Managing your projects can feel a lot like relationships.

When you start a relationship what are some of the first things going through your head:

• What are we? 
• Is this serious?
• Is this a short-term or long-term type of relationship?
• How much energy and effort do I want to put into this?

This same thought process can be applied to your projects. Ask yourself:

Is this a short-term or long-term project?

What is this going to accomplish?

What is the priority level?

How much energy and resources are going to be needed?

Short-Term vs. Long-Term Projects

When deciding your project length, impact, and overall management needs, something you should always be looking at is your end goal.

Short-term is focused most often on:

• Cash flow
• Skill Development
• Quick Return on Investment

Examples of short-term projects:

Anything that takes anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks.

Normally a smaller goal that you achieve in order to support your longer-term goals.

• Creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for each department of your business
• Increasing your social media presence for two weeks before a launch
• Rebranding
• Creating Content for the month
• Preparing and presenting as a guest speaker in a Masterclass

Long-Term Projects are focused mostly on:

• Implementing and teaching your SOPs
• Your reputation as a brand
• Your mission awareness
• Connection and relationship building
• SEO traction

Examples of long-term projects:

• Building ongoing relationships with clients and other people in your field
• Increase revenue for the fiscal year
• Gaining quality and diverse client feedback over time
• Have a popular and lead converting blog

When you start a project and you begin to organize and manage it all, one of the key elements of project type is also timeline. 

If you don’t know how long the project will last, you can’t estimate resources, you can’t see start to finish, and managing the project feels daunting.

Take the pressure and avoidable stress off your plate by planning ahead.

Then, you can set up your timeline, assign your starting tasks, and move from timeline to impact and management needs.

Laying out your timeline and checkpoints in your project management tool is one of the most efficient ways to keep clients in the loop without having to go back and forth as you go.

Platforms like ClickUp were created to help you serve your clients/team well and make business easier, so let them.

•  Set an overall goal for your project timeframe (4 weeks, 2 months, 1 year, continuous service?)
•  Break your project into phases
  1. Your initial project review. What is your end goal? Who’s involved? How long should this take? What are some of the key elements of the project (checkpoints)?
  2. The kickoff. What goes into starting? Get your outline/foundation into your project management tool (ClickUp, Asana, etc.) Bring the team together (if you have one). Figure out where to start and get started
  3. Your messy middle. Tasks are being completed, and timelines are becoming more clear. Re-evaluate this timeline based on checkpoints—Check-in with your team. Don’t give up.
  4. Time for the final stretch. This is when you start putting all the pieces together. Do you need to revamp some things? Is it time to present/launch/get going?! How is the team feeling about the result? Is your project still aligned with your goal?
• Set up timelines for each phase
• And have direction on where your time and energy need to go.

It’s wild how seamless you can deliver projects to clients when you take the upfront time to lay it all out in your systems.