MBA866 How To Stay Focused with Large Projects

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If you're working on a large project that's gonna take you three months or more, whether that's a new product, a new offering, that's considered a large project, and when you're dealing with a project that takes that much time, there's so much to do and it can often get overwhelming. It's hard to stay focused. It's actually easier to work on a project that takes a week because you see the deadline, you see the end in sight. You have enough pressure for you to be on task and stay focused so you can hit that deadline. But when your deadline's like 12 weeks, 15 weeks, six months even, it's kind of easy to take it easy because six months seems like so far away. I got plenty of time. As human beings, we just have horrible judgment when it comes to long term planning. We either underestimate how much we can get done in a long period of time or we underestimate how quickly that time goes by. So in today's lesson, we're going to go deep and learn how to stay focused in a large project and we're going to keep it practical. We've been working on a large project for the past year, webinar ninja 5.0. It's our all new version of Webinar Ninja. And that's a large project. And when you're working on something that's going to take you a year plus, you got to have a strategy. You got to have some way to stay focused so you're working towards that goal. So you know that every day when you get to work, you have a certain task to do so you can chip away to get to where you need to be. And we're gonna begin from day one, what you do on day one of this 3, 4, 5, 6 month project and how to break it down so you make sure that you're on task as well as motivated. Again, sometimes when you don't see the end in sight, you can get into motivating. You can feel like, wow, we got a long way to go. Am I really gonna be able to do this? Am I able to stay focused long enough so I can get this stuff done, so we can launch, so we release this new product or release this new service? The answer is yes. With this strategy, you can. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. So you got a large project on your hands and you need a plan of action to stay focused along the way. Let's start with step number one. And this is a very important step and it's going to take you some time. You want to grab a paper and pen and you want to sit in a quiet area or sit with your co founder or maybe the people that are going to be managing this project with you? And what you want to do here is do a massive brain dump. You're going to dump every single task you think you're going to need to do to complete this large project. This is like a massive to do list. The larger the project, the longer the list is going to be. I know with our project, webinar ninja 5.0, being that it's a year long project, our list was like over 200 items and I'm talking about every little thing and you got to get micro. I'm talking about each task as if you're going to go ahead and do that task. So don't write down, create the new website for the new product. You want to write down, create the new about page for the new product or create the new homepage for the new product or the new pricing page. These are individual tasks. If there's a series of emails that you're going to have to write for your launch or for your product unveiling, you're going to want to write each email as a task. Email number one. Email number two. It's important for you to write every single task here, as much as you can. You're going to have to add to this list later on because not everything is going to come to mind in this meeting, but put as much information here. We want to put as much information, as many tasks as you can think of in this meeting on your paper or papers. Right? But the point here is, is that it's not for you to be overwhelmed with all the tasks you have to do in the next few months or whatever the size of the project is, but it's for you to feel like, okay, this is what I got to deal with. This is what I got to take over. You got to know what you have to do. You got to know what you're facing. Because when you have every single thing listed, then you can break it down into weeks and then today's and you can know exactly how much workload you need put on your plate every day, or what you need to give other people or what you need to hire for this brain dump of every task that is involved with this project is so important. And some of these tasks are going to be something like hire a designer, set up my trello board or my, you know, project management tool so they can know exactly what to do for the project. You get the point. Every single to do, put it down now. Don't worry about the order of the tasks. This is what you're going to do in step two. You're going to order these tasks in order of priority or in order of sequence. So for example, you can't complete the homepage of your website if you don't have a designer hired yet. Let's say, for example, you need a designer to design your website. So you need to have that task first hired a designer before you say, complete the homepage of the website. Some things will have to come before other tasks. Another example of some things that rely on other things is like you need certain materials before you can do a task. So for example, we need to create new support tutorials for our new software, Webinar Ninja. But I can't do screencasts if my software is not ready yet, right? If we're not in beta yet. I can't really do that task. So I'm going to put that task off until after. I have a software I can use. So I can do the screencast, but I can create the help desk site with all the pages for all the different categories of the help tutorials. I don't need the videos just yet, but I can create the skeleton, the bones of the actual site. So when I'm ready and I do shoot the videos, I can just insert the videos in the right pages. You get the point. So you're gonna have to order these things so they have a structure. So, you know, okay, first I need to do this, then this, then this. And one of the easiest ways of doing this is just simply putting a number next to each task. Now, one way to do this that I find to be quite easy is to count how many tasks you have in that huge brain dump. Let's say, for example, you have 60 work backwards. What will you need to have done right before you launch and number that number 60 and then 59 and then 58. You get the point. Working backwards sometimes is easier than forwards. Now, and don't worry about making mistakes or having to scratch out numbers and replace them with a different order. That's okay. Another little tip is that you can transfer your to do list, that big brain dump, onto an Excel sheet or a Google sheet and then number them in a number column next to it. And then you can change the numbers whenever you like with no problems whatsoever. And then once you've numbered every single task, you can then just sort that number column by ascending order. Okay, so we have our full to do list, our whole brain dump. We've ordered them in order of operation or priority. Now what? Now we're getting somewhere. Now we know what to do. We know what order we have to do them. Now we gotta break it down. We gotta break it down so we know that we're on track. Now, word to the wise, you want to incorporate fluff time, meaning that you can't just kind of plan as if you're going to launch exactly on that date. So say, for example, your project is five months. You want to break down your tasks not across five months, but across maybe four months. And give yourself a month of breathing room. Just in case there's a little bit delay here, a little delay there, just in case you had an emergency. Just in case things out of your hands. Like, it takes a while to develop whatever you're creating or to design the site. Having a month will give you a little bit more flexibility. So carve out a month or four weeks from your actual deadlines. So say, for example, you have a list of 60 tasks and your project is five months. Your deadline is five months. What we want to do is plan to get everything done in four months. If we get done in four months exactly. Or even earlier, that's fantastic. Better to be early than to be late. So what you do now is that you take your list, you have them ordered in order of operation, order of priority, and you have your time, four months, or let's say 16 weeks, and you want to insert what you got to get done each week. Now, not all tasks are created equal. Some tasks are going to take longer than others. So what you want to do now is by each item, next to each item on your spreadsheet or on your piece of paper, write down an estimated time you think it's going to take you to complete this task. I like to do hours. Some people like to do days. But hours for me allows a little bit more flexibility. So some things might take two hours, some things might take 12 hours. And I just write down 12 hours after that task or 15 hours next to that task, or one hour next to that task. My minimum is one hour. And what I do is that I can really only work six intensive hours a day, meaning six hours completing any of these tasks. There's other things that are not included in your day that are not these tasks, like checking email or answering phone calls or whatever it is. But six hours is my max. So that means I only have 30 hours a week working on these tasks. So once I've put in all the hours or how long it's going to take, I just calculate the first 30 hours and say, okay, these tasks, I'm working on week one, the next 30 hours, I'm working on week two, the next 30 hours, week three. You get the point. See how this is getting a little easier? And once you break down everything, list everything down, you prioritize it, you know in order it's going to be, and you know how much time it's going to take each one. Now, these are estimates. That's why we have that buffer for a month. And I like to be generous with my estimates. So if I think, hey, I can get this done in an hour, I give myself maybe two or three hours. And this is where I create a third column on my spreadsheet and I give a due date for the task. And usually it's the last day of the week. So if I Have a group of five tasks that's gonna take me around 30 hours. Then those five tasks have a due date of the end of that week, whether that's week one or week two or week three or whatever. Now I have a due date. I know exactly what I have to do for each week. This is already gonna make you feel better about your large project. If you have 16 weeks in your project now you have about 16 micro projects. You can see the light at the end of a week, and you can keep track of your progress each week. So say, for example, it's Tuesday. I can look at my sheet and say, okay, how many of these things that I'm supposed to have done by the end of the week are done already? Maybe I need to buckle down. Maybe I need to work a little extra time. Maybe I need some help. I needed to get a freelancer to help me out with some of these things. The point is that it's a lot easier to track when you just have a week in front of you. Okay, so now we have a really good, solid plan of action to know what to do each week to complete our project. And yes, we have our end in sight of every week. Every week we have to finish certain tasks. But it's very important for us to keep our eye on the prize. You gotta stay motivated. You gotta realize why you're doing all this. The larger the project, the longer the project, the more important this is. You gotta stay focused and motivated throughout. So one of the things I would recommend doing is creating a word cloud. You can just do this on a big piece of paper, like a three piece of paper with some markers, and write down some goal statements, some things that you want to have done by the end of the project. Now, I'm not talking about actual to do lists or tasks. I'm talking about what you want people to say about your product, about your software, about your service, when it's launched, when this project is said and done. And that's really what we're looking for here. What does success actually look like sound like when we actually finish the project? You can even create a word cloud with a bunch of quotes like, for us, this would be. This is the best webinar software on the planet. Thank you so much for creating this. It's so easy to use and it's gorgeous. That's something that I would like somebody to say about webinar Ninja having these quotes or word clouds really keep your eye on the prize. Realize that, hey, this is what I'm trying to achieve. Here. As you move forward in your tasks, week one, week two, week three, take a look back at all the work you've done. This will motivate you. Wow, I've got so much done. Look at the website now. It's looking great. Have some time to reflect. Take the time to say, hey, I've done a good job so far. This will help you keep moving forward. If you have any sort of goal with the launch of your product, whether it's monetary or a number of users or a number of units sold, put that up on a piece of paper, put it on a post it note, see it every day, know your goal. The more you remind yourself of it, the more it's going to become a reality and become an expectation. You got to push yourself to say, hey, this is what I expect from myself. I got to pull this off. I got to do everything I can to try to pull this off. If there's something you're going to do to reward yourself after the launch for hitting your goals, whether that's a vacation or some sort of trip where you're going to be maybe upgrading your car or whatever it is, put a picture of that. Vision boards work. You got to put this stuff in front of you to remind yourself, hey, this is what I'm working towards. This is what I want to do. This is what's going to happen when I hit my goal. And yes, I know we're not working for material things, but these things do motivate us when we're weak. And also it's a symbol of something that we believe in. Traveling might be a symbol of freedom for you. A new car can be a symbol of significance and make you feel like, hey, I can afford something I've always wanted in my life and now I can because I worked hard for it. So keep these things in sight in mind. Another great motivational technique that I highly, highly recommend and I think you should try, even just today, after this episode, it really works. I've tried it myself and it's called visualization. Now, this is not some sort of woo woo technique. People use visualization in all walks of life. In professional sports, visualization is a huge, huge factor. Whether it's free throws, visualizing hitting free throws in basketball, or visualizing what's going to happen in the boxing ring, or visualizing that perfect 10 in gymnastics. This is tried and true. So what I want you to do is visualize and really try to imagine the feelings and emotions you will have when you're successful. When you do launch this product. When it's out there and people are happy with it, how does that gonna make you feel? Imagine it's happening now. You don't need to close your eyes if you don't want to. You can just visualize this. Spend some time. Spend like 3, 4, 5 minutes to do this. How do you feel? Do you feel elated? Do you feel happy? Do you feel a sense of relief? Wow, I did it. Experience those feelings and realize that could be your reality. Get on task. Get going.

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So you got your plan of action. You got all your priorities down. You know what you're going to do every week. You've broken down how many hours each thing takes and you know what you're going to do every week of your project. You're motivated. You got your vision board. You know exactly what you're doing. You're visualizing. You got your eye on the prize, but that's not enough. This next tip is very important and you can't neglect it. At the end of every week where you just close the books on the week, you got to take a look at what you've done, what you've completed. There's going to be times where you just didn't finish everything that you're supposed to that week. What are you going to do with that extra stuff? You got to make sure that you move it on to next week. So you got to move deadlines around for tasks. Now this can get really dangerous if you don't make sure. You make it up the next week because it can then pile on to the week after that, and it's going to carry over some other stuff from that current week and it's gonna be like compounded interest. So say, for example, you're on your first week, and at the end of the first week, you still have a couple tasks that are pending that you didn't complete that you're supposed to complete in week one. You need to move that over to week two. Change the deadline. Now remember, week two already has its set of hours already allotted to it. You have assigned work for it, 30 hours of work, and now you're gonna add more hours from the work you didn't complete in time in week one. Where are you gonna get the extra time? Remember that your. How is that gonna get done? So my advice is that if at the end of week two, you're still behind, you gotta stop and you gotta add more hours. That means working a weekend. Yes. That means working on a Saturday or a Sunday or both, or you're gonna fall short. You're gonna fall behind. Don't rely on that extra month we gave you in the beginning, because that's for emergencies. That's for things out of your control, tasks that you can do. That's okay. So you gotta get real. If things don't get done, you gotta add more hours, you gotta work overtime. This is just how it's gotta be. And if you're an entrepreneur, you have no problem with that because you have your eye on the prize. You know what you're looking for and you're willing to put the work in. Don't have the time. You need to hire somebody. You need to hire somebody to do the task. You can't let things pile on. The whole point of pacing yourself is so you have just enough work for each week. If the work gets more and more every week, if 30 hours becomes 33 to 35 to 40 hours a week, it's going to get overwhelming and you're going to give up. So you got to nip it in the bud. If you can't make up the work from the previous week, at the end of the next week, you're in trouble. You need to make sure you work overtime to make sure you're on track. Or again, hire somebody to help you with that extra work. It's not enough for you just to plan. You got to track. You got to make sure that you're on track. Now, a couple more tips before we wrap up. Take a look at your calendar when you're planning out your hours and what you're going to do every week, take account your life. Are you going away? Are there appointments? Are there things you need to do on those days? Do you have family visiting from town? This is reality. Take account these things in your work schedule, in what you allot in each week. And finally, a tip some people overlook is sometimes we overestimate how much time something takes and we're finished ahead of time. Let's say, for example, it's Wednesday and you finished all the tasks for the week. Start doing tasks for the next week. It's okay. Keep moving forward, start doing tasks for the next week. It's better for you to be ahead just in case. Because if for some reason there's a backlog or remember when we had to pass on stuff for the next week, you might be ahead already enough to worry about that over time. You don't have to worry about hiring somebody for do the extra work because hey, you were ahead before and you kept moving forward and you gave yourself a little extra time, a little extra buffer. All right, guys, that wraps up our lesson today on how to stay focused with large projects. Remember, the whole point of this whole thing is to not get overwhelmed, to stay focused and stay motivated. There's a lot of work to do when you have a large project, a lot. But you can get it done. And it's so rewarding when you do. But you have to plan for it. You have to pace yourself just like a runner in a marathon. They know how much energy, how much time they should be spending on each mile in that marathon and they're pacing themselves. They know that this is what they have to hit at what time. And you're doing the same but with your project. Alright, thank you so much for listening to the Hunter MBA show. If you love this show, show us some love with an iTunes rating and review. We would love to hear from you what you think of the show, what your favorite episode is, what your takeaways are. Just go to100mba.net show for all the instructions or you can just search us on iTunes, $100 MBA and just hit us up with a rating and review. Thank you in advance for that. And remember, hit subscribe on your app so you can make sure all the episodes get downloaded on your device automatically. So the episodes are waiting for you. You don't have to search for them. Alright, that's it for me today, guys. But before I go, I want to leave you with this. Now, even though our project webinar Ninja 5.0. The launch of our new Webinar Ninja software is a year long project. It's not our first project. It's not the first iteration of Webinar Ninja. So I wouldn't recommend having these long projects for your first iteration of whatever you're offering. Keep it short. I think the first launch of Webinar Ninja took about two and a half months. And as we grew, as we developed and as we're building greater, bigger things for our audience, it's going to take us longer and longer. And that's okay, that's fine. But if this is your first product or first project for your business, break it down into a smaller, smaller product, a more minimal, viable product so your project is smaller. You got to get some wins under your belt. You got to launch something, get some feedback, you know, get some sales, and then iterate into a larger project. So maybe you work on your first launch it's three months, and then the next iteration it's five months, and the next iteration it's seven months. You get the point. I want to see you win. I want to see you stay motivated. And it's always good to just get a minimal, viable product out for your first iteration. Get some feedback, get some sales, get some, you know, momentum and some buzz going. And while you're getting that done and while people are using your product, you're getting feedback and you're working on the next iteration in the following months. All right, I'll check you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you then.

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