Creative Project Planning ideas

Plan that (Creative) Project

http://workincolour.com.au/

Monday, 3 August 2009

http://workincolour.com.au


The left brain is about:wordsnumberslogical thinkingsequencesrational thinkinganalysingbeing objectivelooking at parts


The right brain is about:

rhythm colourimagination daydreamingspatial thinking intuition holistic thinkingsynthesising being subjective looking at the whole


It’s about using your

whole brain, not just one

side or the other...


creative project planning happens

in 4 stepsMonday, 3 August 2009

1. vision2. current reality

3. action steps4. keeping it going


1. vision


How will I know when I have it?

What is it I really want?


2.current reality


what is my current reality in relation to this project really

like?Monday, 3 August 2009

woods or trees?


3. action steps

(5 ways to plan stuff)


VISION

ACTION STEPS1. ____________________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________

4. ____________________________________________________

5. ____________________________________________________

6. ____________________________________________________

7. ____________________________________________________

8. ____________________________________________________

CURRENT REALITY


ACTION STEPS TIPS 1. This is the simplest possible way to plan your project.

2. First, get your Vision and your Current Reality as clear as you can and write a compelling paragraph (or dot points) in the relevant boxes.

3. Next, plot the obvious action steps ..don't worry about gaps. It is a trap for young players to overplan. An overall strategy is great, with as much detail as you can for now.

4. For each major action step, you can create a ‘Subordinate Chart’ to break that action step into its own action steps.

5. For each action step, ask yourself: Is it brief, accurate and concise? Does it have a due date? 6. Overall, ask: If I do all these steps, would I get to my vision?

7. If No, see if you can plug any gaps – if not, just be aware of them and see if the missing bits become clear as you proceed.


sell shorter excerpts (articles)

networking & contacts

editing course

organise time

mindmap your project

make a living from writing

write that novel

do outline

research trip to Cairns

20 hours per week

???

family and

friends

call someone each day

see someone

each weekend

keep healthy

daily walks

meditation

existing business projects

renew community

teaching gig

finish Canberra project

moneykeep day

job

shorter hours?

garage sale

book for Feb

4 quadrants

big rocks

call editors

???

join writers group

use research to develop

articles



MINDMAPPING TIPS 1. This is a great tool for great tool for generating ideas &

planning, as it works with left and right brain, logical and holistic at the same time. It’s a bit like making a street map to your destination. 2. Put an image in the centre for the main idea - add a word or phrase.

3. Use a colour to draw a branch out from the centre, or a bubble floating nearby...add a word that relates to an aspect of your project.

4. One word or concept per branch/bubble, each branchconnecting to the central image...

5. Add sub branches/bubbles around the main ones.

6. Use pictures to prompt your memory.

7. Lots of colour is great.


sell shorter excerpts (articles)

use research to develop articles

family and friends

call someone each day

see someone each weekend

renew community teaching gig

existing business projects

finish Canberra project

do outline

write that novel

research trip to Cairns

20 hours per week

???

keep healthy

daily walks

meditation

???

call editors

networking & contacts

join writers group

editing course

book for Feb

keep day job / shorter hours?

money

garage sale

organise time

4 quadrants

big rocks

blueprint your project


BLUEPRINTING TIPS 1. This is a great tool for spatial planners, who like to see visual representations where the relationships between elements is clear.

2. Draw the spaces for your project as if you were doing a floor plan for a house. Experiment with number of rooms, links between rooms and sizes until you feel it is right. More important aspects of your project will have a bigger ‘room’ and areas that link together should be placed next to each other.

3. Each room represents a core aspect of your project. So, if your goal is to support yourself from writing, a core aspect will be to write your novel! Put these in words in the centre of each room.

4. In another colour and smaller print, put in known aspects of the core, medium term goals and ongoing elements. If you know there is more, but don’t know what it is, use question marks.

5. From here, you can either make monthly or weekly ‘to do’ lists for each room, or copy your plan with just the room names so you can write in week-to-week tasks (or monthly for slower projects). One week, for example, your writing blueprint might have ‘teach writing course at local school’ in the ‘Money’ room and ‘ring Susan from literary agency’ in the ‘Networking and Contacts’ room.


Joanna Maxwell [email protected] Phone: 0421 310 370 www.liveincolour.com.au© Polaris Associates Pty Limited 2006

LISTING YOUR PROJECT

ONGOING URGENT SHORT-TERM MEDIUM-TERM LONG-TERM

Daily walks Book editing course Finish Canberra project Shorter hours/day job First draft

Meditation Renew communityteaching gig

Call editors Cairns research trip Final draft

Call a friend daily Call Susan literaryagency

Join writers group Find an agent Publish!!

See a friend weekly Garage sale Write 3 articles forpublication

Holiday to celebrate!

Plan each week Outline of novel Solve plot problem rebarrier reef trip???

TIPS

1. This is a great tool for people who love lists, who like linear organising of tasks.

2. Put all the tasks you can identify into these 5 categories.

3. Do the things in the first 2 columns until all the urgent tasks are done. Then make a new ‘urgent’ list and rethink the short-, medium- andlong-term lists.

4. If you know there is more to do, or an element that isn’t clear, but don’t know what it is, use question marks.


STORYBOARDING YOUR PROJECT

MODULE: Sell short articles

JOB: Write article about Cairns holidays

TIMING: During September

LOCATION: Sydney / Cairns

DO FIRST: Research on Cairns / trip to Cairns / pitch to

travel editor

OR

Write article about Cairns holidays

During September

Do research on Cairns first

OR EVEN

Write article about Cairns holidays

Joanna Maxwell [email protected] Phone: 0421 310 370 www.liveincolour.com.au

© Polaris Associates Pty Limited 2006


STORYBOARDING TIPS 1. This is a great tool if you know lots of tasks you need to do, but aren’t yet sure how they fit together.

2. Put each task you can identify onto separate 3x5 card (or even a post-it note).

3. If you are at the stage of knowing quite a bit, you can follow the first example above, with lots of info about your task. If not, use example 2 or even 3 as your guide. (You can always add more detail later!)

4. If you know there is more to do, or an element that isn’t clear, but don’t know what it is, use question marks.

5. Pictures or diagrams can be useful.

6. Once you have a big pile of cards, organise them in the way that works best for YOUR project - either in modules or timelines, or...?. Spread them out and move them around until some sense of order emerges.

7. You can stick them on a cork board (or on the wall if they are post-it notes) so you can have them both in modules and timelines at the same time, a bit like a graph chart with modules down the side and time frames across the bottom.

8. Or you can organise them in piles based on when they need to be done, then just work through each pile in its allotted time frame.


4. keeping

it going


c:\documents and settings\warrend\desktop\covey.doc

TIME!MANAGEMENT!MATRIX!From!Stephen!Covey’s!book!“First!Things!First”!

Urgent! Not!Urgent

I

(MANAGE)!! Crisis!! Medical!emergencies!! Pressing!problems!! Deadline"driven!projects!! Last"minute!preparations!

for!scheduled!activities!

II

(FOCUS)!! Preparation/planning!! Prevention!! Values!clarification!! Exercise!! Relationship"building!! True!recreation/relaxation!

Quadrant!of!Necessity!Quadrant!of!Quality!&!Personal!

Leadership!

III

(AVOID)!! Interruptions,!come!calls!! Some!mail!&!reports!! Some!meetings!! Many!“pressing”!matters!! Many!popular!activities!

IV

(AVOID)!! Trivia,!busywork!! Junk!mail!! Some!phone!

messages/email!! Time!wasters!! Escape!activities!! Viewing!mindless!TV!

shows!

Quadrant!of!Deception Quadrant!of!Waste

Impo

rtant!

Not!Im

portant!

© FRANKLIN COVEY


your personal environments


Plan that (Creative) Project

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Creative Project Planning ideas