Life is a project (household budget included)

We all do project management every day, without knowing it. A house move has a deadline, a budget, suppliers and surprises. A wedding has more stakeholders than many corporate projects. Even dinner for twenty has a plan, dependencies (the roast won’t wait) and a major risk (guests arriving early).

You don’t need to become “the project manager of your own life”: it sounds exhausting, and it partly is. It is enough to borrow five habits from the craft, the ones that make the difference between a project you steer and one that runs you over.

1. Write down what “done” means

“Moving house” is not a goal: it is an intention. “By 30 June, in the new house, with a working kitchen and the boxes unpacked” is a goal: you know when you have reached it, and you know what is missing.

In projects we call it completion criteria. At home, one written sentence is enough, ideally shared with whoever is doing the project with you. Half of all arguments come from two people with two different ideas of “done”.

2. Break it into pieces

A big project is frightening; ten small tasks are not. Take the goal and ask yourself: what has to happen for this to be true? Then ask the same question of every answer, until each piece is something you can do in an afternoon.

• House move: choose the removal company, close and open the utility contracts, pack room by room, clear the cellar, fit the kitchen.
• Trip: dates, tickets, accommodation, documents, what to pack, who waters the plants.

It is the home version of what PMs call a Work Breakdown Structure. It works because the brain handles “pack the bookshelf” much better than “move house”.

3. Start from the date that won’t move

Every project has an immovable date: the day of the party, the handover of the keys, the departure. Start there and work backwards. The kitchen goes in after the gas is connected; the connection has to be booked three weeks ahead; so the request goes out by 5 May.

That is how dependencies emerge, the things that cannot happen before others, along with the critical path: the chain of tasks where every delay pushes everything back. That is where your attention goes; the rest can wait.

4. One name for every task

“We’ll sort it out” means nobody will. Next to every task goes a name, just one: the person who takes care of it and answers for it. Others can help, but one person decides and one person remembers.

It works for couples, families, friends planning a holiday. And it saves you the most expensive sentence in any project: “I thought you were doing it”.

5. Plan B, before you need it

Ask yourself what could go wrong, starting with the likely, not the catastrophic. The removal company postponing, rain on moving day, a cancelled flight. For each one: how likely is it, how much would it hurt, what can I do now to reduce it.

You don’t need a document: you need fifteen minutes, beforehand. A plan B thought through calmly is always better than one improvised at six in the morning on the pavement.

The household budget, like a project budget

Every project has a budget, and keeps it under control by comparing what it expected with what actually happens. Household accounts work the same way, and all you need is a spreadsheet and twenty minutes a month.

1. Gather the numbers. Income and outgoings for the last three months, from your bank statement. Without judging: first you look, then you decide.
2. Group the items. Income; fixed costs (rent or mortgage, bills, instalments, insurance); variable costs (groceries, transport, leisure); savings set aside (emergencies and future plans).
3. Set the forecast. An amount for each item, realistic rather than heroic.
4. Compare, once a month. Forecast against actual: the difference tells you where to act.

Item	Forecast	Actual	Difference
Income	2,800	2,800	0
Fixed costs	1,400	1,430	−30
Variable costs	900	1,050	−150
Set aside	300	300	0
Margin	200	20	−180

In this example the problem isn’t the bills: it is the variable costs. That is where to look, not everywhere.

PMs do one more thing: the forecast at completion, an estimate of how the year will end if things carry on like this. At home it means asking yourself, in March, whether the summer and the September expenses really fit. And simulating two uncomfortable scenarios: one income less, one unexpected expense. If the margin holds, good; if it doesn’t, better to know in March than in September.

Finally, one item should never be missing: the emergency fund. It is the budget’s plan B.

At the end, take stock

When the project is closed (the house is new, the trip is over, the party has happened), take ten minutes to ask yourself what worked and what you would do differently. In projects it is called a debrief, and I talk about it in the guide Failing better.