Today, using the example of a not very complicated project, we will show how to decompose the project into standard tasks and deploy them on the TargetNavigator board.
Let such a project be the previously mentioned organisation of a family party.
The decomposition of a project into tasks resembles the creation of a Mind Map, in which successive elements are connected to previous ones, creating a hierarchy of dependencies. Mind maps were popularised by Tony Buzan. You can read more about them on Wikipedia, for example: Mind Maps
So let the first card placed on the board be the Family party project card. It symbolizes the whole event. But it can be broken down into elements that will stand for different specific features or tasks to be done.
And so the first important parameters to set will be the date, the time of the party and its duration. Let these be two cards.
The next element is 'Guests'. For the 'Guests' task, we will need to create a list of them, then create and send invitations, and finally collect confirmations of attendance - to know the final number.
When creating the structure of the tasks, we do not determine the order in which they are to be carried out for the time being. We will write about that in just a moment.
In the meantime, an additional topic that may need to be addressed is the transport of guests. Let's therefore write such a charter on the board. We will then decide whether we will do anything about it, or whether we will decide that the guests will have to take care of their own transport to and from the party.
When creating a hierarchy of tasks, it is a good idea to write down all the thoughts that come to mind, so that nothing is forgotten. In the next step, we will select which tasks we will carry out and which we will drop, removing the cards from the board before starting the project.
Undoubtedly, an important part of the preparation will be determining the venue. The choice of venue can be influenced, for example, by the number of guests. That is why we wrote earlier that we do not determine the order of activities at this stage. Only after we have estimated the expected number of people will we proceed with the search for a suitable venue. In turn, 2 further tasks can be linked to the determination of the venue: making the reservation and preparing the decoration of the hall.
Another important topic to consider is the refreshments, the food. With it comes the setting of the menu. And the menu can be influenced, for example, by special preferences of the guests, such as the wish for vegan dishes. Finally, you will need to decide whether you will make the dishes yourself or perhaps order them from a source, such as your favourite pizzeria.
The last topic in our example is the party programme. It will consist, for example, of the attractions - the games we want to offer our guests - and the musical accompaniment.
In this way, we can build up the whole hierarchy of tasks to the level of detail we deem necessary and sufficient. We can really go down to the detail as needed.
We place all the cards on the TargetNavigator board. We can also connect the individual cards with arrows to indicate the relationships between them. Such a layout is shown in the illustration below.
The Ivy Lee Method
Ivy Lee was a marketing advisor to the Rockefeller family. He is also recognised as the author of a technique to increase personal productivity. Originally, this technique involves choosing the 6 most important things from the entire list of tasks we have to do and concentrating on completing them. Ivy Lee recommended creating a set of these tasks in the evening, at the end of the working day, in order to start completing them immediately the next day. Tasks that could not be completed that day were carried over to the next day. You can read more about this method here: Ivy Lee method
So, going back to the example project, we will mark 6 tasks with markers. In our case, these will be the tasks that will initiate the preparations for the party. The first of these might be to choose a date and time for the party. The second task could be to draw up a preliminary guest list. With a certain number of planned guests, the third step can be the search for a venue. The fourth task may be to book it. In the fifth step, knowing when and where the event will take place, we can deal with the invitations. On this occasion, we can already ask the guests about their particular culinary preferences, with a view to determining the menu in the future. Finally, the last task of the first six can be to collect confirmations of attendance. The illustration below shows the tasks marked with markers.
For the purpose of our example, let's imagine that on the day we start working on the preparations for the reception, we have no other more important tasks.
We will therefore transfer the tasks selected for completion to the circle of the TargetNavigator board marked "Today". As you can see, we have modified this circle slightly by adding 6 tracks on it, corresponding to the 6 tasks from the Ivy Lee method. As you can see, only one task touches track number '1'. Another task touches track number "2".
The same is true for the following tasks. Markers can be removed from the task cards or they can be left in place. We could draw a 'Today' circle so large that each track has a diameter equal to the diameter of the task. However, such a scheme would make the board much less legible than when the tasks lie on several tracks. We have assumed that the task counts as the track lying closest to the center of the board.
Tasks that can be completed will be put into the 'Done' circle. However, it is unlikely that all 6 tasks will be completed on that day, as at least the people invited will need time to confirm attendance. Therefore, the tasks will wander around the different districts of the board in the way we described in the previous post.
We hope that this simple example will inspire you to plan and observe the progress of tasks and projects using TargetNavigator. If any information needs more explanation or is not clear - write in the comments.
The board shown in this post can be open from: Google Disc . You need a Google account.
After opening create your own copy.
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