Using the holidays well

Many of you will have now finished at University or College for the Christmas vacation.

At our University, the way that the calendar has fallen this year means that there are 5 full weeks before term starts again.

How best to use the time?

My recipe for how to use the time is as follows. Of course you can do exactly whatever you like, but I do get asked this, so I recommend dedicating about 1/5 of the time to each of these activities:

• Celebrating with family and friends
• Completely relaxing and 'switching off'
• Completing any assignments that are set over the vacation
• Preparing for next term
• Working on your project

You could think of this as "one week of each", or just as a rough guideline of how to allocate activities to your diary.

Celebrating and Switching Off

I think it's really important that you don't try to work for the entire holidays. You're probably not far off the end of your degree and may have been working hard for quite some time now. You're due for a break. So take some of this time to let your brain wind down and not stress about working for a while. There are usually plenty of things to be done around a Christmas holiday.

BUT - 5 weeks of partying or dossing around probably won't ultimately feel that good either, so why not schedule into your diary when you are going to start work again, and what you're going to work on?

Completing assignments

Many of you will have modules to complete - essays to write, programs to compile, reading to do, etc. If these are due at the start of next term, do prioritise some time to getting those finished. Some people find it psychologically helpful to do this before switching off for Christmas.

Again, it's good to break down your tasks into smaller and more manageable chunks, which can be scheduled into your diary and kept as an appointment with yourself.

Preparing for next term and working on your project

Another good way of helping you to switch off is to make a list of what you can do in preparation for next term. It may seem counter-intuitive, but once you've committed this sort of planning to paper (or electronic documents) your mind can relax more, knowing that you have scheduled time to take care of this in the future.

So, have a look through upcoming modules to get an idea of the topics you'll be covering. Look for any reading that needs doing before you attend the taught sessions.

For your project, this is a great time to take stock of where you are up to so far. You might be feeling a bit overwhelmed at how much of the project there is still left to do. One of the best things you can do is to write down all the things that are worrying you, or are yet to be done, and plan some time (maybe after Christmas) when you will dedicate some time to working on these things.

If your project needs specialist equipment or support, then you won't be able to work on that directly over the holidays, but you can read, think, plan, write up what you've done so far, etc.

Wishing you all the best for Christmas.

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Full details on how to successfully plan a project are found in the book, available from the Amazon site below.

Managing Your Project: Achieving Success with Minimal Stress < NEW: Print Version >

Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1537212206

Also available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0164RXKLI

Making your Project a Priority

I have just discovered something in the nick of time that I should have been working on over the last couple of weeks. I've been so busy that there was nothing visible in my reminder system to let me know I should also have been working on this other thing. That got me thinking, and maybe the same is happening with your project?

Other Things

Some of you may be in the fortunate position of only having your project to do. I suspect though that for most of you there will be many competing activities and tasks. You may be taking several modules or courses, and - towards the end of term - the assignments become like giants striding towards you. There may be group activities that demand attention. There might be a flurry of end-of-term lectures, seminars, workshops, laboratories, revision sessions etc. Some of you may be getting inundated with plans, ideas, commitments for travel in the holidays. For many university or college students there is a round of gatherings, parties, club nights leading up to the holidays.

What all of these things have in common is that:

• people are talking about them;
• they have emotion attached to them (fear or excitement);
• they are in your schedule or on your timetable;
• there is a fixed and unmovable deadline.

Remember Me

Meanwhile your project - which is probably one of the most important pieces of work that you have ever done on your course, and one which may be worth the most in terms of marks or credit - sits quietly in the background, whispering "Remember Me?".

Of course we remember; that's what makes us feel guilty about the project. But what can be done about it?

Well, firstly it's important to realise that sometimes you just have to concentrate on an imminent deadline. But the problem comes when your project suffers a continuous lack of attention and focus because there is always something more discussed, worrying, exciting, or urgent to be done.

The solution

You might have heard the expression "if you can't beat them, join them"? Well, the same can be applied to your project. If it's being constantly drowned out by the other tasks, maybe you need to elevate its status.

Let's revisit each of the reasons that the project is ignored in favour of other tasks:

• people are talking about them;
• then talk about your project. Find opportunities in your study group to ask each other how the project is going. Talk to your supervisor. Write things down.
• they have emotion attached to them (fear or excitement);
• then create some emotion about your project. Remind yourself why you chose it, and give yourself reasons to get excited. If you want some fear-  look at how many credits it's worth and see how much of the project has already passed.
• they are in your schedule or on your timetable;
• this is vital; you must find a way to get regular project work scheduled into your diary; or write it on your timetable. Keep to that commitment as if it was a meeting with someone else.
• there is a fixed and unmovable deadline;
• this is also true about your project. The problem is that the end deadline is relatively a long way off. This is why it's important to create interim deadlines for all the major phases of your project. Put these in your diary and put reminders in the preceding weeks, e.g. "2 weeks to initial report", "3 weeks to first design phase complete".

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Full details of these topics (including details on how to successfully plan a project) are found in the book - Chapter 20, available on the Amazon site below.

Managing Your Project: Achieving Success with Minimal Stress < NEW: Print Version >

Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1537212206

Also available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0164RXKLI

Setting Objectives

In the previous blog post we looked at the importance of setting a Title and some major Aims. Today we look at Objectives and why they are a vital part of project planning.

What are Objectives?

Last time I said this:

It's important to understand the difference between Aims and Objectives, as many people seem to use those terms interchangeably. Aims are what you are aiming for. They are a description of the end-point of the project. Objectives are the detailed steps you plan to take to get there.

So, the Title and the Aims help you to focus on the purpose of your project, whereas Objectives are more of an Action Plan.

Top-level Objectives

At the start of the project, you should try to map out the major steps that you will have to carry out in order for you to achieve the project aims. As an analogy, imagine you were trying to cross a river. Your Aim is to reach the other side. Your Objectives are the series of stepping stones that you have to navigate step by step. (To push the analogy a bit further, you might first want to do some research by looking around to see if there are any other river-crossing methods that might get you there safer and drier, such as a short walk to a bridge, or hiring a boat.)

What should my first Objectives look like?

Please don't stress about getting these 'perfect'. It is much more important that you just get something down on paper, and that as soon as you can you share these with other people (such as your supervisor or peer group).

Why not start off by simply making an ordered bullet-point list of all the things that come to mind when you look at your Aims and think "What needs to be done to make this happen?".

In the previous blog post we had an example project:

... with the title 'A musical instrument for people with restricted movement', Aims: To understand the needs of specific individuals who struggle to play musical instruments, and to design and build an electronic-based instrument that allows the user to play notes and chords reliably in real time.

Your first set of objectives in this case might look something like this:

• Identify local contacts for working with specific people with movement difficulty who would benefit from a customised instrument
• Research other electronic musical instruments for similar purposes
• Learn musical programming language <be as specific as you can here>
• Devise circuit diagram and components for building interface
• Build instrument
• Test in lab
• Work with contact to get user feedback.

That's just a quick starting point, but you'll see that it's already become an ordered list of activities for you to do, rather than some general aims. These will need to be broken down into detailed tasks, and put into your planner, etc. but for now you have started the process, and have got something to work with.

Try it with your own project, and get some feedback from others as soon as you can.

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Full details of these topics (including how to brainstorm and develop your Objectives) are found in the book - Chapter 17, available on the Amazon site below.

Managing Your Project: Achieving Success with Minimal Stress < NEW: Print Version >

Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1537212206

Also available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0164RXKLI

Title, Aims and Objectives

A surprisingly important part of getting going with your project is the development of your Title, Aims and Objectives. Time invested in thinking through each of these statements about your project is rewarded by a better understanding of your own work, and increased ease of communication to others. Today we look at Title and Aims.

Title

One of the first things you should discuss with your supervisor is the title of the project. Even though you might be able to change this right up to the submission of the final report, it acts as a valuable source of focus and discussion. Your title should say, in as few words as possible, what is the topic of your project. Some examples might be:

• A musical instrument for people with restricted movement
• Investigation into the use of tablet-based interfaces for non-visual operation
• Studying the effect of computer games on the mood of teenagers.

The form of words, and the grammar used, is up to you and your supervisor. But in these few words try to sum up the main focus of the project. Try coming up with a title, then challenge it. Does this actually cover what I'm planning to do? Does it restrict my plans too much? Equally is the title too vague or wide so that it could cover all sorts of things that I'm not planning to do?

Review your title on a regular basis. Try it out on other people and ask them if they understand it.

Aims

It's important to understand the difference between Aims and Objectives, as many people seem to use those terms interchangeably. Aims are what you are aiming for. They are a description of the end-point of the project. Objectives are the detailed steps you plan to take to get there.

To come up with your Aims, try thinking through what you will have achieved at the end of the project if it's been a success. Ask yourself what you think will be true about the world because of your project, that isn't true now.

So for the project with the title 'A musical instrument for people with restricted movement', you might come up with something like:

Aims: To understand the needs of specific individuals who struggle to play musical instruments, and to design and build an electronic-based instrument that allows the user to play notes and chords reliably in real time.

You'll notice that it's much longer than the title, and goes into more detail. There is also more context and information about what the project might actually entail.

For now, if you haven't done so already, try to come up with a title and some aims. Some people find it helpful to come up with two alternative aims: one for if the project is a wild success, and the other which represents the bare minimum required to carry out the project. Chances are that the real project will be somewhere between the two.

Objectives

We'll look at Objectives in a future blog, as they form much of the basis of really good project management.

Full details of these topics (including how to develop the Title and Aims for your project, and more about how they are used in planning) are found in the book - Chapter 17, available on the Amazon site below.

Managing Your Project: Achieving Success with Minimal Stress < NEW: Print Version >

Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1537212206

Also available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0164RXKLI

Getting Started on your Project (6 things to do)

To those of you doing student projects, it's probably just begun, or about to begin for you, as it's the start of the Autumn Term.

In my Department the project choices have just been allocated.

But what to do first or next?

Here are 6 things you can do immediately to make the project become 'real' for you.

1. Read my previous blog post about Getting a Head Start.

2. Arrange to meet up with your Project Supervisor. Some supervisors may have contacted you already. But don't wait for this. Show keenness and begin the process of being proactive and 'owning' your project by sending an introductory email and asking for a meeting. In that first meeting you should be discussing things such as:

• Fixing times for regular supervision meetings
• The main aim of the project
• Recommended reading from your supervisor
• Next actions to take on the project.

3. Setting up a team. I arrange students into small groups of similar project topics, so that they have a network of people for mutual support and sharing of ideas throughout the project. I realise that this is unusual, and not everyone will do this for you, so why not try to set one up for yourself? We'll return to this idea at various intervals in the blog.

4. Set your main deadlines. Establish what are the key points in the project where you need to hand something in. Get these in your diary. But don't stop there. All good projects have lots of sub-deadlines that you can use to motivate yourself and track your progress. You could also discuss these in your supervision meeting.

5. Establish when & where you will work. Don't leave your project to 'do in the gaps'. Experience shows that there aren't many gaps and the project can end up just never getting done. Plan your ideal working times, and schedule these in your diary and keep to them like you would an appointment for a meeting.

6. Start taking notes. You will be dealing with so much information - things to read; things you think about; ideas you pick up from others; minutes of meetings; plans etc - that you need to have a reliable and instantly accessible way of taking notes. I'll cover this in a bit more detail in a future blog, but invest in a notebook or look into electronic ways of taking notes (e.g. Evernote, Google Keep or OneNote).

More available in the book. I've tried to encapsulate years of experience from student and supervisees into the book's 360 pages, and students who have worked through it have found it to be a very useful guide, not just to this current project but to their future work projects as well. It goes into a lot more detail about everything we cover in the blog, and more.

Details of all these things are found in the book - Chapters 3 & 4, some of which are readable in the free sample available on the Amazon site below.

Managing Your Project: Achieving Success with Minimal Stress < NEW: Print Version >

by Andy Hunt

Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1537212206

Also available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0164RXKLI

Making a Head Start on your project

Most student projects begin in the Autumn Term, and many take place over the entire final year. At York, where I teach, students get a couple of weeks at the start of term to make their choices, and then the final decisions are made a few weeks into the term.

The majority of students tend to wait until that point to start thinking about their project. My suggestion is that you begin this process as soon as possible. If you start making some progress on your project now, you will be able to hit the ground running when you start officially.

But isn't that dangerous, given that my project choice isn't finalised? What if I can't get that project, and so any input I do is wasted? How can I find time to do this as I'm so busy working or travelling to University?

These are all good and sensible questions, and it may be true that there is no guarantee right now that you will get your project. However, there are several reasons why it's good to make a start, and they don't need to take up too much time:

• You will arrive back at university/college mentally prepared and raring to go.
• This helps you to quickly focus on your work and make the most of the facilities there.
• You will gain some background knowledge on the subject, and this gets you thinking.
• Some thoughts and ideas have a long 'gestation period', so the earlier you can start, the more sophisticated your ideas can become because they have time to grow.
• Even if your idea or focus changes, it is by being proactive that helps you to grow. It's often said by martial artists that it's easier to change direction if you're already moving, than to suddenly move in a new direction from being stationary.
• It puts a proper perspective on your project. When you're back at studying there will be many other pulls on your time, yet the project is often the biggest thing you will do.

So what sort of things can you do ahead of time?

1) Read about Project Management. This is going to sound like yet another shameless self-promotion, but you could do worse than getting the book (see below) and start working through it. Seriously, running your own project is one of the biggest changes and challenges you will encounter in your whole education, and it takes many people by surprise. Be prepared.

2) Read about your subject. Do everything you can to become an expert in the area you are studying. Find out what the major topics are. Look out for books, and get hold of some of the best, or visit your library. Make a reading plan and try to do some every day. Find out what the most important journals are. Search the web - not just once, but trying out different keywords and persevering. Be hungry to find knowledge in your area.

3) Contact your potential supervisor. Some of you will have done this already. The supervisor is in a good position to recommend some key topics for you to look into, or maybe some important references for you to read.

4) Make notes. Get a notepad, or use an electronic note-taking system such as Evernote or Google Keep or OneNote and starting making this subject your own. Keep a record of everything you do, ideas you have, things you've read, things you want to read, questions for your supervisor. By writing it down you will mentally begin the process of managing your project.

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For more information

In the book Managing Your Project, Chapter 3 is all about the things that you can do to get going on your project and to mentally prepare for the process, and is worth working through before the project actually starts.

Chapter 3 is actually available (in its entirety) free of charge on the sample that you can see on the Amazon website here. Just click on the cover's “Look inside” or download a sample to your Kindle or Kindle reader app (available on most major platforms).

Managing Your Project: Achieving Success with Minimal Stress < NEW: Print Version >

Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1537212206

Also available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0164RXKLI