Life is a Project

  Is Your Life a Project? Unpacking the Project Management of Daily Living Unlike in 2016 when I gave my TedX Talk on Life as a Project , there are a lot of thoughts about the concept now.  As I continue to try to balance launching a new book, DIYing my house, and gardening; I use my fundamental PM tools to get me through.  It is great to see that concept of Life as a Project out there getting talked about! Whether you agree or not, at least it is a conversation point. Ever feel like you're constantly juggling tasks, goals, and those curveballs life loves to throw your way? What if there was a secret weapon, a framework that could help you navigate it all more smoothly? It's called project management , and while it's usually reserved for the business world, an intriguing question is popping up: Can we actually apply these principles to our everyday lives? This isn't just a casual thought; it's sparked quite a lively debate, especially among the pros who live and...

  🏠 From Bedroom to Bistro: Making Magic During My Kitchen Demo Renovation Rule #1: Improvise with flair. When I decided to demo my kitchen and install new tile flooring in the main level of my house, I knew I'd be trading convenience for creativity. What I didn’t expect was how charmingly chaotic my workaround would become: I turned one of my upstairs bedrooms into a temporary kitchen.  Yes, a room that should be hosting guest beds and writing desks now hosts my coffee maker , microwave , and a small prep station that would make any food truck chef proud. Another key consideration is that it has been hot; on several days there have been heat warning days. Having a dedicated tiny refrigerator with sparking water, water filter pitcher , and having a table top icemaker has been great for all the water breaks I need when smashing soffit or prying up carpet strips. Grace and gratitude have also become essential.  With only my sister working on the project with me when sh...

  When a massive storm swept through the Michiana area, I found myself facing a challenge I hadn't anticipated—power outages that threatened to disrupt finals week for my students. As a displaced federal employee and author of Life is a Project , I knew I had to act quickly to ensure they wouldn’t be negatively impacted. Having recently moved from Arlington, VA, to Gary, IN, I hadn’t yet stocked up on emergency supplies. At first, I worked out of a local café and a McDonald’s, grading discussions and keeping up with my responsibilities. But as the outage stretched on, I realized I needed a more sustainable solution. Thinking strategically, I turned to my Marriott rewards—mindful of my strict budget—and booked a hotel with full-size refrigerator, allowing me to take my food from home and prevent it from spoiling while maintaining a functional workspace. Fortunately, I had already purchased a pink igloo cooler. This experience reinforced everything I believe about life as a proj...

Recently we have been getting a lot of rain in Germany and I have been trying to schedule my runs around the rain storms.  For those familiar with risk management as defined by the Project Management Institute , there are a few different options to handle a risk once it is identified.  The four options are risk avoidance, acceptance, transfer and mitigation Risk transfer is when you can pass the risk on to someone else or another company.  This is great for IT projects, but not really an option as a runner.  It would be great to have someone else complete my run for me, but that doesn't actually help me with my training. Risk avoidance is a technique which I have been practicing the past few weeks.  I research the hourly weather charts and then try to calculate the best times to run with the lowest probability of ending up in a rain storm.  This reduces the chances that I will be in a rainstorm and getting struck by lightening.  Of course not runni...

Sometimes I am super busy and I wonder "How will I get it all done."  I think that Project Management principles are great to figure that out. What is the cost, what resources will an activity require?  What about opportunity cost? What about my time?  How much time does it take and how does it fit into my schedule? What is the product or value?  This is the most important question.  The value needs to be worth your time and resources. Two years ago I ran a 7k race with my Brother's family in Michigan.  My Brother had not run in a long time and this was the first time his kids were exposed to this type of running before.  Two years have passed and the both of our families continue to run. The value of this family experience far out weighed the cost of a flight to Michigan or the time it took to train for the race.  This is a memory that was worth the time and money. As I make decisions in my life, large and small, it is the value that ...