Whether it’s work-related, personal or a project around your house, we all have things we’d like to take on (or have to take on, in some work cases). When you’re standing at the beginning of a huge task with lots of steps, it can feel so overwhelming and like you don’t even know where to begin. Here’s the steps that I use when I’m facing a huge project. These steps helped me start this blog, plan a trip to Ireland, and decorate my new house. I hope you will find them useful, too!
1.BRAINSTORM- Get all of your ideas out onto paper. Especially when you have no idea where to start, getting all of the thoughts about the project out of your brain and into one page so you can start to wrap your brain around it. For example, If you are planning a redecoration of your living room, you might write down everything from paint colors to plants to cleaning out the TV cabinet. There’s no rules for a brainstorm- just write down any and every thing you can think of around the topic and you’ll organize it later.
2. LAY IT OUT LOGISTICALLY- Look at your brainstorm and figure out what needs to happen first or what needs to happen before other items can get done. For the example above, you’d need to paint the walls before you hung up new wall art, and you’d want to wait to buy a rug until you found new furniture for the room so that you knew what size you needed.
3. PRIORITIZE- Some tasks for your project may not be time bound in any way. If that is the case, look at the whole scope of your project and decide what’s most important to you. Maybe getting a new light fixture would be great, but it doesn’t mean as much to you as getting a new couch. Big projects can often come up against time or financial constraints (or both). Choosing your priorities ahead of time makes sure that you spend your time and energy on the most important parts of the project.
4. SCHEDULE IT- After you’ve organized and prioritized the steps for your project, you should have a clearer idea of where you need to begin. Identify the first few steps you need to take and give yourself a timeline for getting it done. For your living room redecoration, maybe step one is to research new decor ideas on PInterest or take a shopping trip to some furniture stores to get ideas on what you’d like in your new space. Take a look at your calendar and pick a day when you have time to do those first few tasks and schedule time in to do it.
5. TAKE ACTION- All of the planning and organization in the world won’t help you get a project done if you don’t actually DO the things that you’ve planned. Once you’ve scheduled something in, you have to follow through on it. Make the steps as simple and easy as possible, especially at first, so that they are easy for you to accomplish and follow through on.
I hope that helps give you some ideas on how you can ACTUALLY take a big project or goal from idea to reality. Comment below on one of the projects you are currently working on!
Hey, I’m Meghan
I’m here sharing content all about pursuing your own version of more and loving how you feel doing it. If that sounds good to you, stick around and let’s be friends!
