly Daily Tracker to capture key learning from projects. Noting data (milestones, completions, meetings) may help with things like Time Estimation, Process mapping or other learning for this project or others.
As you complete your Monthly To-Dos each month note any projects, tasks and activities you are working on.

There is space in each of the Monthly One-Page Planners to note projects you are starting, continuing and ending.

You can also adapt the Content Trackers or monthly trackers to track the different stages of the projects you are engaging with.
 
Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track
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For many years in my global career I faced multiple complexities which would get in the way of a regular work day. From regular periods of no electricity, to political and natural disasters which pulled work off course. I learned early in my career the value of two things which continue to help me flourish today –

#1 – Focus – Focus when you can, even if it is for a short while. Productivity is not always about the long haul, it can also be about the short burst of focused effort. This is especially true in my world where I am regularly juggling roles, hats, responsibilities and clients. As much as I would love to have huge swaths of time to undertake my work, it’s unlikely. Therefore, focused burst of work, coupled with #2, help me (and the business) keep moving!

#2 – Be clear on the top 3 – 5 goals for the day, week and month. My world was the world of contingency planning on steroids, so being clear on what top 3 or 4 to-dos were for the day, or the week, or the month, created a powerful anchor to planning, and also feeling satisfied when EVERYTHING on the list did not get done (which was almost every day).
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What are your top 3-5 goals TODAY? This week? This quarter? Do you review these regularly throughout the week/month/quarter and adjust accordingly?

Best,
​Jennifer

One of the favorite things I enjoy about the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planners are the Trackers. I’ve included 12 sets of Monthly Daily Trackers in each publication, so that you can track the most important elements in your work (and life) over the course of a year.
Making things visible, and intentionally tracking items, can provide valuable information and data. This can help us with our decision making, and prioritizing.

Remote Workers might be tracking:

• Time spent on projects or tasks
• Meeting time
• Feedback provided
• Hours of work
  

Virtual Businesses might track:

• Revenue
• Sales
• Expenses
• Presentations or Pitches Given
• Client Meetings
• Services Delivered
  

What are the elements you are tracking?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

Leveraging our time is as much about getting organized, as it is getting clear on what’s important. Against the backdrop of complexity, ongoing change and disruption, getting ruthless with our time management can be so important to many.
As a business owner, or remote worker, this is especially true. We can’t get our time back. So, when we go down a rabbit hole (whether it’s doing too much research online, following a shiny red object or thinking we just need to learn “one more thing”), the costs can be tremendous. Not just in NOT getting things done, but in terms of our focus, our motivation and also our profit line!

Discernment is about getting clear on what’s important and what’s not. It is about being clear of what’s going to provide impact now, later or never.

As a remote worker or virtual business owner, we are do often have greater control over our time. Our colleagues and/or superiors may be hundreds of miles away, or several time zones ahead. As remote workers, it’s not always about how we manage our time, but how we get our results. Those who feel the crunch in getting something over the finish line is usually only us (and those loved ones around us!).

With this in mind, what is the cost of not being discerning around where your time goes, or how clear your projects are, or what is a more important priority than another?

As we embark on new projects, or start a new week, it can be useful to ask ourselves, and our stakeholders:

• What’s most important today?
• What are the top 3-5 things I want to get completed?
• What are the MUST Dos?
• What will success look like with this project/task?
• As it relates to this project/task, what’s important?
• Have I considered the short-term, medium-term and long-term in making decisions?
• What would my colleague/boss/peer/customer say is most important to focus on today?
• What impact will this activity have? And that one?

 
What questions do you want to ask as you decide one priority to another?

Let us know using the comments below!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

Week 4 Focus – VALUES – What’s important to you?
Focus Question: What are the values that anchor your business?

Description
Like a compass, values provide an important anchor for us. They influence our decisions, ways we work, and how we connect with others. What are the values which influence your work?

Research/Story
Working with Values as a Coach is a foundational part of what we do.There are many different ways to work with values as a coach including:

• Values Checklist (see below)
• Getting people to speak to a peak experience they have had
• Creating a Word String, adjectives which further define who we are.

This week you have the opportunity to revisit your values. Your values as a coach, as an individual and as a business owner. Note when these are similar, and how they are different.
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​Activity
Values Checklist
Use the downloadable values checklist (found below) ​to highlight different values you hold. Once you have identified your top 5, give them a tagline or 3-4 adjectives each.
For example: If one of my values is high touch, that also means – small group size, integrating 1-1 calls with group calls, and taking time to really connect. 
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Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Given that values are such a core part of our work, you are invited to review these several times throughout the workbook.
As part of the Iceberg you are invited to identify your top 10 values for you and your business. Write these out on page 24 (CBB) or page 25 (PDT). You may want to read through this entire section from pages 23 – 29.
There is also space on page 38 under “Be True to Who you Are” - The Micro-Vision on page 38 (CBB) or page 42 (PDT).
You are invited to return to this in the Ecosystem in Section 4, noting your top 5 values as part of your anchoring system, grounding you (page 104 – CBB; page 108 – PDT). Note your top 5 values there as well.
 
Download a one-pager to create you own annual analog resource. 

Enjoy!
Jennifer

PS - Share your vision and how you engage with these activities on social media. Use the hashtag #dscam2019 (It stands for Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum)

​This week, many of us are getting back to the office in earnest. Before we get too far into the year, and the routine of things, I thought it would be useful to get you thinking about certain areas we often overlook, and therefore start focusing on "by default". 

Consider this a quick start of the year checklist to make sure you have addressed these, or scheduled these in:

1. What are your top 3 priorities for 2019? Where are these visible? Does everyone you interface with know about these?
2. When are your 1-1s scheduled with your boss? Your team?
3. Peer time - when have you scheduled meetings and outreach with your peers?
4. Deep work time - What are the times you have earmarked for the heavier thinking tasks and activities?
5. Organizing- What are the things that need to be streamlined? Have you set up your files, logs and items for the new  year?
6. Tolerations - What is the one thing that bothered you during 2018 that you want to fix? Maybe it was something in your office that didn't work, or something on your computer that wasn't' configured?
7. Learning  - What do you have earmarked this year for learning? What formats will it take? Is it important to spread your learning across the year?
8. Habits - What are the habits that are doing to keep you at the top of your game?
9. Boundaries -What are the boundaries around work which will help support you? As a virtual and remote team member it's easy to have the lines blur. What's important to carve out as "your time" or "Family time". When are you available for others? When are you not? Have you communicated this?
10. Renewal and Peak Performance - The working life of a virtual and remote professional can be sedentary at times. What are you doing to renew, and keep yourself at peak performance?
​11. Other - Each one of us has very different work. What are the other items which need to be added to the checklist.

Enjoy the exploration!
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Coaching, Training and Consulting Services
Author of the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planners
Join us at the 2019 Teams365 Leadership Lab (meets 2nd and 4th Fridays of every month from 7 -8am Eastern)