I use techniques I learned as a project manager in my everyday life all the time. Do you?
If you are learning to become a project manager, have you started experimenting with these tools and techniques on your own, so that when you do start managing your own projects you will already be familiar with them?
Related posts:
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Of course, Josh!!! Project management is nothing more than a process, and that process is embedded in nearly everything we do, from initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing our family vacation to putting a (wo)man on the moon.
Somewhere along the way, we have taken a process that seems to be hard wired into the human psyche, as evidenced by the taming of fire, invention of the wheel, the great pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall of China, up to and including the recent Discovery Channel's “Big, Bigger, Biggest”, and at least some amongst us, would like to turn this naturally occurring process into “a profession”.
I think project management (the process, not the “profession”) is so ingrained into the brains of humans, that if we DON'T have any projects to do, we INVENT them. Don't believe me? Not sure what your refrigerator looks like, but mine is covered with yellow sticky notes from my wife containing “Honey Do's” (as in” honey, please do this” or “honey, please do that”)
Joking aside, project management truly is embedded into our lives, and like so many other things (i.e. golf) some of us are adept enough at it to be able to make a decent living doing it, while others should stick to being a weekend duffer>
BR,
Dr. PDG, Jakarta
http://www.build-project-management-competency.com
Naturally.
Currently planning a moving. Execution is scheduled… for 13 hours from now !
Those who are used to move know that they are likely to forget a lot of things to do BEFORE then AFTER moving.
Project mode is a heavy choice, but *greatly* helps to ensure that for some weeks BEFORE and AFTER moving, everything in the ordinary life would be without bad surprise. It also makes the movin fast and cheap…
Let's pray we don't treat everything in life as a project – finite duration, planned start, end, outcomes, defined participants and resources, incremental measures of progress to plan.
How about a simple car ride in the mountains with the windows down. An unplanned turn down a 4-wheel drive road to an unmarked lake. Or just a walk down Pearl Street Boulder (Mork and Mindy) with an unplanned stop in an art gallery, to run into the artist of a piece we've had for years. Or bike ride with my son for was going to be short loop around the open space, that turns into a 40 mile trip on unmarked single track trails.
And as a family living on a golf course, please don't play golf as a project. I play with friends that do and they're a real pain. It completely ruins the purpose of a “good walk spoiled.”
Please don't live life as a project, it sucks the very essence of living from you.
Thanks for pointing this out Glen, I certainly didn't mean that everything in your personal life should be treated as a project.
I know, but there are some who do. I work with a few.
Thank you Josh. I enjoy the posts please keep them coming. Mark Jodoin CAPM
Wow!sounds great! I am interested for real.How do i start?Where do we begin?Hoping to hear from you.
If you are interested in project management as a career, see http://pmStudent.com/career