Project Management Applied-Daily and Personal Life

I once knew a Quality Control guy. He worked for a relatively large firm in the Quality Management department His life was quality control - setting standards, measuring, documenting, variance analysis, reporting, identifying improvements, etc. He did quite well in his professional life however, applying his quality management techniques to his domestic life was another matter. He was fired after one year of marriage and I believe he remains detached.

All I'm saying is that maybe applying your professional skills to your personal, domestic or social life is not the best choice for some.

Perhaps that is the appropriate criteria here. We use our project management skills to manage projects not people and relationships. As for me, I could better use my skills on actual "projects" in my life that can help me get to my goals. As a general rule, though, if it isn't my project and I am not a key stakeholder, and I have not been asked for my professional insights then I don't jump in.

If you are going to manage your life as a project, make sure you don't finish ahead of schedule!

If you are going to manage your life as a project, make sure you don't finish ahead of schedule!

I once knew a Quality Control guy. He worked for a relatively large firm in the Quality Management department His life was quality control - setting standards, measuring, documenting, variance analysis, reporting, identifying improvements, etc. He did quite well in his professional life however, applying his quality management techniques to his domestic life was another matter. He was fired after one year of marriage and I believe he remains detached.

All I'm saying is that maybe applying your professional skills to your personal, domestic or social life is not the best choice for some.

If you're going to apply project management to your daily life, don't start with project management; it's better than nothing, but there is some added structure that would make it more effective. The short version is:

- Define your values
- Determine your desired outcomes - long and short-term
- List your current activities and commitments
- Quick assessment - do your activities and commitments align with your values and support your desired outcomes?
- Can you stop doing the things that do not align with your values or support your desired outcomes?
- What do you need to start doing to achieve your desired outcomes?
- Prioritize the activities you could be doing and be patient, you can't do them all at the same time, and some of them may not be worth doing.
- Make sure you have a clear understanding of how the activities (projects, SMART goals, etc...) you are going to pursue align with your goals and support your desired outcomes

Not everything we do is a project, but everything we do IS an investment of our time, effort, energy, resources, etc... If you're going to apply project management to your life, apply principles of portfolio management and enterprise risk management, as well, to make sure you're not just doing things right, but also doing the right things to help achieve your desired outcomes.