Getting things done

Most of us have had some involvement with Project Management, and specifically, tracking all the tasks that we have on our plate. In fact, for a lot of us, Project Management is a part of our course that is often, unfortunately, taught in theory with a Project-based assignment.

Why not treat your whole course as one big project? And collaborate with your students (who are all part of the team) towards the goal of learning and demonstrating their skills! We can demonstrate the benefit of time management and project management through participation in our courses...

You may have heard of Getting Things Done (GTD). GTD is a time management method that:

rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of their mind and get them recorded somewhere. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate fully on actually performing those tasks.

(quote from Wikipedia entry on Getting Things Done). Basically, ToDo lists.

I have enough trouble trying to remember all the things that I've got on my plate for work, let alone all the things my students are currently working on, which is why I've grown to love Basecamp. Basecamp allows my students and me to develop and manage our work collaboratively. (Plus it's a professional Project Management tool that's worthwhile learning anyway).

We're going to try it out now by adding our tasks for today to our own ToDo lists! I'll give you a quick tour and then we'll all login to our GettingPractical project on Basecamp and add the following items (and assign them to yourself):

• Introduce myself on email group (even though you can tick this one off straight away!)
• Comment on Michael's blog post about Basecamp,
• Take some time to find out a bit about the person next to you,

If you're anything like me, you've probably got a few things on your mind for when you get home too. Add two or three items of your own that you need to do after todays workshop (e.g. pick up some milk, pick up kids etc, bearing in mind that everyone else in our project can view them!) Have a go at re-ordering your tasks.

Can you imagine how you might be able to use Basecamp to help get something done? (Perhaps planning a renovation, or a trip? Or a project in class?) If you finish updating your todo list, early, comment here and describe how you might be able to use Basecamp.