ePersonal Development

Congratulations! If you’ve made it this far then you’re probably more organized than you’ve been in a long time. All of those projects floating around in your head and on your desk have finally been roped in and tamed. You’re mind should feel a lot lighter and you should feel a lot more relaxed. Now it’s time to up the ante. You have two nebulous folders in front of you that say Defer and Delegate. We need to turn these folders into action plans to make sure the projects they contain get done. Let’s deal with the Delegate folder first.

Open up your Delegate folder and take a look at each project in it. Now think about who you’d delegate each one of those projects to. Start making separate stacks for each person you want to handle you projects. You should be looking at several stacks of paper and each stack should be labeled with the name of the person you’re going to trust with those projects. Take those stacks and place them each in their own folder labeled with the person’s name. On the outside of the folder, staple a list of the projects that the file contains so you can check them off as your project manager completes them. Now you have a way to track the progress of the people you’re trusting to complete these projects.

Next it’s time to tackle your Defer folder. The goal here is to give each project its own file so we can develop action plans. Let’s take “Build a Website” as an example. Your action plan may look something like this:

1. Decide on content and product
a. research feasibility and demand for product
b. research wholesalers/drop-shippers for product
c. decide whether to write my content or outsource it
i. research sites that offer article writing services
ii. write articles or post ad for a writer
2. Decide on a domain name
a. research domain name providers
b. reserve domain name
3. Research web store hosting sites
a. research credit card processing options
b. research web development software
c. purchase hosting and/or software
d. sign up with a credit card processor
4. Decide on site design
a. build site
5. Research other ways to monetize my site
a. adsense
b. affiliate programs
c. integrate into site
6. Find ways to advertise site
a. article marketing
b. adwords
c. banner ads
d. viral marketing
e. link trading
7. Implement, Review, and Refine

Once you have one of these outlines for each of your projects, take the first step from each project and put them all on their own list. Now you have a “Next Action” list for all of your projects. Every time you complete on of these tasks, go to the corresponding project folder and write down the next task. In this way you have a dynamic list that’s constantly moving you towards completing all the projects on your list and you always know exactly what the next step forward is!

Now all of your projects are happily on their way to completion. But what about the projects that keep coming back every week, month, or quarter such as inventory or washing your car? Read the next article on to The Perpetual Project War Board to find out how to deal with these persistent projects.