And he’s on the road again! This time, the Bluegrass state has struck up its siren tune and beckons me South for the weekend. 3 good friends and I are heading down to Red River Gorge to do some camping and rock climbing over the weekend! I’ve done some free climbing and bouldering in the past, but that’s ’bout it.. I’m really looking forward to the experience :). We’ll be heading out tomorrow afternoon and getting back sometime on Tuesday!

Project Management:

When you’ve got a ton of projects pulling you all difference directions, its really important to have a way of staying on top of things and being able to effectively focus your energy. I was taught a system not long ago that’s been working really well for me over the past few months and I expect will continue to do so.

I’ve taken a big white piece of paper and stuck it to the wall with some ‘fun tack’. Down the center of the paper is a long black line and two labels at the top, labeled, creatively enough, ‘Inbox’ and ‘Outbox’.

And here’s the secret..

Sticky Notes!

I’ve got about 10 or so different colors and sizes of sticky notes, and each of these represent project categories. I’ve got ‘personal education’ as a category, I’ve got ‘youthcove’ as a category, and I have multiple categories labeled to represent various entrepreneurial persuits that currently divide my attention. Wow that was wordy.. *grins*.. I gotz colors for stuff I do.

On each note I’ve written the project category, project title, and a list of the ‘tasks’ to complete. Each one gets crossed off as its completed and when they’ve all been crossed off, the project is evaluated and, if finished, moved to the ‘Outbox’. At the end of each week, the outbox gets cleared of completed projects and things move forward!

Its a great way of staying on top of multiple things at the same time and making sure that a project doesn’t slip through the cracks. So far its worked out very well for me! Take a look at this week’s project board.

Isn’t it pretty? *grins*.. Yes, the side with smaller amount is definitely my ‘outbox’ ;).

A quick tip for those who give this system a go.. be SPECIFIC! Don’t ever write “Finish Website” as a ‘task’. Be specific. Break it down into the details so that you have a CLEAR sense of when something is or isn’t accomplished.

And with that.. I’m off to sleep and pack for tomorrow! Have an AWESOME weekend!

-Jonathan Wold