Practice doesn’t always come from doing more. It comes from doing the right things enough times that you can count on them when things get stressful. Most people think that if they want to get better at projects, they should create a big, rigorous, super-structured weekly project routine. But those are the routines that usually fall apart after a week or two. The kind of project routine that really sticks is the kind that fits into your life. It’s the kind of routine that keeps you going on busy days or when you have other priorities. It’s the kind of routine you can even use after a bad workout or a sleepless night. It’s the kind of routine you can practice in a single 15 minute chunk.
So, in other words, your weekly project routine doesn’t have to look like your typical day at the office. Instead, your goal should be to practice the core moves of a project manager more often and in more ways: setting scope, sequencing tasks, reviewing progress, identifying deviations, and making adjustments before small deviations turn into big delays. Start small. It often feels like you can make more progress toward a project goal if you do more of it. But that’s wrong.
In truth, if you keep coming back to the same project skills more often, those skills start to work for you. You start to see the underlying structure in any project more clearly. Instead of trying to learn how to make a weekly project routine more complicated, try to see if you can make the same four moves every week. A simple weekly rhythm can fit into four short sessions. On one day, spend 15 minutes clarifying a project outcome and removing vague wording. On another, take 20 minutes to break that project into parts and place them in a workable order. Later in the week, spend 15 minutes reviewing where the sequence feels fragile and writing one adjustment that would prevent confusion.
On the final session, take a small real-world example and write a brief update note that explains what is done, what is next, and what may block progress. Don’t try to squeeze in how to make the scope smaller, how to create a schedule, how to keep communication flowing and how to review results in a single 60 minute block. Pick one skill at a time. Make it a focus. Make sure you’re not practicing it for more than one 15 minute block on any given day. Many of the most common project practice mistakes are the opposite of what I suggest above.
Most people think that they should practice projects by reading notes, rethinking materials, reviewing results, etc. That’s not wrong. It’s just not project practice. Sure, thinking about a project is useful. But it’s more useful to practice making a decision and then sticking to it. So, instead of reading notes, or rethinking materials or reviewing results, spend 15 minutes on a sample project. First, rewrite the project goal until it’s super specific. Next, rewrite the project sequence until you can make the work happen in a certain order.
Next, review the project review to see where the project schedule could slip up. That’s project practice. If you’re just reading and rethinking notes, you might feel like you’re learning. But you don’t actually get any better at projects. So, end every project block with what you did. Create a revised schedule. Create a clearer project schedule. Create a revised project note. Then write a paragraph about what you learned and how it changed next time. It’s easy to forget what a good project routine looks like. One example of a solid project routine is the following. Every week, try the same 4 project practice exercises.
Day 1: 15 minutes to make sure that every project has a clear and specific goal. Day 2: 20 minutes to figure out how to prioritize and order the tasks of a given project. Day 3: 15 minutes to review where the sequence feels fragile and write one adjustment. Day 4: 15 minutes to write a brief update note that explains what is done, what is next, and what may block progress. You can see that the above 4 exercises train 4 very different skills, but they all involve one common skill that every project manager should be able to do: keeping work visible and manageable.
If you ever feel like you’re not getting any better or that your project skills are getting worse, there’s a simple way to figure out why. Repeat the same kind of exercise for two or three weeks instead of constantly inventing new ones. That’s how you’ll know if you’re actually getting better at that skill or not. If you try to do different project skills, it will be hard to tell if you’re getting any better.