As I’m sitting at home here writing this article, I am surrounded by boxes and boxes. My family and I have outgrown our current house and are moving to a new house next week. It has been quite a process in deciding our options. Do we renovate or do we sell? What do we need to do to the house to assist it to sell? I have been channelling my inner Shaynna Blaze!!! It feels like we are entering the end part of this cycle with our house. Real estate agents, solicitors, building and pest inspections, organising a removal truck, packing boxes and then finally the cleaning! When we hand over the keys next Wednesday it will be COMPLETE.
When a new project or cycle presents itself it can be overwhelming to see it to completion. The prospect of the whole picture can be daunting. But the most important step of all is the first step. Just start something. Let’s breakdown the steps involved to complete a task or cycle. There are many different forms of this cycle and how to formally identify the processes involved within it, but I like the following steps.
Step 1: INITIATION
Begin by defining the scope, objective and purpose of what you are trying to achieve. This is a crucial and a foundation stage of the cycle. Do you have a goal? Do you need more information to decide on what you want? Do you need to research or ask more questions? Who can help you with this task?
Step 2: PLANNING
This involves creating of a set of plans to help guide you and/or others through the next phases of the cycle. The plans created during this phase will help you to manage logistics. Examples of this include time line, costs, quality, change, risk and issues.
Step 3: EXECUTION
This can either be a great doing stage or a difficult one if you are a procrastinator. It is usually the longest part of this process. This is where the above two steps come into fruition and you start implementing step 1 and 2. Tracking on your progress is important to maintain the direction over what you are trying to achieve.
Step 4: COMPLETION/END CYCLE
It always gives me a great sense of achievement with I can cross something of my to-do list. This is a time where we can critically reflect on the process. Did this process work well? What were some challenges and how best can I learn from this? What was great? Could I have asked for more help?
Often many of us are doing these cycles within our everyday life without putting any focus on it or even being aware that we are doing it. We turn the autopilot on and just go about our day. However when a project or life situation seems bigger than what we feel when can handle, it helps to break it down and put it into steps to manage the cycle through to completion.
Yours in End Cycles,
…Karen
