Now it’s time to plan and organise your action project. There are lots of reasons why planning is worth doing. Most obviously, it will help make sure your action project run smoothly. Committing your ideas to paper will help you stay motivated and on ball
—since you went to all the trouble to write a plan, you’ll want to go through with your action. Plus, all of these are great skills to put on a resume. Now that you’re convinced of the benefits of planing, follow these simple steps to help you plan your project. Skip those which aren’t relevant to your action.
1. Identify
Start off by identifying your goals and aims of action. What is that you hope to change/achieve? What impact do you want to make? Can you measure it? For example, you may aim for 200 signatures for a petition. What do you want to learn or gain from this experience?
2. Get specific
Next break down your project into specific activities. Create a list and write them down.
3. So little time
“I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time"
(Jack London, 1916)
Develop a weekly or daily timeline that allows enough time for you to complete all your tasks. Be realistic about your time.
If your project is quite complicated, or you’re the type to colour code your sock drawer, think about constructing a Gantt chart as well. It’ll help you manage your time and tasks. You’ll find the template in the ‘Organise’ folder of the Toolkit.
If you're flat out, you need to think about managing your time. In the ‘Organise’ folder of the Toolkit, look at the Time Management tool. It’ll help you squeeze in the time to take action.
Caption : Untangle potential hiccups before they occur
Photographer : jurveston |
4. Risk & Constraints
Give some thought to any risks or constraints that may affect your project. Risks and constraints are things that may delay your project or issues that may pop up, like copyright issues, or a lack of skills in public presentations. You need to think how you can address these. For those with a busy schedule, for example, you might decide to spare one hour a week to work on your action project.
5. Resources and Money
Make a list of the resources you will require to complete your action project. This might include microphones, stationery, or access to computers. You might be spending a fair bit of money in your action. If so, create a budget
—see the
Creating a budget and sticking to it tool
6. Sleep on your action
But not literally...When you finish it off, mull over it for a couple of days. Go back and re-read the plan, and chances are that you’ll think of one or two ways to improve it.
Next Steps
Save this to the ActNow blog. Post your plan to the blog. And comment on others' plans
—get talking, it’s a community.
