Your Personal Life Is a Project. Learn to Manage It like a PM Superstar!

Your Personal Life Is a Project. Learn to Manage It like a PM SuperstarYour Personal Life Is a Project. Learn to Manage It like a PM SuperstarYou need to get something done. You set a date. At some point you actually start working on it.The deadline flies by. Youre still at it.Why did I ever think that deadline welches reasonable?And how the hell did this get so expensiveEver heard of the planning fallacy?Its basically a catch-all term for every mistake possible underestimated costs and complexity, not accounting for unknowns, and being overly optimistic about external circumstances.Were all guilty.Get this in an experiment, Americans were asked to evaluate the expected cost of remodeling their kitchens.The average estimate? $18,500.The actual mean cost? Almost $39,000.Try explaining that to your bankAgain, were all guilty, but there are people who seem to always be on top of things. Theyre actually paid for doing just that.Project managers.Do they have superpowers? Are they lucky? N o, not at all. They just happen to know some things you dont.And theyre about to teach you those skills. (And, as a bonus, recommend some of the coolest, easy-to-use productivity apps to help you manage your personal life like a pro.)1Understand why we all suck at planningStep one realize whats been stopping you so far.In a word overconfidence.Its best explained by a concept of WYSIATI (What You See Is All There Is) coined by one of the most exceptional psychologists of all time, Nobel Prize winner, Daniel Kahneman (Every project manager I spoke with mentioned this theory).You see, when we make plans, we tend to focus only on the known knownsphenomena weve already seen and can anticipate.What we forget about, though, areKnown unknownsthings we know might happen, but we ignore them because we hope they wont happen (or well fix them later.).Unknown unknownsevents that we dont know about and cannot predict.If what you see is all there is, you better see it all.So2See the BoardEach thin g you do actually requires you to do a lot of smaller things. We dont think this way about walking the dog, making tea, or sending an email to accounting.But we dont think this way about mora complex projects either.In the search of a solution to that problem, I reached out to Shai Shandil, an Agile/Scrum management coach, and a founder of softsolutions.His answer? See the mainboard.No, this isnt a zen koan He means literally.The easiest way to combat a mounting pile of tasks is to have a physical board that holds all these tasks.Its called a kanban board and was first used by Taiichi Ohno at Toyota.Shai let us see his board he used for moving home(Hestotally un-high-tech about it)Notice two thingsFirst of all, the tasks on Shais list are very specific.For instance, its not clean the house. Instead, its divided into smaller, controllable tasksVacuum house, Clean between oven glass, Wipe down kitchen, (already done).Clean shower, Clean drains, Bleach kitchen blinds, Mop house, (to do .)Secondly, all stakeholders (be that your spouse, children, or flatmates) can immediately learn what the status is.Its a BRILLIANT way of stopping nagging because the answers to all How are you going with X? types of questions are so readily available, Shai says.I know what you might be wondering3How much should I break down my tasks?Thats a question many kanban users ask and, ironically, most kanban tutorials rarely answer.For good reason. Theres no one-size-fits-all answer. You need to be agile and learn what works for you.But there are two general guidelinesDependencyOne of the main reasons work gets delayed is the dependency on other people. When breaking up your work, make sure that its clear which item requires someone else to take action.At a given point, the number of external stakeholders your task is waiting for should not exceed two.What if it does?Thats a signal you should break down the task further, into lower-level items that dont rely on that many dependencies.TimeT his factor is much more speculative, but if you need a basic rule of thumb, here it isThe minimum task size is 30 minutes.Aim for a maximum of one workdayfor sanitys sake, you dont want work to spill over to the following day.It will take time and practice to determine what goes on the board. The good thing is, after a few iterations, youll notice things flow smoothly from left to right.Youll see what needs to get done first, do it, and move on to the next task.Plus, once you see movement on the board, youll learn to manage your time to keep things moving. Got a time slot for X? Do X. Not enough time before your date? Do Y.Shai gave another personal example to brilliantly illustrate thatI never iron more than three items at a time. Its less about how much it takes me to get it done. Its more about how much time it takes my wife to get date-ready. All of a sudden, I no longer have to set up an ironing task every week, a saving of an hour for my free time.4A continuous flow of tasksNo tice that, in Shais kanban board, theres no backlog column.Thats because kanban management doesnt concern itself with time boxes work comes in, gets worked on, and gets finished. Thats it.This approach seemed surprising coming from Shai who specializes in Scruma methodology focused on timeboxed iterations called sprints. But Shai suggested that the simplicity of kanban is usually way more fitting for personal or family needs.Another PM, Leigh Espy, Project Manager at FedEx and owner of ProjectBliss.net shares Shais approach.Three years ago, she encouraged her then 10-year old daughter to start using a simple kanban boardmade from just a whiteboard and Post-It-Notes, with three columns Not Started, Doing, and Done.The simplicity lets my daughter focus on getting the work done and moving the task through the stages of execution very quickly. Having a list of chores to pick from gives her a sense of control, Leigh says.She still has to do the work, but she can determine in what order. And shes formally taken ownership and committed to the task. Once shes finished the work, she moves the task to the Done column and picks the next item. This is also helpful for meit lets me know what shes actively working on, she explains.A child-friendly, glorified to-do list? No, its more than that.First of all, we rarely know when well have a bit of free time. The kanban board lets you queue tasks, prioritize them, and get them done when you have an opening.Secondly, committing to using a board will let you see patterns. Youll notice repetitive tasks, identify which ones take longer than expected, and soon youll streamline everyday processes (remember Shais ironing example?).But proper project management is not only about getting things done more efficiently. Its also about working towards an important objective5Whatever you plan, think about the big goalIn the end, we all do things for some grander reason.For someone, as someone.Every Sunday, Scott Perry (a PMP-certified Projec t Manager by day, and a baseball blogger at CatchersHome.com by night), together with his wife, holds the weekly marriage meeting.They open up their very analog Moleskine schedulers and go through their plans for the upcoming week.But thats not all.Another thing I do in my personal weekly planning is to integrate a Role Map into my plans. Its a structured blueprint of every role you have in your life (think Employee, Son, Husband, Father, Little League Coach, etc.) that connects you with your weekly plan so that your actions are intentional, not reactive, supporting further development of each role. This way, I can spend time on things that count and not on busy work that doesnt really matter.Ever found yourself elbows deep in something, only to realize youre not getting closer to what you actually want to achieve?Exactly.Busy is a drug. Makes you feel good. But being busy doesnt imply being productive.Always ask yourself whats the actual outcome of what Im doing? Is there any value in it? Are the steps Im taking bringing me closer to the end goal?Make reality checks a habit. Kanban or no kanban.At the end of the day, good project management is about making the right choices. You know, the ones that actually pull you closer to the desired outcome.And for the final word... Heres how to boost your efficiency with apps65 top apps recommended by PMs for increasing your productivity1. OmnifocusAn indispensable daily tool for organizing your home and professional tasks.It allows you to easily group your tasks by priority, complexity, and dependenciesthe time of day, your location, other people, etc.Available for iOS and MacOS users only.2. todoistA super easy way to seat daily and weekly goals and analyze your productivity. Beautiful visualizations will help you notice trends in your productivity. Not to mention Todoist karma points, streaks, and levels which will gamify your life and make you want to chase numbers(Its also very easy to integrate todoist with your G mail and Google Calendar.)3. PocketThe easiest way to save cool reads and other stuff you find online. Store them in your Pocket and revisit when you have some free timeon your computer or mobile.4. TrelloLove the idea of a kanban board but cant be bothered to set up a physical one?Enter Trello. A straightforward, easily accessible online kanban board you can use on your own or with your family.5. AudibleLast but not least.Reading is a joy, but sometimes you cant really sit down and stare at text. Get your daily dose of literature as you walk your dog or clean the tub.So, what do you think?