It’s honestly not too often that I use project management skills and techniques to assist me in succeeding and advancing in the workforce and life in general. That’s because I’m so used to doing things differently than others, also known as doing things in a different style of learning, something one of my former therapists would say. For someone like me who has had attention deficit for essentially all of life, there was, and still sort of is, a way that I get things done promptly. In fact, I often find that I tend to find a way around things, whether it’s writing things down to help me memorize concepts or simply using technology and social media daily. This time, however, I began a new week of life by trying project management by setting up tasks on monday.com, completed or not. 

Inspirations to Get Started 

Before actually beginning the new project management routine this week, I came across a YouTube video created by a company called “ProjectManager.com.” In this video, the company’s director discusses seven essential work habits for success. One of those things is actually a key concept that I’ve always struggled with, but I no longer do so much nowadays. It’s called being coachable and taking criticism well. She refers to constructive criticism as a prime example. Usually, I’ve had a hard time taking criticism appropriately, whether I know it’s constructive or not. The difference between then and now is that I’ve grown a lot and have used any type of feedback as a learning experience to help me move forward with success. I then began to think about how I wanted to plan my project, and I decided to create two separate categories of weekly tasks, with subtasks included for each week, or in this case, module.

As you can see in the attached image above, I have a category indicating that I’ve completed three weeks’ worth of my project. The other category is tasks that still need to be completed, and adding deadlines to those, as well as all of them, helps a lot. What also helps a lot are the subtasks. This way, I can see what specifically needs to get done for the week and at what time. The attached image below is an example of how I created my tasks for the upcoming week. 

Overall, I’m liking how well everything is going ever since I began using project management to help me every day. This feeling reminds me of something else ProjectManager referred to in another video I watched, which was the concept of working smarter, not harder. The examples in the video demonstrate how to do this, ranging from checking abilities to asking questions, particularly those posed by mentees.  Using a calendar is another way to do it. As a visual learner and a person who’s always willing to move forward with just about anything, I’m confident that I’ve learned a lot from this week, and I know there is more where that came from.