Step forward to see the next step

Following through on a plan — what a concept. (Image by Jürgen Rübig)

These days, I’m learning how to manage projects.

This is not a well-developed skill for me. I’m good at managing a process — something repeatable that can be refined over time — and I’ve had a lot of experience dealing well with novel situations and improvising on the fly. My weakness is one-time, short-term endeavors with a beginning, middle, and end. Projects. Yeah, those.

I spent so many years teaching music lessons that my whole professional life became oriented toward that kind of thinking: I’m experienced at creating an individualized, long-term plan that is continually adapting based on performance. Every so often, we’d have a recital, but the point was to learn how to play a musical instrument, which takes years. The idea of specific deliverables on a specific timeline — with due dates — is relatively foreign to me. The scope and sequence of a project feels unknowable. Doesn’t week two depend on how things go during week one?

I’ve gotten by because, for the projects that were ultimately successful, I had such a strong sense of the vision I was moving toward that I just put my nose down and worked until I reached it. But that is no longer enough for me accomplish the things I need to accomplish. That approach doesn’t allow me to create a replicable process for my team to follow. Therefore, I have begun investing in these skills and looking toward the outcomes I’d like to create that I have yet to realize. Intimidating as it is, I have embraced learning how to do stuff that I’m not good at. However, in order to move forward, I was recently faced with the classic conundrum: How do I learn when I’m so clueless that I don’t know where to start?

It’s always nice when you can throw money at a solution in the form of a person or app to save the day. I considered that possibility, but I wasn’t clear enough on what I wanted to make a hire. And when it came to project management apps, I was just totally lost. I couldn’t even visualize how the projects would fit with these tools. I watched tutorials and played with templates and felt my brain switching off. The gap between what was being presented and what I understood was just too wide.

So I gave up on trying to understand the whole system. I decided to start with what I know and build upon that. In the midst of a familiar process, I got an idea for something I wanted to do that was too big to do right then. It would take more than one step. It was — a project! And then I had another idea like that. So I put both of these on a list. My projects list.

With a list of projects, I realized that I could decide to work on one project at a time without forgetting about the others. And then, considering just one project, I could probably figure out something to do to move it forward. So I did.

And that’s when I realized that, in doing the first task, I could figure out the second. And I could even see the third on the horizon — and with the first three or four tasks determined, maybe I could create a sort of rudimentary pattern to overlay against the madness of my life. I could decide what I wanted the timeline to be, and I could adjust as I went along. I could make guesses as to how long things would take, and proceed accordingly! I could even figure out when the project would be complete. I could commit to a delivery date, and as a result of my choices, I could make it happen.

This may sound very silly or obvious, but it made all the difference for me. It got me out of my stuckness and into action. Suddenly, projects that had been languishing for years were moving forward or even nearing completion. I knew what to do now.

Even better, as the obvious clearly evident tasks are checked off, I’m able to see the shapes and dimensions of tasks and projects that were too far into the mist to define before. With step ten done, step twenty five is emerging — and step one of another, heretofore nebulous and uncertain project is now ready to go. There’s nothing scary around the corners. And I’m becoming more confident that whatever I still can’t see right now will come into view at some point.

Best of all, as I’m able to think a step or two ahead, I can then ask for and receive help from others. That means our progress is accelerating.

What will I do after I complete all these projects that I’ve been stuck on for years? Well, I guess I’ll have to come up with new ones. I’m not worried about running out of stuff to do. But I’m thrilled that things are getting done faster and more easily — plus, I’m having more fun.

I could say that I should have known how to do all this stuff before. I could bemoan all the wasted time and wheel-spinning I’ve done. But I try to have compassion for myself, just as I do for my students when they wonder where they’ve been and why they didn’t see what they now see. It’s all part of the process. Sometimes, you don’t see the next step until you step forward. The important thing is to keep stepping forward. That’s how we progress. That’s how we grow. And that’s how we make things happen.