Project management is an approach to life
I think project management should be taught at elementary school levels as a subject. Not as a tool or individual management models, rather teaching the style of thinking that project management provides.
One of my biggest benefits in life has been that I’m fond of project management as a philosophy. I encountered it early on as a philosophy, and have adapted it into my life on many levels.
It’s given me unfair advantage in school as well as outside of it. From small things like breaking things down to components or tasks to seeing time flows.
I think of most things as projects. Meeting with friends, going for a run, posting things on social media and cleaning the apartment are all projects to me. That is, they consist of multiple tasks that need to be completed. Sometimes in a specific order, sometimes not.
My preferred mode in managing projects is to go by things step by step, not trying to figure too many steps out on beforehand, rather stopping at each stop saying ‘what would be the most logical thing to do next?’.
Most of the time that works fine. Sometimes it works a little less fine. Either way, I make sure to define steps along the way.
If I’m going out for a run, I figure I need to get dressed, go to the bathroom and hype myself up before (yep, every time). I also know that these tasks take at least 20 minutes if I have the time.
The importance of knowing that there are multiple steps is huge, because even tho going for a run might seem like one thing, it’s really a bunch of activities all baked in to one. And I know that, because I’ve identified projects before.
Giving everything I do that kind of system sets me up because I can choose to do things in a systematic way, a choice not everyone has.
I’m working with a kid who has psychosocial difficulties. The context he’s in has been difficult for him and our work has been tough at times.
To me, each of our meetings is a project. We meet 2–3 times per week, and I plan activities for most of them. When doing that, I have to take in to consideration his mood for the day three-seven days from now, the weather, my own schedule for work and so on.
He doesn’t see all of that, or any of it. In his mind, it’s just a meeting. Sometimes he doesn’t show up because he’s been in the bathroom for an hour. Sometimes he shows up not having the necessary stuff with him to do what I’ve texted him we’re going to do 20 minutes before he leaves home.
To me, it’s quite obvious that learning to manage projects in a broad sense would be incredibly beneficial to him, as I think it would be for most kids.
What I mean when I say that everything’s a project is that almost all of the activities you partake in during a day can be broken down in to smaller tasks as shown with the examples above.
That breakdown isn’t always needed. I’ve gone through faces where I’ve had ‘mornings’ as a general project, recurring every single day. On the to-do app I’ve used, I had a checklist that I went through every single morning.
On that list, I had both vital reminders like ‘pack computer charger’ since I had a habit of forgetting it. But I also had tasks like ‘take on pants’, which I didn’t ever forget to do.
Still, having the choice to see activities as projects has given me more than it’s bothered me. I rarely forgot to bring my laptop charger to school, and having the to-do to put my pants on wasn’t really disturbing my flow.
What I’m trying to say here is that it’s always a choice to me. It can be extremely annoying to have me on the team if we’re planning a party amongst friends, but I also know that more things would be forgotten and missed if I didn’t apply the principles of project management to it.
More specifically, those principles are in short:
- Everything that can be broken down in to tasks is a project or activity.
- Every activity or project can be broken down in to tasks.
- Always take time in to consideration.
- Planning too far ahead will most often come around and bite you. because
- change is the only constant.
All of these are derived from experience and the methods that I’ve used. There are a lot more to take in to consideration, especially if you’re working with professional projects. These principles are the ones that I usually start out with, regardless of what the project is.
