17. April Q&A: Tips for Project Management and Planning Study Sessions
Episode 17
In this monthly Q&A episode, I answer two excellent questions from listeners who are looking for ways to learn and work smarter.
Question one is from a working professional struggling with project management.
To address this issue, we talk about the difference between tasks and projects, and how to create a system to manage projects, including deadlines and collaborators.
The second question is from a college student wanting advice about planning study sessions around weekly courses.
To address this issue, we talk a bit about time management and the pros and cons of studying and completing college work at the beginning of the week vs the end of the week.
🎙️Other Episodes Mentioned:
→ Episode 7: How to Learn Things
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17 April Q&A Tips for Project Management and Planning Study Sessions
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The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I am choosing not to spend my time fixing them. :)
[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to another Q and A episode where I answer listener questions. These questions were submitted through the form learnandworksmarter.com. As a reminder, you can submit your questions the same way.
Now today I am answering two listener questions.
The first question is from a working professional, asking about managing multiple projects and lots of tasks at once.
And then the second question is from a student.
Now I'm going to read the question submitted by the working professional. This is question number one. Here we go.
I've worked in [00:01:00] product development for over 15 years, but I started a job at a new company almost two years ago. It's still in product development, but the company is smaller than the one I worked at before.
There's lots I like about working for a smaller company, but I am finding that at any point in time I have between seven and eight projects that I'm working on at once.
Some of these projects I own completely, but some are collaborations with other people and I find myself losing track of what I'm working on or who I'm waiting for and what step I'm on for everything.
I have a good task management system and I listened to your podcast about task management systems and I'm doing okay there.
I've never missed a deadline, but I feel like I'm always stressed out or unclear about where I am in each project.
If that makes sense.
Yes, it does make sense.
So, I guess my question is, do you have any tips for how to keep track of everything I'm working on, when some of it involves other people, and I feel like I'm working on a little bit on [00:02:00] everything at the same time?
Okay, thank you for this question. And I think it's an important one because I think a lot of people are in a similar situation.
Now I know that you're working, but your situation of trying to manage seven or eight open projects at once, think about it is similar to a student who's trying to track and manage multiple projects across multiple courses.
Right?
So in that way, I think your question is relevant to yes, other professionals, of course, but also to students.
I love that you feel confident in your task management system. If you hadn't added that part, then that's where my suggestions would have begun.
But you say that it's a good task management system. But what it sounds to me is that you need more of a project management system.
Okay. There is a difference between tasks and projects and how we manage the two. Now tasks can be completed- this is how I like to think of it- it often in, in one sitting.
It's usually like one or two steps and you're done. Usually we can [00:03:00] complete tasks independently and not so much in collaboration with other people.
But what you're talking about managing sounds more like projects.
Projects are ongoing, they're multi-step and you said you're often working with other people. And this is the important part: they're composed of individual tasks. All right.
Because projects are more complex than tasks, we need a different way to manage them.
You didn't specify what type of task management system you're using only that you have one. So there is a chance that your current task management system might have some components to it that could make it a project management system.
So my suggestion here isn't necessarily to just like totally get rid of it and, and get something new.
But instead, I'm suggesting that you either look at your current system. And see how you can make it more into a project management system, or [00:04:00] maybe considering consider adding some kind of task management, uh, project management tool to your, to your toolbox. Right?
So. What do I mean? So what separates project management from task management is that project management sees the big picture and it captures the big picture. Good product management involves keeping track of all of the little tasks required to complete the project.
Right. Who's in charge of those tasks, the status of every task and then the deadlines for each of those. Okay. But not just for the final product, right? The final thing, but for each of the small tasks.
It sounds like that's what you need. And there's different ways that you can go about doing this.
Now I mentioned this before on a different podcast, but they're on actually on several podcasts, but there is a project management tool that I personally you'll use called Asana A S A N A.
So there's a free version and there's a paid version. I personally use the free version and I manage a lot of projects. So, that works just fine for me.
But at the [00:05:00] same time, I'm not collaborating with a ton of people. So you would have to kind of figure out if you're collaborating a lot.
I don't know if the free version. There's some functionality for collaborations. You'd have to play around with it.
Now Assana, like I said, a S a N a it's a program that allows you to create projects and to itemize, I guess, is the word, all the tasks that go with each project. And you can assign deadlines, to each task, you can add contributors and notes to each project. You can add attachments and files.
It has functionality so that you can, you know, know who's working on what step there's a collaboration element. So other people can access the project and add their input, or maybe an update on their status, on their part of the project.
It's really neat. And honestly, the learning curve isn't that hard.
I learned it all just from, you know, YouTube tutorials.
Now Assana is not the only project management tool out there. It's what I use. Okay. But I know a lot of people like Trello. Um, there's [00:06:00] Notion; there's Monday.
You can do your research.
If you don't want to go the route of a software or an app or something, then you're going to need to elevate your current task management system into something that could be project management. All right.
So that means that you're going to need to add in a way to track the status on projects, whether that status is your status or someone else's.
Your task management system is also going to need to be connected to some kind of calendar so that you can track deadlines of your micro steps. Also known as tasks, right?
And you're going to need some sort of like top-level view of all of the projects and all of the tasks that are associated with that project.
What you would do is you would take individual tasks that are., You know, part of a project and you would put those tasks in your task management system and you would work on those individual discrete tasks when the time comes, whenever it's time to work on them, then you, you know, you, if you're doing weekly planning or daily planning or time block planning or something like that, and you would take the [00:07:00] tasks from the projects go, okay, what step am I on? And go in your project management system.
You'd say, what step am I on? What did I last complete? What does that mean I need to do today? Great. I'll do the next two tasks today. One before lunch and one after lunch. Okay, but we're not winging it.
Right. So does that make sense to your task management system would just contain the individual steps that you're going to work on each day, or maybe you have a few days planned out in a row, but to work on the tasks.
But the big picture containing all of the steps of a project, as well as the status and details and things would be somewhere else in your project management system.
Now, depending on the size of your project and how many people you're working with. And you did say you have like seven or eight projects, that's kind a lot. It does honestly sound to me like some kind of software would be your best bet here.
Now another tip, not so much about the system itself, but more about your approach. You want to avoid bouncing back and forth between projects too frequently.
Now, in your question, [00:08:00] you said you have multiple projects that you're working on at the same time.
And I, I get that that's the nature of business. But it seems like- maybe I'm wrong- but you have a lot of control over your schedule and what you're working on.
And it's my suggestion that you stick with a project for at least a day, or at least half a day, maybe an afternoon, to make some progress on it before moving on to the next project.
So reducing the sort of like back and forth between project A and B, and then you go to D and then back to A and D right?
You don't want that.
Because that produces stress and it makes it hard to keep track of progress and status over time because your energy and your focus is on so many projects.
So instead you would work on one project, project A for as long as you can, it might be a full day. It might be a couple days.
It might be, you know, Several hours before lunch. And then you would update your project management system with your status, your, your progress on that project, a.
You would communicate your status on that [00:09:00] project A and new next steps if it made sense to do so, if it was like a collaborative thing,
Then you would shut down the project to the degree that you can and you would move to project B.
And work on project B for an afternoon or a day or few days, whatever.
And when you get to a stopping point, you'd update your progress and status in your project management system.
You'd communicate with other people on your progress and your status if needed. And then you would shut down that project as, as much as you can. And then you continue in that way.
Because our brains don't like jumping from thing to thing, to thing to thing, because it creates more open loops. as David Allen like to call them. All right.
So I hope this answer was helpful. And I think honestly, the main takeaway is that you're trying to treat projects like tasks, when they're actually projects. And because they're different and more complex, they're going to need a different system. All right. It's all right, let's move on to our second question.
And this one was from a student.
And I am going to read the question.
It says I'm a full-time college student and I live at college. I'm in my third year. I have a [00:10:00] question about when I should study.
I have two classes that only meet once a week on Tuesdays. And I'm warning. Wondering when is the best time to do my work for those classes? I have lots of time on Wednesdays to do my work from Tuesday's classes.
But my problem is that I forget everything by the time we meet again, the next week.
Wednesday is my most open day, which is why I do my work then.
But do you think I should do it closer to the next class? So like on Sunday or Monday, maybe. Thanks so much. Love your podcast. Cool. All right.
I So your question reflects a situation that many college students find themselves in.
And that is the issue of the once a week class. Right. We love them, but they also come with some problems.
When you have class only once a week, that leaves you with a lot of time in between classes to either a work on your, you know, work for that class or B forget everything between classes.
And it sounds like that's what's happening. And I honestly don't think that the answer is like an either or situation.
So in other words, I don't think that your [00:11:00] only options are either Wednesday, right after your class, or I think you said Sunday or Monday before your next class.
Okay. I don't think it's like one or the other.
Because in either case you're going to run the risk of forgetting the material by the time you need it again.
So think about it.
When you do your work right after class, like on Wednesday, right, which is when you have time, you forget it all by the next class. Right? Which is the following Tuesday.
But if you did the work on Sunday or Monday, so you're fresh for the next class. That means that five or six days have passed since your last class, which means that you have forgotten the work, the material by the time you sit down to do your work. Right?
So no matter which way you cut it, you're too much time is going by before you need the material again. All right. So here's my message.
First figure out what your actual goal is.
And I'll explain that in a sec, but and your goal might change from week to week or maybe from assignment to assignment, but let me explain. Okay.
So if your goal is to actually [00:12:00] learn the content and the material, then you should follow one approach to planning out when to do your work. And I'll, I'll share that in a sec.
But if your goal is just to get the work done and you don't care so much about learning it, then you would take a different approach. All right.
So let's start with assuming that your goal is to actually learn the content.
Now I talk a lot about this in my student advice, blog, schoolhabits.com, but the best approach to learning information is to do the work and work with the material incrementally.
Knowledge acquisition, like getting information from outside of your brain to inside of our brain, requires repetition.
Specifically, repetition that's with space, time intervals in between each review session.
This is called spaced repetition. And I talk all about it in episode… I think it's seven called how to learn things.
Now, because of that very real cognitive learning theory, I'll call it, if your goal is to [00:13:00] learn the information, then it makes sense to come back to your class material more than once a week.
That means if you have a chunk of open time on Wednesdays, as you say. Yeah. That makes sense to do the bulk of your work to do it on that Wednesday.
But you don't want to let that be the only time that you touch the material throughout the week.
I would suggest that at least one other time, ideally two other times during the week, you're going back into your notes or the readings and you're playing active recall strategies with yourself, right.
And you are testing yourself on the material, you are rewriting your notes, or at least the parts of the notes that are complicated and confusing, and you could benefit from another review.
Right? Do your actual homework assignments and the work on that Wednesday, but then do a few problems maybe from the textbook some other time during the week.
Yeah. Even if those problem sets aren't required. [00:14:00] If you do this, not only are you going to cross the, you know, homework off your to-do list, but you're also learning the material along the way, which means that you'll have to study less for your tests, which was awesome. And then you're also keeping the material fresh in your mind for the next class. Okay. But those suggestions only apply.
If your goal is to actually learn the material, which, which I hope it is. But if your goal is to just get the thing done and you don't care so much about retaining the material or you feel you don't. Need to have it fresh in your mind for the next class. Then just take care of your work on that Wednesday during the time pocket that you have. And call it a day.
No, I can't imagine many real-life scenarios in which that is what you'd want to do, but that is honestly your call.
However, one scenario in which this might be applicable is if you're actually working on projects or like an essay or something, long-term.
Because in that case, it makes sense to work on that project or essay or whatever whenever you have time, which [00:15:00] according to you would be on the day after your class, right. Wednesdays.
I think cramming all of your work into that in one day is doable because when you're working on a project or an essay or something, long-term like that, you don't necessarily need to have specific information fresh in your mind the same way that you would need to, if your homework was to like, do a reading and you're expected to talk about it right, the next week in class.
Does that make sense?
Like if you're learning things in class and having class discussions about like one of the ongoing projects in the background or expectations or assignments is that you're writing an essay. Right. Because that happens. The teacher's like, okay, don't forget your essays due in like, you know, a month.
Right? So it's the expectation that you're working on that on your own time. And the class is still moving forward on whatever it is. It's, you know, you're learning.
So if that's a scenario, then, yeah, you're just going to complete that assignment and work on it whenever you have time. Because that material that your project or your essay is based on, isn't necessarily the material that you're going to be talking about in that next class.
[00:16:00] Right. All right. Let me sum this up.
The first step is to first figure out what your goal is.
If you actually want to learn the material and you're strapped for time, then do the bulk of your work on that Wednesday, but make sure that you are coming back to the material at least one or two other times during the week to reinforce the concepts.
Those additional one to two touch points during the week can be something like 20 minutes. Uh, maybe half an hour okay?
Doesn't have to be crazy.
But if your goal isn't to learn the content, but to just to get the work done or to make some progress on some long-term assignment or something, and you don't have to keep the material fresh, then it's perfectly fine to dedicate like a big chunk of time on that Wednesday to get it done.
All right. I hope my answers to these questions were helpful.
Even if these aren't your specific questions, it is certainly my goal that you'll find some inspiration from the answers, or perhaps you can find some way that these answers apply to you even if your [00:17:00] situation is a little bit different.
Now, if you were watching this on YouTube and you found it valuable, I would love if you would subscribe or leave a comment, letting me know that it was helpful. If you are listening to the audio-only version of this on a podcast app, then a review means all the world.
Thank you. If you're curious about the video version of this, and you can find all of these podcasts videos on my Learn and Work Smarter YouTube channel.
And with that, my friends. Let me remind you to never stop learning.
