furashgf;87461 said:
1. Can you recommend a way for me to find (brainstorm) the missing 20 to 80 projects?
2. If some of the items generated by #1 are actually multi-year activities (30K or greater goals), how do I handle that? Do they get broken down on "what's this year's 10K project for that 30K greater goal)?
3. Won't most of these items become Someday/Maybe's. If so, won't that eliminate most of the projects and turn it back into 10 projects like I have now rather than 30 to 100?
For number One here are some of my suggestions.
Walk around your spaces, personal and work and note anything that is out of place, hard to use or access or you don't like. Those things can all become projects. Example: I walked around the Red Barn and got a project of Repaint red Barn Doors because the chickens have scratched the bottom paint off.
Sit and reflect on the things you love to do, your hobbies you may not have any time for and think whether they still appeal to you. Projects can fall out of that as well. Example: I really enjoyed creating the Jeans Quilt I made for my husband. I have a bunch of old jeans that are too worn out to wear. Making another jeans quilt became a project.
As you process backlog take note of things that make you happy and things that make you sad. Find ways to re-incorportate the happy ones into your life and see if you can eliminate any current versions of the sad ones. Example: As I've been cleaning out my mother's estate stuff I found some pen and ink drawings I did as a kid that I then colored with watercolors. That prompted several projects related to getting back into doing art.
Look at your calendar from a year ago and compare a month in advance and back from today's date and see if you are missing anything. Example: I reviewed what I was doing a year ago and realized that it was time to get the lamb bags ready and I didn't have a project to do that. I have a checklist of items to go in them but not the whole project which is actually complicated starting with Remember where I packed the lamb bags from last year
Collect all these as basic thoughts and put them in your inbox for processing later. The goal is to generate as many new ideas and possible projects as you can, not to sort them at this stage.
For number Two yes 30K goals do result in projects. So brainstorming at the higher levels will often result in many more projects.
For number Three. Once you have a much more complete list of possible projects you need to process it. That includes spending the time to really decide on those items you identified in number 1. Sure, a lot will end up on Someday/Maybe but you then have a more complete list of things you think might be important. Do this for several weeks in a row and you get in the habit of collecting plenty of possible projects and then if you are realistic you will be able to sort into the ones you really will work on t active and the rest to someday/maybe as you process your inboxes daily.
