How I Manage My Personal Projects

Free Your Mind To focus On How, Not What

Do you find yourself tinkering with something new? Do you find yourself working on some cool new idea in your free time?

Yeah, me too.

Do you keep track of what you want to work on next? You are keeping track of the work, right?

Over the years I have worked on many personal projects. I’m a builder and I like to build things. I also have two young children. So when I have some time to work on my projects, I don’t want to spend time remembering what the heck I wanted to work on. I want to jump right in and get working right away.

Someone told me once:

Writing things down makes it much easier to focus on the work. When you start, you don’t have to spend time remembering what to work on. It’s so much easier to finish work when you know what that work actually is.

I have found success when I run my personal projects more like a Project Manager. Where I take time to write out bits of work, setup segments of work (sprints, if you will 😉), and estimate that work. This way I am able to do the work more efficiently. Not only that, I have a place to practice estimation, scoping, delivery and other things I do during my day job.

I will start by saying I don’t do all this for every project. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense. I’m working on something small, I’m messing around, or it’s a thing that I know won’t live long, etc.

However, for the more involved projects, these are the things I do to keep it running smoothly.

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