to make a project happen. We haven’t even included figuring out how long each one of those steps will take, or what materials, resources, or people we’ll need to be involved.
So, when you do think about everything that’s involved with your project and invest the time in planning, and assuming that you’ll have other tasks to work on or clients to meet with during the same time period, your task list for your project might look like this:
May 24: Confirm scheduled presentation, plan timeline, and inform parties involved what your timeline is, as well as due dates for which they have responsibilities — 30 minutes.
May 25–27: Discuss objectives with group, and finalize desired outcome — 3 hours.
May 28–June 3: Plan content for the slides — 1 hour per day.
June 4–11: Put together the slides — 1 hour per day.
June 12–14: Acquire and drop in graphics, finalize format — 1 hour per day.
June 14–15: Rehearse one-hour presentation, at least three times — 3 hours.
June 16: Make final changes on handouts and slides — 2 hours.
June 17: Finish handouts and slides — 1 hour.
June 18: Handouts and slides due; send electronically — 30 minutes (it should take only five minutes, but allow for technical glitches — file doesn’t load, server is down, internet is out, etc.).
June 18–24: Rehearse one-hour presentation, at least seven times — 7 hours.
June 24: Travel — 4 hours.
June 25: Presentation (network before and after) — all day.
June 25: Travel — arrive home late.
June 26: Debrief; any to-do’s from presentation? Plus catch up on phone calls, emails, mail — 3 hours.
W.O.W. That’s a full month of prep time, if you’re not working on it all at once. (FYI, you might now understand why consultants and speakers charge “so much” for “just” a one-hour presentation.) If you don’t want to work seven days per week, you’ll need to take that into account for your timeline.
This is why just putting “Work on XYZ project” on your calendar doesn’t cut it. That’s too broad. You look at it and think, “Yeah, I’ll do that later,” because your brain doesn’t know what part of that project it needs to work on. Suddenly, the day before it’s due, you think, “Oh, crud! I need to finish XYZ project!” Then you stress, drop everything else for this “emergency,” and probably end up burning the midnight oil and becoming sleep-deprived — and maybe gaining weight from stress eating or grabbing fast food because there’s no time to cook. And getting into a tiff with a loved one because you snap, since you’re in a foul mood. Mmmm. That’s not a joyful way to live.
If you don’t create presentations as a part of your work, no worries. You can apply this same thinking to developing the company budget, writing a book, rolling out your company’s marketing plan, gearing up for the holidays if you’re in retail…It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in; developing a timeline will save you. And if you have similar projects throughout the year, you can reuse your timeline template.
You’re reading this book because you’re tired of operating in hurry-up frenzied mode. So, if you want to lower your stress levels, you’ll need to change how you operate. This means investing time in your health and mental well-being by planning out your projects. Taking 15 to 30 minutes of your time to map out the steps for a project will save you hours of wheel-spinning and gosh-awful stress down the road.
It’s crucial for you to schedule time blocks for every step of a project into your calendar as soon as you know that this project has become yours to complete. By operating in time blocks, you’ll be able to shift work times around as necessary, but you’ll still allow yourself enough time to complete each stage of the project without working yourself into a frenzy.
NEXT STEPS
Susan implemented a great deal of change. It wasn’t all at once, but it was a concerted effort over a six-week period.
She applied the strategies and tactics from the C in CIA — Create Clarity.
Next, she worked on the I in CIA — Implement Structure and Flow.
In particular, she focused on the A and T in AGENT. She began to create timelines for what was being asked of her, so that she could either accept or decline offers. For the offers she did accept, she scheduled the steps from the timeline into her calendar. If other requests arrived or opportunities arose, she’d check her calendar before adding to it.
Generating revenue should not come at a cost to your well-being.
— Helene Segura
She realized that her fear of losing out on income was driving her to say yes to an unrealistic schedule and an impossible list of tasks. This crush of to-do’s was actually costing her income because of the physical, mental, and marriage side effects that forced her to seek — and pay for and lose time to — medical assistance.
It soon became clear that she could obtain the same or better profit level by slowing down.
You have to take your time to save time.
Implement Structure and Flow.
• How has not using a detailed timeline affected you?
• How will creating a timeline for your long-term projects help you?
• You probably already have deadlines set for various projects. Have you already completed task timelines for each one and scheduled time blocks into your calendar? If not, which project will you start with in creating a timeline?
9 Get It All Done in 24 Hours: Turn To-Do Lists into Done Lists
Tim is a financial planner who works for a large national firm. There are rules and regulations he must follow, and deadlines and quotas he must meet, but he has the freedom to decide his schedule each day.
He knows what he needs to do. He has to make cold calls to total strangers. He has to make warm calls to people he’s been referred to or folks he met at networking events. He needs to go to those networking events to meet contacts. He needs to prepare quotes and examples for those with whom he can schedule appointments. He has to follow up with his current clients to make sure that their needs are being met. He wants to do more than a yearly review with his clients; he wants to get to know them.
That’s a whole lot that he needs to do. His to-do list usually has 20-plus items.
Yet, on a morning when I spied on him, he spent a total of two hours answering fellow planners’ questions or just shooting the breeze with them while being sociable and playing pool in the employee break room, as well as piddling around in his email inbox while filling out various forms.
In the back of Tim’s mind, he knew exactly what he needed to get done. Yet he didn’t do it. He said he didn’t have enough time in the day.
GOAL
Accept the fact that as long as you have a full life and thriving career, at the end of the day, you will always have something still left to do.
Accept the fact that you can get done what you absolutely need to do because you are in total control of how you handle your day. Total.
TACTICS
At the end of each workday,