What Is a Project for Momentum?

Hitting the ground running with those most important projects depends a lot on how you define them. For the purposes of Momentum, a project is anything in your life that requires Time, Energy, and Attention. 

To get started in the app, you’ll want a short list of projects (no more than five). 

This will let you shift easily into doable action items or project chunks, rather than struggling with the To-Do List of Doom. Most people commit to too many projects — especially when we count our personal projects. And we do!

• Personal projects count, too, since they use your finite energy resources. That means your job, family life, new cat or dog, or new relationship are all projects. 

• You do yourself no favors if you commit to more projects than you can do.

• Get started on projects on a weekly timescale. This will help a lot. A weekly timescale makes you make huge, abstract projects smaller, and therefore more doable. 

• Focus on the action verb you’re using to define your project.

Let’s take a look at some examples. 

1. “Write a book.” This one is too imprecise for a weekly timeframe, without being broken down first. You want to convert the project “Book” into something more specific like “Draft two pages every day” or “Finish editing the book” — with the verb first. 
2. “Finish taxes”. This one doesn’t have an action verb. Think what that will actually involve. Will it be “Gather financial documents” or “Fill out remaining tax forms”. See how that’s a shift? The latter describe a specific action you can take to move forward. 
3. “Build your business.” This one is too big/ and unclear. It could lead to overwhelm if you don’t make it doable by adding an action verb. “Hire an assistant” is a more doable first step (which might also be broken down into weeklong projects). 
4. “Improve my health”. This doesn’t have a timeframe. You’d need to ideate various steps you could take to do this, and make those daily, weekly and monthly projects — like “Run three days per week” or “Meditate daily.” 

(Extra points if you notice that when you define your projects properly, you’re that much closer to breaking them down into project chunks.) 

Don’t forget… How many projects we finish is more important than how many we start. Be more minimalist > maximalist to see how much momentum you can generate.