Many of us dream of a time and place where we can work on one project at a time.
Reality, though, looks different.
Most of us end up needing to work on at least several projects and goals at a time. When those projects take longer than we expected or life intervenes, we end up re-prioritizing and recalibrating, struggling to decide which are most important.
We all do that — sorting projects from most important to least important — but sometimes it's more difficult. It’s never easy. One way to manage it that many Momentum planning clients have used over the years is an exercise called the Project Cagematch.
The method gets you really clear on what matters most.
- List all the projects on your mind. Personal projects count as projects, too. Weddings, vacations, moves, and graduations all count because they require time, energy, and attention to see them through.
- Compare the relative strength and pull of each project. Most of the time, people have a pretty strong sense of which projects will lose in round one or get thrown out of the ring before the match starts. If you can eliminate those projects now, you’ll be left with the contenders worth watching.
- Choose one strong project and compare it to the remaining projects. Which projects does it beat? Which project beats it? At this stage, you don’t have to articulate why one project beats another. Go with your gut.
- Rinse and repeat. Complete the first three steps until you get a rough order of projects by their strengths.
- Assess the projects’ strengths. Now, define what makes each project particularly strong. This is where you’ll start writing a list, beginning with the strongest project and ending with the least.
The project cagematch winner is the one that manages to beat all of the others. It’s the last project or goal standing.
At this point, let us remind you of three things about your best projects: 1) simple ≠ easy; 2) you’ll probably get emotional throughout this process; and 3) Momentum forces you to have a cage match by design.
It’s all a part of ‘choose your own adventure.’
Keep your eyes peeled for the next essential skills, on how to chunk your projects down, and how to sequence those smaller project chunks.
Writer & Content Creator at Productive Flourishing and Momentum. She's passionate about our climate, nature, foreign languages, and discovering uncharted places.
.png)
.png)