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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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

​At this time of year, a lot of our focus shifts to year end planning, but what about planning for Q 1?
If you have taken time in the last few weeks or months to capture your annual plan, now is the time to pull it out again, and open it up. What had you highlighted for Q 1 – January, February or March?
What are the:

• Key projects and activities you have planned?
• What relationships are important to take note of?
• What opportunities exist?
• What is important for you to prioritize?

For those that have a copy of the PlanDoTrack Workbook, you’ll note that there are four sets of Quarterly Planning Tools. Each of the quarterly planning tool sections includes:

• Space for you to note key projects and activities.
• Space for you to reflect on past learning you want to carry forward, opportunities you want to focus on for the quarter, as well as space for you to note opportunities and key learning.

Another segment of the Quarterly Planner gets you to break down the key priorities for each week of the quarter (usually about 12 or 13 in total) so you can get a “big picture” view, and then flesh it out further in the monthly calendar sections.
With the launch of the Coaching Business Builder in Summer 2018, a sibling edition of PlanDoTrack (for professional coaches), I’ve been intrigued to see different people’s affinity to planning at different levels. Some professionals first turn to the quarterly view, and others to the monthly view. What do you prefer? What’s the window that helps you plan?
As you go about your planning for Q 1, be sure to reflect back on the last blog posts around Winter Planning Questions. 

Best,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Now Available – PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner – Pick up a copy today on Amazon
 
Is 2019 your year to move things forward through group learning and accountability? Join me for one of our annual groups -
The Teams365 Leadership Lab (focusing on team leadership, virtual teams)
The Learning Lab and Design Studio (focusing on program design)
or the Coaching Biz Growth Lab (focusing on  business development)

I'm very excited to announce the release of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner for Virtual and Remote Professionals. It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and will be released on December 14, 2018. Check it out and pick up your copy now!

Perhaps you are:
* a full time remote or virtual team member, connecting with team members across the country or the world
* a professional who works from home several times a week, connecting physically with the office 1-2 times a week or month
* the owner of a virtual business, enjoying the #laptoplifestyle OR
* in the process of creating a side-gig that embraces the freedom of a non-brick and mortar environment

Part workbook, part planner, it’s geared for virtual and remote team members, leaders and virtual businesses. Based on the success of the release of the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner I launched in July, I’ve customized the workbook for the virtual and remote team space.  As many of you may know, I'm a former virtual team leader and program manager myself, operating and leading teams remotely since the 1990s (pre-internet days!). Direct and indirect support through coaching, training and consulting to virtual and global teams and organizations has been a mainstay of my company, Potentials Realized, since I opened the doors in April 2004. I'm so excited to finally have a resource I can offer for those working remote and virtual!
It’s an analog, desk sized calendar, 288 pages in length, to reflect the importance of having one “Go to” resource to place your “To Dos”, project ideas, content plans and monthly reflections.
Divided into four sections, the workbook  (100 pages) covers:
Virtual and Remote Business Foundations – for teams and also businesses. This includes a series of skill checks and some of the latest stats on virtual and remote work.
The Primer – A dozen practical and tactical tips and focus areas which you can integrate into your work,  business and/or share with  your team.
Marketing Essentials – Whether we are sharing what our virtual team is doing, positioning our services, or going out to promote on social media, the marketing essentials section covers the foundations of business planning, and covers 9 promotional vehicles virtual providers may use to get the word out about what they do. Given the virtual space, it's likely that leaders and team members may also be the "Face" of their organization, locally. While it's termed "marketing", advocacy is a large part of what we do in representing the brands we work for.

The Ecosystem – At the heart of a successful virtual team, business or leader is ourselves. The Ecosystem section focuses on who YOU are as a leader – your strengths, values and opportunities. This section has evolved out of the Inner Business leader Virtual Retreats I have hosted for years.
 
The planner section covers Annual, Quarterly and Monthly planning resources, along with a robust content planning section. Including more than 28 resources you’ll find:
·         Monthly Trackers – to track different elements for your business
·         Annual project planners
·         Quarterly Reviews
·         Monthly In Focus
·        Content Creation Resources

I look forward to hearing how you, and others you work with, enjoy the planner. Do share your comments and reviews, please!

For more support in these areas, do check out the PlanDoTrack Virtual Retreats I run on a regular basis. These 4 hour hands-on productivity virtual sessions are geared to get you planning, doing and tracking your most important business projects. Click here to learn more and join us. Upcoming dates include December 20, 2018 and January 8, 2019. Click here to learn more and register.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton – Potentials Realized 
Author of multiple books including Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
Join us for a year-end virtual planning retreat!
Pre-order a copy of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner for Virtual and Remote Professionals on Amazon (Available December 14). Check it out here.​