A Personal Story in Task Management
A few months ago, I started a new job as a Resource Coordinator for a television network. One of the most attractive features that drew me to this position was the amount of planning and organizing of data involved. Considering this job was an essential part of planning facilities and personnel for shows, events, and feature production, I was immediately drawn to the allure of a planning puzzle.
During the last few months of training, I have been forced into a level of independent learning because of a pandemic. While my colleagues still send me notes now and then and set up short phone calls for learning equipment and procedures, one of the things I have had to focus on that is not covered in the training module is how to organize and plan for the many projects that come in every day.
Until now, I have dealt with the multiple requests and emails by finding the closest piece of paper or opening a Microsoft Document and jotting down seemingly senseless notes. Truly, what comes out looks more like a twister of scrambled words and messages.
Noticing that I was spending more time on tasks than I should be and becoming more confused, I asked myself, “how can I best represent and organize each task?” I realized that I needed a little more research on planning skills.
Breaking Down Projects
According to projectmanager.com there are a few vital steps that one can take to be successful in planning, those steps are,
- Create the Project Plan– This is the step where the who, what, where, when and how questions are answered. Then templates are created to keep track of the information.
- Breakdown Deliverables– Breakdown tasks into smaller objectives and collaborate with a team.
- Determine a Path- Review a path to complete, issues, and potential resources.
- Create Timeline– Determine how to get from Point A to Point B.
- Assign Resources– Find resources to help visualize the process and make it digestible. (Project Management Videos, 00:00:03- 00:05:32)
These steps are all helpful not only in planning for a task, but also keeping track of each step involved in the project, and not missing vital information.
Resource for Project Management
One of the most critical parts of my research was determining the resource aspect of project management. To best way to deal with the many tasks and projects that present themselves across through my career and graduate studies, I investigated a few project management websites. While many of them were fairly easy to use and came with a free option, I chose Trello. From a design aspect, I found the user interface simple, yet effective. It is structured in easy to digest categories.
Opportunity for Growth
As I get deeper into my career and am receiving more tasks that require broader plans and deadlines, I look forward to using Trello and other resources to organize and process information.
Resources
Project Management Videos. (2013, February 11). 0:03 / 5:32 Project Planning Process: 5 Steps To Project Management Planning. ProjectManager.com Retrieved June 12, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do8iykQKMfU&feature=emb_logo
Graphics by Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides
dananalyze.com 