This week for me has been all about preparing my path for the weeks ahead. With the seasons changing, work and personal demands have stacked up and now is the time to take a moment to set myself up for success. To me this means choosing a project management system where I can keep track of work to do and accomplish all my tasks. As someone who is juggling multiple priorities in life, staying organized means staying sensible when it feels overwhelming. With a project management system in place, I will feel stable when I could easily be stressed out. As a visual learner it is very helpful for me to see checklists and screenshots detailing what is on my to do list. For most working professional we know the benefits of project management and this week I choose to dive in to creating my personal project management system in Trello.

The Plan:

With any good project, it starts with a plan. This means that before we do any of the actual work, we must create a plan of how we will start, create deliverables and ultimately how the project will be completed. For me this meant looking at the next few weeks ahead to see what type of work I will be focusing on. This time most of my work will be research and writing based, so most of my checklists will consist of reading and then writing drafts. This also means that there is an order of how to accomplish this project, rather than just jumping from task to task.

Before I created my Trello board, I watched a YouTube video on project planning by ProjectManager. This video went over all the steps in detail about how to go from thinking about your project to executing. One of the steps Jennifer mentions in her project process is to create a timeline of how long each task should take. For me this has always been a challenge as I tend to underestimate time. But now I wanted to make sure I planned for that in my own project. I made sure that each week was broken up into tasks that were small and manageable rather than having a few long tasks. I think this will help me to meet the weekly deadline.

The Path:

 For my Trello board, I decided to break down my work into three lists: “To Do”, “Doing”, and “Done”. Within each list there are multiple cards of work, mostly broken down into weeks. For me this visually makes the most sense, so that I don’t get too overwhelmed or get ahead of myself. I like being able to see my work for the week as well as being able to see what lies ahead. One thing I also love about Trello is that I can see the work I have accomplished in my “Done” pile, which motivates me to keep going!

My Trello board, in all its glory!

For each module or week, I have attached an image that describes or reminds me of the work I have done. This way, if I need to go back and look at something, I have a hunch of which week it is in. Also, inside each module card I have a detailed checklist. In this checklist I have broken down all my work into simple tasks to help me create the bigger project. This makes it all feel more manageable and allows me to keep working while not getting burnt out. Some tasks may be as easy as reading an article or watching a video for research. But as I go through the checklist it leads me to the more important items like writing my first draft of my paper. Within this checklist I can see just how close I am to finishing this week by electronically checking items off. Of course, no list would be complete without due dates, so naturally each module has a due date to keep my project on schedule. Outside of these module cards, I also have individual cards for my online class which I must attend. I decided to keep my Zoom class meetings separate from the weekly work since class has set days & times, whereas the homework can be done at different times throughout each week.

My detailed, week 5 checklist.

My project management style could have gone in many different directions, but the kanban-style, works best for me structurally. I appreciate being able to see where I am in the project at all times. With my project management system now complete I feel ready to take on this new project, without the worry of how or when I will get it all done. This week has been a great reset for me and allowed me to break down some big tasks into something that feels much more manageable. Visually it not only helps me to see what work is due, it helps me to feel like no project is too big. With my path laid out before me, I feel more empowered to do my best work!