projects are outcomes that you
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are working toward that require a dedicated effort within a certain time frame projects must have two things first a clear goal that you want to achieve and second a deadline or even just a rough timeline you want to complete the project by finishing an essay or a piece of writing by next Thursday a is a project going on vacation to a certain country by the end of this year is a project redesigning your website this quarter or reading a book in the next two months are all projects every project has a specific

start thinking about a new product that we're going to be launching which is a learning community notice that as these sort of come to the surface of my mind each one triggers an idea for a different one as I look over these the book launch reminds me that we also have a trip coming up to London

ooking at my email from just the past few days I'm reminded of several ongoing threads that actually represent projects so for example I'm going to add writing an article on remote work which I've been corresponding with with a collaborator and also I have a thread

two follow the 10 to 15 rule you want to
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end up with no more than about 15 projects on your list and no fewer than about 10. if you have more than 15 projects you're unlikely to make significant visible progress on them in any given week the risk there is that if you don't make visible progress you'll stop believing you can and you'll abandon your projects the point of a project list is focus it's the ability to decide on your priorities move them forward and see progress it's making the invisible effort you put in every day

first of all we have some items here that aren't really projects the most common items that
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sneak onto a project list are dreams hobbies and areas dreams are like projects but they don't have a specific deadline or timeline you'd like them to happen by hobbies are projects without any particular outcome or goal in mind and areas are a general term to describe ongoing areas of responsibility that don't really end but that you need to support and develop over time but that you never really complete things like your health your family your finances or your career let's take a look and try to
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identify the and remove them from our list

if you still have more
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than 15 items you need to move the least urgent to a future Project's note so it doesn't distract you in the meantime if you have 15 projects because they've all been put on your plate by someone else this is a chance for you to learn how to say no because you've over committed yourself or to renegotiate the scope of those commitments with someone else at this stage