Milestones An Excellent Tool For Marking and Driving Progress

As we reach a milestone episode number (350), it is a good time for us to look closer at milestones.  These project management tools may appear to be tags or labels along our path.  However, they are more than that and are a valuable way to drive us through to completion.  Also, they can be points in time that allow us to take a step back and ensure we are still on track.

Milestones can be a clean start

One of the best values of a milestone is that it allows us to define a before and after.  We can often get a fresh start as we pass one of these points.  Nearly everyone embraces this fact.  Even when we do not recognize it as such.  The most famous of these situations is a new year.  That is a milestone at its heart and one we often use to put the past behind us and focus on the future.  This step can relieve stress as well as provide us a pivot to become better.

Providing a Narrow Focus

A well-designed milestone gives us a narrow focus for a while.  We drive our actions to progress towards the goal.  Likewise, we have an excuse to ignore the tasks that do not contribute to that goal.  This process allows us to avoid distractions as well as make them more visible.  For example, A goal to earn a C# certification makes it easy for us to skip reading the latest Java news.  Our focus is elsewhere, so that distraction is easy to identify for what it is.

Building and Pivoting

That natural pause that milestones provide gives us many benefits.  These include the list below.

• We can build on a milestone.  It provides a concrete deliverable that can be critical for advancement.
• It is an excellent time to pivot.  We have arrived at a point where it is probably cleanest to change directions or correct our course.
• A celebration never hurts.  We should at least take a moment to revel in our success.  We have accomplished a goal, and that is worthy of a little celebration.

We have looked at how to use pauses and whitespace to add flavor and productivity.  Why not utilize these natural pause points to our advantage?