How to Start a Huge Project in 4 Simple Steps
Today we’re going to deal with taking on projects so big that you don’t even know what you don’t know.
As you may know, I attended Burning Man this year. It’s a temporary city in the desert that exists for one week each year. It’s literally the size of a city, and is built by artists, engineers, and mad scientists as an experiment in intentional community.Â
One day, while riding a bicycle out in the deep desert, inspiration struck. In 1993, the videogame MYST came out. When released, it was immersive. It was beautiful. It was groundbreaking. From the music to the storyline, it held intrigue. I recently replayed it and it holds up very well.
MYST takes place on an island. Between solving puzzles, you often return to a beautiful octagonal library in the middle of the island. The library has “linking books.” These are magical books that transport you between different Ages of the MYST universe. My dream is to recreate that library at Burning Man.
There’s only one problem: I don’t build stuff. I don’t design. I don’t use a hammer. I don’t paint. I’ve never transported a structure to an event in the desert. In short, I have nothing but passion, a vision, and a few get-it-done skills here and there.
Ignorance Is Bliss…Plus Paralysis
Not only that, but the scope of this project is so gigantic that it’s paralyzing. There are blueprints to be made, structures to be built. And depending on the cost, probably money to be raised. Grants to be applied for. And none of it is known in advance. Urp!
I announced my desire to do this several weeks ago. And haven’t done any work since. Not for lack of desire; but because the audacity of the project is huge, knowledge is small, and I want to get it 100%, totally right.Â
And therein lies the problem. If you have some notion of what the Ideal Project would be, it can be so overwhelming that it becomes impossible to start. But don’t do nothing! You’ve got a vision. Now, make a high-level plan. And another. And a third. Make three plans, and then decide your next steps.
Consider the MYST library. If you were going to make it come true, how would you do it?
How to Start a Project in 4 Simple Steps
- Make a Cheap Plan
- Make a Fast Plan
- Make a Perfect Plan
- Make a Merged Plan
Here are the steps in more detail.Â
1. Make a Cheap Plan
First, make a cheap plan. You’ve got a vision. Pretend you don’t have money. And in order to get some, you’ll have to sell your loved ones on the black market. So you’re really, really motivated to spend as little as possible.
Pretend you’re broke. What would your plan be?
Wood would be expensive to machine, construct, and transport. You could instead build a metal frame for the building. Instead of solid walls, you could use a layer of painted white fabric for the exterior walls. You could then hang fabric in the interior, painted to look like the interior room. Indeed, you have a theater set designer friend who probably knows how to do all this.
Or even cheaper, you could even make all of the walls out of white fabric, stretched to be taut. Then you cunningly mount projectors to project the outside walls on the outside, and the inside walls on the inside fabric. You save all the painting costs by using Photoshop-created textures and images created entirely on your cell phone.
The cheap plan is: frame + painted scrim + lights.
2. Make a Fast Plan
Next, make a fast plan.Â
If cost were no object and we had to move fast, what would you do?
For the MYST library, you could look through past Burning Man art projects that involved creating house-like structures. You don’t have to look far. This past year, artist Rebekah Waites created a sculpture of a house called Singularityopens IMAGE file .
You would offer her a gazillion dollars to buy the house. You’d hire your friend the set designer to paint the inside. And you would purchase $15,000 worth of fully-functional MYST linking books from Mike Ando, MYST-fanatic extraordinaire. They come complete with alternate dimensions to travel to.
You’d also hire a construction crew to reassemble the thing at Burning Man. You could probably pull the whole thing together in a few weeks.
3. Make a Perfect Plan
Lastly, make a perfect plan. This is the plan that’s been in the back of your mind the whole time. The plan where everything is done “right,” whatever that means.
In your perfect plan, you assemble a team of experienced volunteers. Together, you custom-build a wooden replica of the MYST Library. The bookshelves, moulding, and table stands are all custom machined. You design puzzles and make your very own interactive linking books. This is a real-life living, breathing replica of the MYST Library.Â
It also probably costs about $150,000 and requires a team of 50 people to pull it off.
4. Make a Merged Plan
Now that you have three different plans, you make a merged plan. You have a range of options. You can strategize combinations of the three plans. You can figure out what to investigate, questions to ask, and possible next steps that don’t yet commit to any of the three plans.
You might decide to contact Rebekah Waites to find out if she would be willing to share what it takes to bring a house to the playa. You’ll contact your set designer friend to understand what can be done to create the library out of illusion and thought, rather than real mahogany. And you’ll be able to take the next steps without being overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all.
And by “you,” of course, I mean “me.” But you can use these techniques, too.Â
Next time you’re paralyzed by a huge project, stop and step back. Make three high-level plans: the cheap plan, the fast plan, and the perfect plan. Then create a merged plan, a plan for how you can proceed. Sometimes, your new plan will be a new plan to finish your project. Other times, it will be a plan for research you can do to choose your next steps. Either way, you’ll get moving. And if you don’t have a magical linking book to transport you between Ages, getting moving is the next best thing.
I’m Stever Robbins. Follow GetItDoneGuy on Twitter and Facebook. Do you need to do regular billing of clients, but you never quite get around to it? Do you want to establish a habit of prospecting? If so, join a “Get-it-Done Group” and we’ll make it happen. Learn more at SteverRobbins or join my personal mailing list by texting GETITDONE to 33444. Image of people assembling rocketship © Shutterstock.
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About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.Â
