Today we are talking all things how to project plan and set up your project timeline. So we’re going to cover six steps to nailing the project timeline with ease.
And how we get from that piece to mapping all of our activities out in a timeline and a time frame. We can face the same issues we previously faced, which is when we’re looking at it and go, Oh, I’m staring at a blank screen.
Can be difficult to know where to start and in what order there are too many pieces.
“We can get overwhelmed and then our brains don’t work properly.”
I’m going to give you a really simple way to navigate through that.
This episode shares:
- Chunk it out: Identify what the main components to execute your project.
- Task it up: Brainstorm and list out all the tasks that will be involved inside each chunk.
- Map the dependencies: After we find our main tasks, we start to mark dependencies between the tasks and link them.
- Prioritise: Help you stay true to that goal and achieve that outcome.
- Timeline: Take the priorities and put them on your timeline
- Review and repeat: Consider the horizontal view, but also the vertical view.
1. Chunk it out
Once you’ve had your project goal established and you’ve identified what the main components are to be able to execute this project, they become your chunks.
For each of those chunks, we need to make sure that we have what’s included within them, and we know that there’s nothing missing.
Looking at your project goal, we wanna check it across. Have I got everything? Have I got the main components here? So if you’ve split your project goal out by, let’s say the roles, and the different people involved, have you got all the people? Are they all there? If you’ve split it by, the business departments involved. Have you got all of the departments? Have you missed marketing? Have you missed customer service? Have you missed finance? However you’ve mapped it out, take a step back and just make sure, okay, I’ve covered my bases. So that’s step one.
Make sure you’ve got all your chunks right.
Tip💡: Split your project goal out with all the business departments involved to cover the bases.
2. Task it up
For each chunk, you need to spend some time brainstorming and listing out all the tasks that will be involved inside that chunk to get this project completed. Can be big or little and in the first instance, you just want to brainstorm.
You just want to put everything out and get it on the page. It doesn’t have to be orderly. You do not have to worry about if you have doubled up on something. It is more about getting the ideas out of your brain and onto that paper because then you have tangible things you can work with, which removes the overwhelm.
Once you’ve done that brain dump of all those tasks, then you’re going to tidy those tasks. This is where we start looking for things that are duplication. This is where we start going, Oh, but do we really need to do that thing in this instance? So we start to think about the situation we’re in right now, and see if things are still relevant because in many projects, you’ll have lots of things that are consistent across them.
These are the things we always do. But! When you’re working on a specific project, not everything is going to be the same. And so we need to do the sense check. So when we’re mapping out all the tasks, that’s when we do the sense check and if we’ve removed something, why have we removed it? Is there something that needs to be put in place instead?
Just because we don’t need to do this bit in this scenario, is that because we need to do something else for a different reason. So we want to go through, remove all our duplications, we want to sense check what’s left, we want to put our tasks under our chunks so that then we can go, okay, this is chunk A, here are the tasks for chunk A, are they all there? Have I missed any? And then we do that for all of our chunks.
Now you’ve got all your tasks, which is exactly what you want. Now we get to do the fun bit. At this point, it’s where I tend to do things a little bit differently to other people. A lot of project managers will tell you go take that task, that list of tasks, and go put a time frame on them so that you can get them done. I am going to tell you not to do that yet.
Tip💡: Getting the ideas out of your brain and onto that paper, because then you have tangible things you can work with.
3. Map the dependencies
Before starting with the timeline, I want you to look at the dependencies. I will always focus on the dependencies first before the time dependencies frame because I think that there is nothing worse than working through a project and then having to stop at a certain point because you realise you can’t keep progressing because something else hasn’t been done and you hadn’t thought about that yet.
Then you have to change your project plan, you have to change your project timeline, and things aren’t running as smoothly anymore.
Now we’re flustered, we’re a little bit stressed, we’re frustrated, and our progress has paused, which is not what we want. If we consider dependencies before we plot things on a timeline, we’re going to eliminate the majority of the times that happens.
How do we do this? We go back to our task list, we find our main tasks and we start to mark dependencies. We find tasks where it’s okay, I know I need to do this task. Is there anything that has to happen before that for me to actually be able to do that? If I am building out team roles and responsibilities, let’s say.
Before I do the report for that, do I have to go and have the interviews with different team members? Because if I go to write a report, but I haven’t done the interviews guess what? There ain’t no report. When we’re looking at each of our things, we’re just going to start to put them in a little bit of an order, so that we know, okay, this definitely has to happen first and it’s going to give us a smoother runway, so that then when we move to timelines, it’s far more accurate. We’re going to be able to plot timeframes that make sense to the level of things that need to happen in the order they need to happen.
So we go through all our tasks and we put the dependencies there. Now you can draw little connecting lines between them. You can colour code them if you want to. You can put, number 1 next to all the things that have to happen first, and then number 2 next to the next ones. Or you can just put them in a list, top to bottom, in the right order.
Tip💡: Go back to your task list, find the main tasks and then start to mark dependencies, drawing connecting lines between them.
4. Prioritise
We want to look at all of our tasks now that have been linked with their dependencies and go, in all of these, what are the priorities? What are the things that 100% have to be done to make this project successful versus some things that we might be able to do a different way, that we might be able to drop off because they’re a nice add-on?
They’re not an essential piece to getting this thing live and we want to start looking at what those priorities are. We also might start to see that there are these few tasks, and there are lots of dependent tasks for those. This whole project is going to get massively held up if those few tasks aren’t done as a priority.
We need those to be the focus point so that we can unblock everything that follows. So that becomes a high priority. You might look at it and go, I know when we get to this point, it will be a critical piece. If this fails, we are going to have to troubleshoot and troubleshoot fast and have options and solutions to keep moving or the whole project will fall over.
Those become priorities.
Now, what have we done so far? Step 1, we’ve broken things into chunks. Step 2, we’ve mapped out all the tasks to those chunks. Step 3, we’ve mapped all the dependencies with those tasks. Step 4, now we’re starting to prioritise them. What are the super important ones? Now, and only now, do you get to go and play with your timeline.
Tip💡: Identify the tasks that have lots of dependencies.
5. Timeline
Take those priorities and put them on your timeline. Look at however long you have for this project, three months, four months, one month, it depends on the size, and start plotting out where those priorities sit and the order.
What I want you to remember is the likelihood that this is going to be correct the first time is really low.
Take all of our data, and put it on the board so we have pieces we can move. It will reduce the overwhelm of thinking 15 steps ahead. Put them all on there and then move them around. So we put our priorities down in the right order, in around about the right timeframe that we think it’ll take to achieve them.
Then we’re going to map out our tasks and dependencies based on that. So you’ll end up with a timeline that has your key tasks and then your dependent tasks snd then you start looking at the timeframe and the time allocation you’ve given for each of those things. So once you have the correct flow, we know that this is the order in which this needs to happen.
Then you start playing with the amount of time each thing will take and you push and pull. So if we have mapped everything out, we look at the first bit and we say, okay, I’ve given this, a week to turn around this big task. But then when I look at it and I look at the different things that are dependent on it and the time that’s involved in those dependent tasks, I haven’t allowed enough time because I know to get the big chunky task done, it’s going to take about five days, but then to get all of the dependent tasks done, that needs a week because there’s so many of them. So I need more time to achieve this chunk. Now I have to expand it out. It can’t be one week but it has to be at least 12 days. So I start to spread those out and you do that exact same pattern over and over.
Tip💡: Put the priorities on the board as pieces that you can move. It will reduce the overwhelm of thinking
6. Review and repeat
Review and repeat the map of the dependencies, priorities and timelines. So go back through the dependencies, go back through the priorities, and push and pull on that timeline. Until, when you go through each piece, you feel like, yep, we’ve got enough time, we’ve got the right order. Look for the overlaps. There are some things where we know the project can’t keep moving until our priorities are complete. So what do we have happening? What could we have happening at the same time while we’re waiting in that kind of delayed bit?
If we have, assets that are with a graphic designer. Can we start working on the copy without the design assets? Which usually you can, those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. They can be happening at the same time without it being a conflict later or going to cause any issues as the project continues, because we need them both and they both might be reliant on one other thing, but they’re actually separate pieces.
So when we’re looking at our timeline, we want to consider the horizontal view. Left to right, all the things are in the order they happen, but also we want to consider the vertical. What are the things that can be happening at the same time, where there won’t be any conflict, without it getting too crowded or too messy.
Tip💡: Go back through the dependencies, go back through the priorities, and push and pull on that timeline.
And… that’s a wrap!
This is how we can speed up our project. We’re being clever about our pieces and we’re putting things in the right way, with the right resources, in the right timing. So that then we can pull it off and still pull it off just as easily. It’s not going to make it harder if you’re saying to Ben, Hey Ben, I need you to go and do this task while we’re waiting for the other task to finish and then you go and talk to Sue and you say, Hey Sue, I need you to do this other task while we’re waiting for that other task to finish – All you’ve done is set two things going at the same time to give them a head start and to get them turned around and completed so that when we have everything we need, we move to the next phase.
It means then we’re not starting and stopping as we get each bit. So, that’s it! That is as hard as it gets. Like when you are looking at mapping out a timeline that is accurate, easy, and that has a high level of completion, this is how you do it. Six steps. Simple. It’s when we start to overthink and complicate it too much that then it gets unruly and mistakes get made and we feel stressed and things don’t go to plan.
But if we can just move through each step and keep things quite calm, you’ll end up with a really solid plan. So I hope that you found this helpful.
If you are enjoying this, please leave me a five-star review and tell me what you loved most about it.
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Follow along with the transcript
E37 Project planning: Nailing your project timeline
Leanne Woff: Hey, hey, hey lovely. Welcome to this week’s episode of the Audacious OBM. [00:01:00] Today we are talking all things how to project plan and set up your project timeline. So we’re going to cover six steps to nailing the project timeline with ease.
In our last episode, we talked about the different pieces involved in project management and how we can start to break down a project goal into actionable pieces. Today, we’re going to cover how we get from that piece to mapping all of our activities out in a timeline and a time frame. Which we can face the same issues that we faced previously, which is when we’re looking at it and go, Oh, I’m staring at a blank screen.
I don’t quite know where to start. I don’t know what order there’s too many pieces. We can get overwhelmed and then our brains don’t work properly. I’m going to give you a [00:02:00] really simple way to navigate through that. All right. So step one is you focus on your chunks. So once you’ve had your project goal established and you’ve identified what the main components are to be able to execute this project, they become your chunks. For each of those chunks we need to make sure that we have what’s included within them, and we know that there’s nothing missing. Looking at your project goal, we wanna check it across. Okay. These are all the things involved. Have I got everything? Have I got the main components here? So if you’ve split your project goal out by, let’s say the roles, the different people involved, have you got all the people?
Are they all there? If you’ve split it by, the business departments involved. Have you got all of the departments? Have you missed marketing? Have you missed customer service? Have [00:03:00] you missed finance? However you’ve mapped it out, take a step back and just make sure, okay, I’ve covered my bases. So that’s step one.
Make sure you’ve got all your chunks right. Then step two. Is, we focus on the tasks. So for each chunk, however, you’ve done it, you need to spend some time brainstorming and listing out all the tasks that will be involved inside that chunk to get this project completed. Can be big or little. And in the first instance, you just want to brainstorm.
You just want to put everything out and get it on the page. It doesn’t have to be orderly. You do not have to worry about if you have doubled up on something. It is more about getting the ideas out of your brain and onto that paper, because then you have tangible things you can work with, which removes the overwhelm.
Once you’ve done that brain dump of all those tasks, then you’re going to tidy those tasks. This is where we start looking for things that are duplication. This is where we start going, Oh, but do we really need to do that thing in this instance? So we start to think about the situation we’re in right now, and seeing if things are still relevant, because in many projects, you’ll have lots of things that are consistent across them.
These are the things we always do. But! When you’re working on a specific project, not everything is going to be the same. And so we need to do the sense check. So when we’re mapping out all the tasks, that’s when we do the sense check. And if we’ve removed something, why have we removed it?
And is there something that needs to be put in place instead? Just because we don’t need to do this bit in this scenario, is that because we need to do something else for a different reason. So we want to go through, remove all our duplications, we want to sense check what’s left, [00:05:00] we want to put our tasks under our chunks so that then we can go, okay, this is chunk A, here are the tasks for chunk A, are they all there?
Have I missed any? And then we do that for all of our chunks. Now you’ve got all your tasks,
which is exactly what you want. Now we get to do the fun bit. At this point, it’s where I tend to do things a little bit differently to other people. A lot of project managers will tell you go take that task, that list of tasks, and go put a time frame on them so that you can get them done. I am going to tell you not to do that yet.
I don’t want you to start with the timeline. I want you to look at the dependencies. I will always focus on the dependencies first before the time dependenciesframe because I think that there is nothing worse than working through a project and then having to stop at a certain point because you [00:06:00] realise you can’t keep progressing because something else hasn’t been done and you hadn’t thought about that yet.
And so then you have to change your project plan, you have to change your project timeline, and things aren’t running as smoothly anymore. Now we’re flustered, we’re a little bit stressed, we’re frustrated, and our progress has paused, which is not what we want. If we consider dependencies before we plot things on a timeline, we’re going to eliminate majority of the times that that happens.
How do we do this? We go back to our task list, we find our main tasks and we start to mark dependencies. We find tasks where it’s okay, I know I need to do this task. Is there anything that has to happen before that for me to actually be able to do that? If I am building out team roles and responsibilities, let’s say.
Before I do the [00:07:00] report for that, do I have to go and have the interviews with different team members? Because if I go to write a report, but I haven’t done the interviews guess what? There ain’t no report. When we’re looking at each of our things, we’re just going to start to put them in a little bit of an order, so that we know, okay, this definitely has to happen first. And it’s going to give us a smoother runway, so that then when we move to timelines, it’s far more accurate. We’re going to be able to plot timeframes that make sense to the level of things that need to happen in the order they need to happen.
So we go through all our tasks. And we put the dependencies there. Now you can draw little connecting lines between them. You can colour code them if you want to. You can put, number 1 next to all the things that have to happen first, and then number 2 next to the next ones. Or you can just put them in a list, top to bottom, in the right order.
[00:08:00] Then we move to step 4. And step 4 is priorities. So no, we’re still not moving to the timeline people. Priorities are important because we have a project goal. We are not doing this for no reason and there is always an outcome we’re wanting. Priorities help you stay true to that goal and achieve that outcome.
So we want to look at all of our tasks now that have been linked with their dependencies and go, okay, in all of these, what are the priorities? What are the things that 100 percent have to be done to make this project successful versus some things that we might be able to do a different way, that we might be able to drop off because they’re a nice add on.
They’re not an essential piece to getting this thing live. And we want to start looking at what [00:09:00] those priorities are. We also might start to see, okay. There are these few tasks, and there are lots of dependent tasks for those. This whole project is going to get massively held up if those few tasks aren’t done as a priority.
We need those to be the focus point so that we can unblock everything that follows. So that becomes high priority. You might look at it and go, I know when we get to this point, it will be a critical piece. If this fails, we are going to have to troubleshoot and troubleshoot fast and have options and solutions to keep moving or the whole project will fall over.
Those become priorities.
Now, what have we done so far? Step 1, we’ve broken things into chunks. Step 2, we’ve mapped out all [00:10:00] the tasks to those chunks. Step 3, we’ve mapped all the dependencies with those tasks. Step 4, now we’re starting to prioritise them. What are the ones that are super important? Now, and only now, do you get to go and play with your timeline.
Step 5 is take those priorities and put them on your timeline. So looking at, however long you have for this project, three months, four months, one month, it depends the size. And start plotting out where those priorities sit and the order. Now what I want you to remember is the likelihood that this is going to be correct the first time is really low.
Right now we just, again, want to take all of our data, put it on the board so we have pieces we can move. It will reduce the overwhelm of thinking 15 steps ahead. Put them all on there and then move them around. So we [00:11:00] put our priorities down in the right order, in around about the right timeframe that we think it’ll take to achieve them.
Then we’re going to map out our tasks and dependencies based on that. So you’ll end up with a timeline that has your key tasks and then your dependent tasks. And then you start looking at the timeframe and the time allocation you’ve given for each of those things. So once you have the flow, correct, we know that this is the order that this needs to happen with.
Then you start playing with the amount of time each thing will take and you push and pull. So if we have mapped everything out, we look at the first bit and we say, okay, I’ve given this, a week to turn around this big task. But then when I look at it and I look at the different things that are dependent on it and the time that’s involved in those dependent tasks, I haven’t allowed enough time [00:12:00] because I know to get the big chunky task done, it’s going to take about five days, but then to get all of the dependent tasks done, that needs a week because there’s so many of them.
So I need more time to achieve this chunk. Now I have to expand it out. And it can’t be one week. It has to be at least 12 days. So I start to spread those out. And you do that exact same pattern over and over. So step 6 is to review and repeat steps 3 to 5. So go back through the dependencies, go back through the priorities, and push and pull on that timeline.
Until, when you go through each piece, You feel like, yep, we’ve got enough time, we’ve got the right order. Look for the overlaps. There’s some things where we know the project [00:13:00] can’t keep moving until our priorities are complete. So what do we have happening? And what could we have happening at the same time while we’re waiting in that kind of delayed bit?
If we have, assets that are with a graphic designer. Can we start working on the copy without the design assets? Which usually you can, those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. They can be happening at the same time without it being a conflict later or going to cause any issues as the project continues, because we need them both and they both might be reliant on one other thing, but they’re actually separate pieces.
So when we’re looking at our timeline, we want to consider the horizontal view. Left to right, all the things in the order they happen, but also we want to consider the vertical. What are the things that can be happening at the same time, where there won’t be any conflict, without it getting [00:14:00] too crowded or too messy.
And this is how we can speed up our project. We’re being clever about our pieces. And we’re putting things in the right way, with the right resources, in the right timing. So that then we can pull it off and still pull it off just as easily. It’s not going to make it harder if you’re saying to Ben, Hey Ben, I need you to go and do this task while we’re waiting for the other task to finish. And then you go and talk to Sue and you say, Hey Sue, I need you to do this other task while we’re waiting for that other task to finish. All you’ve done is set two things going at the same time to give them a head start and to get them turned around and completed so that when we have everything we need, we move to the next phase.
And it means that then we’re not starting and stopping as we get each bit. So, that’s it! That is as hard as it gets. Like when you are looking at mapping [00:15:00] out a timeline that is accurate, easy, and that has a high level of completion, this is how you do it. Six steps. Simple. It’s when we start to overthink and complicate it too much that then it gets unruly and mistakes get made and we feel stressed and things don’t go to plan.
But if we can just move through each step and keep things quite calm, you’ll end up with a really solid plan. So I hope that you found this helpful. If you are enjoying this episode, please leave me a five star review and tell me what you loved most about it. Otherwise, I will see you next week. Bye, guys!