5 Tips for successful planning

5 Tips on how to plan any project or ideas

IMAGE: CRM AUDIO

Welcome back bloggers! If you’ve read the previous blog I wrote about tips on how to get started with any project, you have probably decided to start on that project of yours as well. If you’re ready to move ahead and start on a project or idea that you have been thinking about for a long time- it’s time to now start planning for it.

But the next question you might have now is about - how do you logically plan a sequential process for the idea or project that you are working on so that it flows thoroughly from top to bottom?

Here are 5 tips to help you plan for any project or ideas that you may have:

Tip 1: Brain storm ideas

Brainstorming idea involves you pretty much writing anything down on a piece of paper, sticky note or anything you can write on about all the ideas you have about your project.

Planning can sometimes be messy, but first you have to pull all those ideas from your brain and start putting them into paper somewhere. When the ideas are out of your brain, then you be able to better to visualize and see how you can start sorting it out in a much easier form.

Here’s an example of a brainstorm could look like: 

IMAGE: The Data Visual Catalogue

Tip 2: Cluster the ideas and have subheadings for each of them

A masterpiece music from an Orchestra is not straight away written together in beautiful harmonic rhythm, instead it is written piece by piece in sequence till it all meshes up together. If a key or note needs to be adjusted to fit the other notes, then the composer will adjust it accordingly.

Clustering ideas together that are similar, can make it easier for you to distinguish what items have the same attributes and then you can move on to the next step of condensing the information you collected in a more sequential order.

Tip 3: Organize them in a sequential order and prioritize what needs to be done first

If you’re writing an essay in school, you might’ve remembered a formula which all English teachers would have taught you.

a.       Having an Introduction

b.       Having a Body or content of what you will talk about

c.        Having a conclusion to summarize and end your essay

In other words you can sort out the order of what your ideas are - by sorting it out in various ways that would make it logical for you.

It could be from lowest to highest, alphabetical, chronological, colour coded and many more so that you can start planning on what needs to come first and what can come last.

Tip 4: Have a time line and set goals

With whatever project you are making – it is also important for you to start setting goals for what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve them, otherwise you will procrastinate and it could take you forever to finish the task you intend for yourself without a time a time line to go with.

When setting goals, I would again recommend that you start to look for realistic goals and see the small steps first – so that you won’t feel overwhelmed of the BIGGER goals of what you intend to do for your project.

You may have heard of the acronym S.M.A.R.T when setting goals. Here’s what it looks like

Specific – What exactly do you want to achieve?

   Name it or name what they are.

   Know what it is you want to accomplish.

Measurable – How do you know that you have reached that goal?

Can you quantify the achievement you are trying to attain?

    
    Is it tangible or at least an approximate of what you want to finish?

Achievable – Is the goal something that can be completed?

This one to me can seem quite self-limiting, because I firmly believe that anything is possible, you just got to know how to get there.

Sometimes it might not be with your own strength that you will achieve the goal, but it might even be through another person who is more capable of helping you do it.

If you don’t give up – you will achieve anything that you want in life!

Realistic – Is the goal you want to achieve realistic?

This one might sound confusing from the previous point, but to put it clearly – is your goal realistic for you - for example, if you didn’t know how to Ice Skate – you might set a goal for yourself “I want to be able to start Ice Skating independently without support from anyone by next month”

An unrealistic goal would be “By tomorrow I would be able to start competing in the Olympics for Ice Skating” despite you not having any experience whatsoever.  

Setting realistic goals would mean that you give yourself time to grow in a period of time, to learn from your mistake, experience what you need to experience - in order to achieve your goal then get there.

So set realistic goals!

Timely – When do you want to complete your goal?

Just like the previous points, it’s really important for you to be able to put a time line in your goal – to ensure that you are keeping track

Tip 5: Start today – if not set a time of when to get started

Once you have all the other things I mentioned above – you can now get started on that project and start working at it.

You will now be able to visualize where you are at, how you plan to get there and also give yourself ample realistic time to get there.

Planning is about having a vision and laying it down so that you can get straight into it. Sometimes the process of planning can be complicated and to a certain point can even be overwhelming, but if you implement the tips I have provided for you above then it’s a good start in achieving your goal!

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