“Get real,” exclaimed Jonathan. We had been talking about time management, specifically the disciplines of working on one thing at a time until it was completely finished.

Jonathan’s face flushed, “My projects are so big that I can’t drop everything to focus on a single project until it’s finished.”

“I didn’t say you had to finish the whole project, just the one item you are working on.”

“That’s where I run into trouble. Things are so complex, I am not sure where to start, where the most important things are or the next logical thing in the sequence. Sometimes, I stay mixed up for days. And, seriously, I have four or five major projects going at the same time. And they are all different.” Jonathan sighed.

“Here is a simple tool that will help you handle large complex projects and also to isolate individual elements that you may be able to finish in a single sitting. It’s a cross between a mind map and a fishbone diagram. Have you ever played with a mind map?”

“Not really,” replied Jonathan.

“A mind map is a free form diagram made up of circles, triangles, boxes and arrows. I usually start with a circle in the middle of the page and work out from there. In that middle circle, I name the core purpose of the project to help keep me on track. From there I can map out all of the elements, usually in a time sequence with connections to show dependencies between things.

“Have you ever seen a fishbone?” I asked

“Yep, it’s mainly a backbone with a bunch of spines coming off of it,” smiled Jonathan.

“So I can take any element of the mind map, draw a bunch of spines off of it and add as much detail as I think important.

“Your first mind maps are messy, but you get better. The beauty is that you can isolate any element that you have time to work on and understand exactly where it fits in the grand scheme of things. And you can work on that small element until it is completely finished.” -TF