Starting a Project: My Advice

Starting of any project can seem daunting at first especially the first few times that you do it. Like a lot of things, some people make it look easy and everyone has their ways of doing it. So today I am sharing my advice for starting any project.

NOTE: I will be using both my honours and masters projects as examples in this post and thats because so far these are the biggest and most important projects I have ever done.

Plan the Project

The first thing I did for both my projects was planning them out. Your plan doesn’t have to be fully in-depth but more of an overview of what you will do at every stage. Make these plans realistic. It is okay to say you’ll take a few days to do one thing. Furthermore, make stages of your project clear in your plan, you can do this by colour coding or numbering stages and their sub-stages.

I also make more than one copy of the plan, one which shows a timeline of the project and another that is just a plain Gantt chart. This may seem like a long and weird process but having a timeline plan will help you see how each stage flows into the other while a Gantt chart can be used day to day.

Take notes

While I plan the project as a whole, every day that I work on a part of the plan I take notes. I also plan what I will work on. These notes will help you keep track of your thoughts and how you completed each part of the process. If you have left a task non-completed these notes can also help you know where you left off.  Planning what you will do every day also helps to understand if you are staying on track with the project plan and gives a guideline of how to separate your day. (No one wants to spend all their time doing one thing)

Just Start

It goes without saying that the best way to start the project is just to start it. Plan, take notes and just get the project started. The project will get easier to manage and achieve the more you do.  I remember being both eager and worried about starting each of the projects but by starting I could see the finish line and it motivated me. Now I’m not saying there won’t be days where you’ll not feel like working or the worry will return but just stick to your plan. It will help.

So there you have it, my brief advice on starting your project.

Have you started your own project? Feel free to share your tips by commenting below