Category: intention

Successful Projects and The Project Management Triangle

by EvieBurke, posted in Goals, intention, planning, Time

Project Management Triangle1Have you ever heard of the Project Management Triangle?

You can see it in the image on the right.

But what does it mean?

It means that every project (or goal) is a combination of time, cost and scope.

Broken down further:

  • Time – How long will this project take and when do you expect to complete it?
  • Cost – How much money do you have to complete the project? Or to invest in it?
  • Scope – What is everything that needs to be completed to mark this as a successful project?

For a successful project, you need to have each side of the triangle well defined. And if one edge of the triangle needs to be lengthened or shortened, at least one other side will be affected.

For example, if you need something competed faster you’ll need to decrease the scope or increase the cost. And if you need something done with less cost you’ll need to decrease the scope or increase the time. And if you want more done (increase the scope) you need to increase the time or the cost.

You might be wondering what the heck this has to do with you! You’re a business owner and entrepreneur, not a project manager!

Well, I’d argue you are a project manager. Every goal you have, every strategy you’re using to reach that goal and every to-do list you have is a project or part of a project that you’re managing.

While you don’t need to think about everything in terms of the triangle above, it does help to consider it.

Why? Because it gives your projects (goals, strategies and to-do list) a grounded frame of reference. And generally, one side of the triangle is fixed.

For example, let’s say you want to update your website. You need to start with the fixed side of the triangle. What do you already know about the project? The finish date? The amount you have to invest? The work you want done?

If you know that you want your website completely redone (the “fixed” side is scope), that’s going to be a larger investment in time and money. However, if you have a specific budget to work with (the “fixed” side is cost), that will help determine what will get done now (scope) and the amount of time it will take.

The other great thing about this is the triangle will point out when you don’t have a well-defined project.

Let’s pick a New Year’s favorite of eating healthy. For many people, that’s all there is to their goal (and we know how successful most of them are). If they went through and asked themselves about the cost, time and scope, then they’d have a defined plan.

This is also a good example of how the edges of the triangle move.

Let’s say you want to quickly learn how to eat healthy. Maybe you’re not even sure what the scope of that is, but you know someone who’s a health coach and specializes in this. If you invest your money and a little time in working with her you’ll know exactly what the scope is and have help creating a solid plan.

However, if you don’t have money to invest, you will invest a lot more of your time in determining the scope of the project and create a plan for yourself with more trial and error.

Have you used the Project Management Triangle before, maybe without realizing it? How might you use it in the future? Share in the comments below!

Year-End Review of “Engage”

by EvieBurke, posted in Goals, intention, Word of the Year

My 2011 word of the year was “engage.” You can see the other posts about it here and here. Today is a year-end review of “engage.”

Looking back, the funny thing about my 2011 word of the year being “engage” is that I learned the most from where I wasn’t engaged or when I stopped being engaged. My coach says “who you’re being anywhere is who you’re being everywhere.” And it’s certainly true.

Many of my strategies for being engaged revolved around setting intentions and goals. And that’s a great way to tackle being engaged (or any goal). I apparently am very tied to how I see things going. Meaning – when I set intentions or goals I have a very clear idea how I see them working out. Which is ok and probably to be expected. However, when things don’t work out quite the way I thought they would I’d disengage.

Yep, instead of re-evaluating the situation I’d throw my hands up and say “well that didn’t work. I guess I should try something entirely different.” And set a new intention or goal without really reviewing why things didn’t go the way I expected or thinking about what could be slightly tweaked or changed to allow it to still work – or work next time. Apparently I was an all or nothing type girl this year.

I’ve struggled this year with things not going the way I expected and beat myself up over it quite thoroughly. Negative self-talk – ohh, I had a lot of that this year. High expectations with little wiggle room with how to reach those goals, yep, got that too! Do you see the problem? I didn’t for quite a while and when you add high expectations with no flexibility and negative self-talk you end up with a lot of beating yourself up!

The past month has been the best and worst month this year – and I type that with a smile on my face. I looked back at the year and saw the patterns – beat myself up about it and then forgave myself. That last part can be the hardest part to do – forgiving yourself – and it’s the most important. It lead to me to letting go of a seemly small and insignificant obligation that I’d been thinking about letting go of for months. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it because of what I perceived as other people’s expectations of me. Letting go of that one obligation seems small, but was huge. I was actually putting myself first and letting go of expectations (mine and others).

That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned this year is that I don’t know what the future will hold and despite my best efforts, I can’t plan it into exactly what I want it to be. So, maybe I can enjoy the ride a bit more. And enjoying the ride means letting go of how I think things should go and enjoying them as they are.

This doesn’t mean I’m not going to set goals, intentions or make changes. It does mean that if those goals, intentions or changes don’t have the exact end result I anticipate then I’ll spend less time being disappointed and upset about it and more time enjoying the unanticipated outcome.

Part of the process this month was done with my coach (the friendly different perspective and prompting was invaluable) and resulted in me writing about what happens now after all the self evaluation, disappointment, anger and (of course) forgiveness. I’ll end today with the last line of the page I wrote:

I don’t know exactly what the future will hold or exactly the path I will take to reach my goals – and that’s ok – the path will unfold as I go and I can stop and look around and enjoy it a bit more.

How Often Do You Recharge Your Battery?

by EvieBurke, posted in intention

What are the things you intentionally do? Some that come to mind are getting cash from an ATM, putting gas in a car or getting to an appointment on time. Those are just a few of the many things we intentionally do over the course of a week. And we do them because we know the consequences when we don’t. For example, if you ignore putting gas into your car (or if you forget) your car will stop running.

So tell me, do you recharge yourself as intentionally as you put gas in your car? I’m guessing you make sure that there is always enough gas in your car to get places, but are you getting enough sleep? Are you spending enough time doing things that recharge your system?

If you’re anything like me, some days are better than others. Sure, I try to get enough sleep each night, but it doesn’t always happen. I try to have some quality personal time each day, but more often than not I’ll settle for some less than quality YouTube or TV time.

What are the consequences of not recharging our batteries? We have less energy throughout the day. Think of it this way: every interaction we have uses or gives us energy, both physically and mentally. And that energy affects our mood. The more energy we have the better our mood. (Interestingly, our mood also affects our energy, but that’s a topic for another time)

How would your day be different if you made time to recharge your personal battery the same way you make time for other things (like putting gas in your car)? What is one thing you can do this week to do that?

Multitasking: What To Do About It

by EvieBurke, posted in intention

In the past week or so I’ve heard the following two sentiments from different places:

  1. My son asked me the other day when do we get to spend time doing things that he wants to do and I realized that I’m not spending enough time with him where I’m not multi-tasking.  – Paraphrasing Katilette on YouTube – you can see the video here
  2. I’ve gotten a lot done working from home this week. Projects that have been on the back burner for months are done or almost done! – Paraphrasing my husband, last week he was home recuperating after an outpatient surgery. He didn’t put in his normal hours, but got a lot done in the time he was working.

Undivided attention, that’s what they’re both talking about. With people, whether adults or children, undivided attention tells them that they’re important and creates a closer bond. With projects and tasks, undivided attention means things get done faster.

“Multitasking has been criticized as a hindrance to completing tasks or feeling happiness.” – Wikipedia article on multitasking

For a long time multitasking was a required skill in the workplace. However that’s been changing over the last couple of years. Multiple studies show that multitasking isn’t productive (here, here and here). Tasks completed when multitasking took longer, more mistakes were made and information wasn’t retained in good detail.

So, why do we still insist on multitasking?

  • Just one more thing. You want to get one more thing done while working on something else.

    I’d bet this is what Katilette was doing. I know my husband and I do this quite often and I have to remind myself sometimes to put the computer away. For us, it usually goes like this: my husband gets home from work, we have dinner and then watch a TV show we’ve saved or rewatch a favorite. However, at dinner my husband might be checking various funny websites and while we watch TV I can be found cleaning out my email.

    If the multitasking in this situation isn’t bothering anyone and you’re spending other quality time together with your loved ones – then this might not be a problem. In the case of my husband and I – when there are things we want to talk about or stories about our day we want to share, the distractions are automatically put way – it’s our (generally) unspoken agreement.

    However, review this regularly, you don’t want to look up from the computer screen one day and realize you haven’t had a decent conversation with your family for a week or two. Set aside some time each week, or day, to have uninterrupted quality time with your family.

  • Interruptions. Sometimes multitasking is the result of the people around us. Someone wants a quick answer to something or to share a quick story and our focus is changed, even if only for a couple minutes.

    I’d bet this was why my husband was happy to get those projects done when he was at home last week. There’s not a lot of people in his office, but it’s a fairly open setup that makes it easy to share whatever is on your mind without getting up (that’s probably one of the reason’s he likes working there – his co-workers are easy to access and chat with). So, when he was at home he knew he could have uninterrupted time to complete those projects.

    If interruptions are a problem ask the person if the question can wait 15 minutes, or whatever gives you time to finish your thought or complete the project. Don’t forget to follow up with them if they don’t come by again or go and see them when you have a natural breaking point.

  • Avoiding an unwanted or stressful task. You sit down to work on something that you don’t really want to do, for whatever reason, and then decide to check your email or do this other quick task that popped into your head.

    I occasionally find myself doing this. When I notice it, I set a timer and work until it goes off, then I can do something else if I want or take a break, even if the task isn’t done.

    Another thing you can do is decide another way you want to feel about the task. Then focus on that new feeling instead of the stress (or maybe annoyance) you were feeling. I did this the other day. There was a task I was dreading to do because it was hard (translation: outside my comfort zone). Instead I told myself that the task was simple and focused on how it feels to do simple tasks. A half hour later the task was done and in the past this same task has taken me over an hour.

  • Boredom. You’re simply bored with what you’re doing and want a distraction.

    When I was a programmer I’d multitask when waiting for a process to finish. So, while I was waiting I’d check email or work on something else. The problem I generally had was the process had been finished for at least five minutes (if not more) by the time I got around to checking it. In some cases, not a big deal, but generally someone was waiting for the results.

    The best way I found to deal with this one was either sit there and wait or take the opportunity to do something that I could really quickly do and not get sidetracked. The problem with checking email in this situation is I would come across something that needed a thoughtful or researched response. Sometimes I’d take the opportunity to walk away from my desk for a moment for whatever quick excuse I could think of (but not to chat with someone – I would easily be away from my desk a bit too long).

One last point, according to this article all the media multitasking we do (doing any combination of texting, instant messaging, checking email, browsing the internet, chatting, watching TV and trying to get something else done) causes us to be easily distracted. We’ve essentially trained our minds to check our email or phone every 10 minutes (or less!) – we’ve trained ourselves to look for or create interruptions!

So, while I don’t think all forms of multitasking are bad, you want to consciously choose to multitask and not make it what you do everywhere.

Why do you multitask? What are you multitasking?

Are You Fully Present?

by EvieBurke, posted in intention, show up

What are the things that make you feel really alive? When are you fully present in the moment? Find those things and do more of them!

This week notice the activities or people that make you feel truly alive and fully present or engaged in the moment. Put a piece of paper into your wallet or purse (along with a pen!) and write them down as you notice them. Review the list at the end of your day and add anything else (or person) that comes to mind. At the end of the week review the list and note any common themes or trends. How can you incorporate those activities or people into your life more? What other things can you do that are along the same theme?

Participating in the activities that make you feel alive and fully present in the moment give you an uplifting energy that is powerful and is a great gift to give yourself.