A work plan serves to outline a series of objectives and processes useful for achieving them. It is usually addressed to a work team and has the purpose of showing and explaining the purpose of a particular project. A good work plan is able to make work or school life more organized and efficient, and allows you to divide a large commitment into many smaller and better identifiable tasks. Learn to write a work plan to tackle upcoming projects to the best of your ability.
Steps
Step 1. Identify the purpose of your work plan
The reasons for preparing a work plan can be different. Knowing in advance what goal you want to achieve will help you create an effective work plan. Remember that your project must have a deadline (e.g. 6 months or 1 year).
- In an office, work plans will let your supervisor know what projects you will be working on in the coming months. Especially after a year-end meeting (calendar or fiscal), or after agreeing to complete a new project, the need to create a work plan may arise.
- In academia, work plans help students create a curriculum and break down a larger project into small goals. Teachers can also benefit from a good work plan by managing to better organize their teaching material.
- If you have a personal project, a work plan can help you clarify your ideas, outline the actions to be taken, make you foresee deadlines and decide how to act. A personal work plan, although not necessarily necessary, will help you keep track of your progress and goals achieved.
Step 2. Write the introduction and give a reason for your work plan
Especially in the working world it can be essential to prepare an introduction and give the employer the opportunity to contextualize their project. For an academic project, however, this phase may not be necessary.
- The introduction must be short and engaging. Remind your superiors why you decided to create a work plan and introduce the project you will be working on in the coming months specifically.
- Now explain in detail the reasons why you created this work plan. For example, list the details or statistics relating to the latest audits, clearly identify the issues that need to be addressed and include recommendations and feedback received from previous projects.
Step 3. Determine your goals and objectives
Know that both are related to the goals you hope to achieve through your work, but unlike the goals, the goals will need to be much more specific. Keep this difference in mind as you prepare your work plan.
- The purpose will be related to a more general vision of your project. What is the result you want to achieve? Stay generic, for example you may want to complete a search or learn more about a specific topic.
- The objectives must be specific and tangible. In other words, you'll need to be able to cross them off your to-do list once you've reached them. For example: finding people to interview for your research is a good goal.
- Many people decide to divide their goals into time categories: short term, in the medium term, long-term, especially if they are very different from each other. For example, the short-term goal of a company may be to increase its audience by 30% in the following three months, while the long-term goal will be to be able to strengthen the visibility of its brand in social media within the year. following.
- Goals are usually written in active form and through verbs with very specific meanings (eg "plan," "write," "increase," and "measure") rather than vague verbs (eg "examine," "understand," "know," etc.).
Step 4. Sort your work plan goals intelligently
Remember that they must be tangible and reachable. Make sure they have the following characteristics and are therefore:
- Specific. What exactly am I going to do and for whom? Explain exactly who will be the beneficiary of your actions and through which acts you will achieve the goal you have set for yourself.
- Measurable. Are your goals quantifiable and can they be measured? Can you quantify the results? Have you structured your work plan to ensure that the degree of health in South Africa reaches an increase in 2020? "Or to be able to decrease by 2020 the cases of children born in South Africa with the disease of HIV / AIDS of the 20%?"
- Reachable. Is it possible to achieve the objectives set in the time available and with the resources you have available? Make sure your goals are realistic and take all constraints into account. Growing sales by 500% is a reasonable goal for only a small company. The same goal for a global giant would be practically impossible to achieve.
- Relevant. Is this goal useful for achieving the desired goal or for your strategy? While measuring the height and weight of all pupils could benefit their overall health level, will it most likely not affect their efforts to improve their mental health processes? Make sure your goals and methods are properly related to each other.
- To be reached in a definite time. When will this goal be achieved and how will we verify it? Give your goals an expiration date and foresee the eventuality that some results achieved lead to an early end of the project.
Remember that in order to quantify a change you need a number to start from. If you don't know the current HIV / AIDS incidence rate on newborns in South Africa you will hardly be able to calculate any type of degrowth
In some cases it will be essential to consult an expert, or the authorities, to find out if the objectives of your work plan are actually achievable
Step 5. Make a list of available resources
Include everything that will be necessary to achieve your goals and objectives. Resources will vary based on the purpose and scope of your work plan.
- In the workplace, resources can include financial budgets, staff, consultants, buildings or spaces and books. If your work plan is very formal, include a special appendix that details the costs.
- In academia, resources can include access to multiple libraries, research material (e.g., books, magazines, and newspapers), computers and web access, professors, and anyone who can help you answer your questions.
Step 6. Identify any constraints
On the way to achieving your goals, you may encounter obstacles. For example, if you are preparing a research for school, you may find that you do not have enough time to give it the right attention. It will therefore be advisable to eliminate this constraint and eliminate some activities from the next semester in order to be able to fully dedicate yourself to research and achieve your goal.
Step 7. Who holds the responsibility?
Is it important to identify a person responsible for the completion of each project? Although there may be a large work team that is cooperating on a single goal, the presence of a manager who is responsible for respecting the deadlines set is necessary.
Step 8. Write your strategy
Review your work plan and decide how you will use your resources and cope with obstacles to achieving your goals and objectives.
- List the specific actions to be taken. Identify the daily or weekly steps to be taken and the actions to be taken. Do it for both yourself and your team. You can decide to use a calendar or management software to better organize this information.
- Create a schedule. Keep in mind that this will be a provisional calendar and that it may change over time due to some unforeseen event. So try to be foresight so as not to be left behind.
Advice
- Your work plan must be useful to you. Create it according to your needs and choose whether to define it in detail or to outline only the broadest boundaries. Write it on a piece of paper or use a professional software helping you with graphics and colors. Choose what will be most effective for you.
- If your work project is very large, identify intermediate steps so that you can verify the achievement of certain medium-term objectives. Use them to reflect on your work and progress and verify that you are on the right track.
