There’s often so much to do when you’re trying to grow a small business that it’s understandable when some tasks are forgotten during especially busy times. Keeping track of what needs to be done with a traditional to-do list certainly helps for the day to day stuff - and crossing out completed items as the day progresses is wonderfully satisfying.
I was working recently with a client who was creating an exciting new service to add to her portfolio. There were several stages involved with this project - research, collecting together all necessary resources, production, pilot, revision, marketing, launch, sales and customer support. Of course each stage comprised several smaller steps. The whole project had begun to be overwhelming, especially as it had to be fitted in to my client’s already busy schedule.
Here was a case where simple lists weren’t enough to keep the project on track and it was also important for certain actions to be taken in a specific order. Trying to make sure nothing was forgotten had started to cause sleepless nights!
An ideal solution for this project was to take the various lists for all the stages and carefully work out the order in which each individual step needed to be taken. Sticky notes proved very helpful here! Then, once the final sequence was agreed, a process diagram was produced. This would act as a visual overview of the whole project.
More detailed process diagrams of each stage ensure that actions are taken in the correct order. From these diagrams, to-do lists can be made if desired. The project is no longer overwhelming and my client is firmly back in control.
I was working recently with a client who was creating an exciting new service to add to her portfolio. There were several stages involved with this project - research, collecting together all necessary resources, production, pilot, revision, marketing, launch, sales and customer support. Of course each stage comprised several smaller steps. The whole project had begun to be overwhelming, especially as it had to be fitted in to my client’s already busy schedule.
Here was a case where simple lists weren’t enough to keep the project on track and it was also important for certain actions to be taken in a specific order. Trying to make sure nothing was forgotten had started to cause sleepless nights!
An ideal solution for this project was to take the various lists for all the stages and carefully work out the order in which each individual step needed to be taken. Sticky notes proved very helpful here! Then, once the final sequence was agreed, a process diagram was produced. This would act as a visual overview of the whole project.
Here’s what an extract of what the ‘top-level’ process sequence diagram might look like:
More detailed process diagrams of each stage ensure that actions are taken in the correct order. From these diagrams, to-do lists can be made if desired. The project is no longer overwhelming and my client is firmly back in control.
Sometimes you need more than just lists!
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