“Just about everything you learned in school about life is wrong, but the wrongest thing might very well be this: Being well rounded is the secret to success.” ~ Seth Godin

Hey friend

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

In his book “The Dip”, Godin claims that we need to specialise. To be the very best in the world at something. That we can find true success if we niche down so tightly that we can be #1.

By contrast, in his book “Range”, David Epstein points to high performers (Like Roger Federer) who started off learning widely before becoming successful.

So how do we relate the two ideas?

Well, like this:

Specialise, but use wide, general knowledge to make your specialisation even more effective.

Think of it this way.

To be the best in the world, you might need to niche down so far that you are the best in the world at project managing construction of manufacturing plants for glass bottles.

That’s a narrow niche. It may be unrealistically small, but let’s go with it.

But to truly be the best, you would greatly benefit from knowing about how steel plants are manufactured. Or how power plants setup their IT infrastructure. Or how software CEO’s lead their teams.

Broad knowledge, narrowly applied.

That’s how you create life-changing expertise.

this is the worst article ive ever written and i wrote it wothut actually loking at the keyboard much. its just a stream of consciousntess and full of spelling errors and jumbled mess. this is actuallyu how i start all my srticels but then i clean them and use claude ato fix my sepelling and grammer.

but i suspect that you will get just as much out of this as a polished article. so here you go. let me know if you love it or hate it lol. To me it feels like a rant to a friend or colleague.

here you go.

Theres a kind of insidious thing that happens to people over time. as their powers grow. they start to become unchallenged in their beliefs. they start to think that everything they do is correct. and from this comes the curse of micromanagemet. they thought that “if i can recreate myself 100 times then this will be perfect”. and then they start to mould the team into their image. you can see where this is going.

anytime you start to think to yourself “i could do this better if injust had more time” or i could multiply myself. you know you need to stop thre. pause and think. reflect. challegne yourself

bcause if left uncchecked this thought pattern spirals into the dreaded micromanange,ent. im the only one wokring correctly. not anyone else. except for those very few that i like.

zoom out and look at the data. dont trust your instincts. this is couterproductibve advice but its true. your instincts are liars. they are formed by your personal preferences and your personal likes and dislikes.

you cant even avoid your instincts when reading data. you read data and think you are making an objective assessment but you are not. you. have too much data. too many data points. you dont know which to trust. and which are correlated to outcomes. have you even bothered to find a correlated outcome?

you cant because you cant measure all outcomes.

when you micromanage you make people fear you. they burn out. you blame them more. they start to fudge the numbers. they start to hide and lie and tell you what you want to hear. but they talk behind your back. they stop caring. you wanted them to care more. you achieved the opposite. you told them that it was about them first, then the projects second then you third. but you are teaching them to focus in the opposite. they focus on you first. the boogeyman. then they focus on themselves second. saving themselve snaft their jobs and their ills they need to pay. then thy focus on the e projects. last. you wanted them to focus on it first. congratulationd you achieved the exact opposite of what you wanted to achiev. yay you.

so what do you do? set the process. find correlations to outcomes. dont overstep. take yourself out of the process. they must see work and projects and numbers they must not see you. when you see them talking about you then you know oyou are on the wrong track. when your name is mentioned you are on the worng track. who are you anyway. they see you at the all hands meetingsaying yuo are there for them but in rality you are there for yourself.

stop thinking you are the bees knees. you are just a normal person you were them before. you sucked before. you just got older and got a few promotions and your ego got too big. even if you are so smart you still cant do the work of 100 others. get over yourself so that they can do the work. so that they can be better.

👋 No more Powerpoint(!)

Have you heard of the Amazon 6 Pager Memo? It’s what Jeff Bezos uses to keep his mega-company productive. But it works so well that I use it for project management. Thousands of others do too. If you want my personal Amazon 6 Pager Memo template you can find it here.

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

Jeff Bezos once said, “Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy.” In other words, the limits you set on your vision will define your results.

If you only aim for incremental progress, you’ll never unlock breakthrough success.

The biggest opportunities don’t come from playing it safe. They come from bold ideas, ambitious goals, and the willingness to take risks. Thinking big doesn’t mean being reckless though.

It means believing in possibilities beyond what’s immediately in front of you.

Too often, professionals stay in their comfort zones, focused on what’s realistic instead of what’s possible.

But the truth is, the people who make the biggest impact are the ones who refuse to think small. They challenge assumptions, push boundaries, and take action even when success isn’t guaranteed.

If you want to achieve something extraordinary, start by expanding your mindset.

Set goals that scare you a little.

Surround yourself with people who challenge you to think bigger.

And most importantly, take action. Because big thinking without execution is just wishful thinking.

The size of your vision determines the size of your success. So why think small?

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

Think of your skills as an expanding circle.

Every time you gain skills you increase the area of your influence.

Here’s the key:

It’s a circle. Not a line.

The places you can work and contribute are all around you.

Don’t be confined to a narrow, linear path.

Nobody is.

This is fuzzy ownership. And it is more common than most leaders want to admit.

People are confused and nothing feels safe.

People are not frozen because they do not understand the task. They are frozen because overstepping feels risky. When management is too stretched to delegate clearly, that waiting becomes permanent. Add a system full of tasks that probably should not exist anymore, and you have the perfect conditions for nothing to move.

So what can we do about this?

1. Unclear ownership: Put one name on everything

Not a team or a department. One person. That person does not have to do all the work. They just have to make sure it moves.

Start here: go into whatever tool your team uses and make sure every task has a name next to it. If there is no owner, it does not live on the active list. It moves to a pending list that gets reviewed once a week. Someone either claims it or it gets cut.

That one rule alone will change how your team operates.

2. Fear of overstepping: Give people a clear mandate

When people do not know where their authority starts and stops, they wait. They send an email to check. They sit on things until someone tells them to move.

I’m sure you’ve experienced this.

The fix is simple. Tell your team: if it is within your area and below a certain level of risk or cost, handle it. No need to ask. This moves people from waiting for permission to using their judgment. They will still escalate the things that need escalating. But the small stuff will stop piling up.

3. Task clutter: Make killing tasks normal

Most teams are great at creating tasks and terrible at ending them.

Old priorities sit in the list long after they stopped mattering. Nobody cuts them because it feels risky to be the one who did. So the list grows, becomes noise, and people stop trusting it.

Run a task audit every month or quarter. Anything without an owner, a deadline, or recent activity gets removed or parked. Make it clear to your team that cutting a task is a decision, not a failure. Someone needs the authority to say “this is done” and mean it.

👋 No more Powerpoint(!)

Have you heard of the Amazon 6 Pager Memo? It’s what Jeff Bezos uses to keep his mega-company productive. But it works so well that I use it for project management. Thousands of others do too. If you want my personal Amazon 6 Pager Memo template you can find it here.

Make inaction uncomfortable

Most workplaces punish people for doing the wrong thing. But there is no consequence for doing nothing. While it sounds strange, that is exactly where fuzzy ownership lives and grows.

Set a rule: if a task sits untouched past a set number of days, it flags for review. If someone consistently lets things drift, have a conversation about how they make decisions, not to blame them, but to help them move work forward with more confidence.

Build a system where ambiguity is visible enough that people want to resolve it, instead of waiting for someone else to.

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

Take the Shot: Overcoming Fear in the Workplace

In the professional world, hesitation can be the difference between progress and stagnation. Why waste time worrying about failure before you even take action? As Michael Jordan said, “Why would I think about missing a shot I haven’t taken yet?” Success requires confidence, not fear.

Too often, professionals hold themselves back by overanalyzing risks or dwelling on past mistakes. Instead of projecting past failures into the future, focus on what’s in front of you. Be present. Whether it’s pitching a bold idea, leading a meeting, or pursuing a new opportunity, fear of failure should never outweigh the potential for success.

The best way to move forward is to learn, decide, and act. Every decision—win or lose—teaches valuable lessons. Overthinking only delays growth. The professionals who stand out are the ones who take calculated risks and trust their abilities.

Most importantly, don’t let what you can’t control consume your thoughts. External factors will always exist, but how you respond is what truly matters. Stay focused, take the shot, and embrace the opportunities ahead. Success comes to those willing to step forward, not those stuck in fear.

You do not need an F1 budget to think like this. Any team can do it.

Turn One Question Into a Way of Life

The question is: “Why do we do it this way?”

When a process feels slow, ask it. When a task feels pointless, ask it. When the answer is “because we always have,” that is your signal to look closer.

Don’t try to blow everything up. The goal is to make this question feel as normal as saying good morning. This starts with you. If your team never hears you question the way things work, they will not feel safe doing it either.

Build a Small Team With Full Freedom to Think

This should be part of everyones job: find better ways of working.

They should be free to think big, think strange, and think without limits. Their ideas do not need to be perfect. But give them the freedom to be heard. That part is on you. This only works if you are truly open to listening. Not pretending to listen. Actually listening.

If your team brings an idea forward and it gets ignored or buried, they will stop bringing ideas. And everyone else will notice.

Look Outside Your Industry

Look at how other sectors solve problems:

• F1 pit crews change four tyres in under three seconds by removing every unnecessary step from the process

• Airlines use simple checklists to prevent costly mistakes

• Elite sports teams prepare, debrief, and adapt at speed

None of these industries look like yours. That is exactly why they are useful. When someone on your team says “what if we did it like they do in that other field,” take it seriously. Because that kind of thinking is rare.

Make It Safe to Say Something Unconventional

Most people on most teams have at least one idea they have never said out loud. They are afraid it will sound stupid. They are afraid nothing will change anyway.

Your job is to remove that fear. Show your team that unconventional thinking is welcome, not just tolerated.

When someone brings you an idea that challenges the way things are done, engage with it. Ask questions. Take it seriously. Even if the idea goes nowhere, the person who shared it should leave the conversation feeling glad they spoke up. The culture of your team will only be as brave as you allow it to be.

This Is the Whole Playbook

None of this costs anything. What it does require is you genuinely believing that the people around you are capable of better ideas than the current system allows for.

Most teams already have the talent. They just have not been given the space. Treat every unconventional idea as a starting point rather than a risk. That is what McLaren does. And there is nothing stopping you from doing the same.

👋 Want to Learn More?

If you want to go deeper, I’ve put together resources to help:

• LinkedIn Guide: Optimize Your Profile for Success

• ChatGPT Resume Creation Guide (Full prompts)

• How to use the 80:20 rule to get more done in less time.

“In the minds of geniuses, we find once more, our own neglected thoughts” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hey friend

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

Have you ever read a book, heard a quote, or listened to a speech by a great thinker and thought:

“I knew that. I thought of that years ago.”

It’s a strange but familiar feeling. You realize that an idea you once had—the kind that passed through your mind in a quiet moment—was something that changed the world when nurtured by someone else.

The difference between those who make an impact and those who don’t isn’t always intelligence or talent. Often, it’s persistence. Geniuses don’t dismiss their thoughts as fleeting distractions. They hold onto them. They write them down. They refine them, test them, and revisit them until they evolve into something powerful.

Your ideas deserve the same care. Instead of letting them drift away, capture them. Keep a notebook, a digital journal, or even a voice recording of your thoughts. Return to them often. The greatest ideas in history didn’t start fully formed—they grew through reflection and persistence.

The work isn’t the problem. The waiting is.

Think about it. How much time do you actually spend waiting? I’ll bet its a ton.

Most teams instinctually assume they’re falling behind because there’s too much on their plate. So they push harder, work longer, and stress more. But the pile doesn’t shrink. That’s because effort isn’t the bottleneck.

Time spent not working on things is what’s really holding you back from progress.

Two numbers tell the whole story.

Cycle Time vs. Touch Time

Cycle time is how long a task takes from start to finish. Assigned Monday, done Friday. That’s five days.

Touch time is how long someone actually spent doing the work. Maybe that same task only needed one hour of real effort.

So where did the other 39 hours go?

The task was sitting. Waiting to be picked up. Waiting on someone’s decision. Waiting for a gap in someone’s packed schedule. Sound familiar?

That’s your problem right there.

What a Big Gap Actually Means

A huge difference between cycle time and touch time isn’t a people problem. It’s a flow problem. Work is stacking up between steps, and nobody has a clear view of where things are getting stuck.

And the frustrating part: the tasks are usually small. It’s not that the work is hard. It’s that there’s a constant low-grade pressure of unfinished things sitting everywhere. Like a mild headache that lingers all day (or all week).

When you dig into why, it almost always comes down to one of three things:

• Too many priorities. Everything is urgent, so nothing actually gets treated that way.

• Not enough hands. Work arrives faster than people can pick it up.

• Fuzzy ownership. Nobody’s quite sure whose job it is to move something forward.

How to Close the Gap

Don’t ask people to work faster. That’s not it. Even though this is where most managers start.

The real goal is to cut down on waiting.

Start by actually tracking both numbers on a few current projects. You don’t need special tools. A basic spreadsheet is fine. Log when something was assigned, when it got done, and take a rough guess at the real work time. Do this for a few weeks and the bottlenecks will become obvious fast.

Then work on three things:

1. Cap how much is in progress at once. When there’s a limit, people finish things before grabbing something new.

2. Automate the small stuff. Task reminders, auto-assignments, status updates. Little automations add up and keep things from stalling between steps.

3. Put one name on every task. Not a team. One person. Someone who owns moving it forward.

When cycle time starts creeping closer to touch time, the whole feel of the team changes. Work actually moves. The backlog gets shorter. People stop feeling like they’re spinning their wheels.

Not because they’re doing more. Because less time is being wasted waiting.

If you want to work remote…

👋 If you do want to work remote (or simply work better in the office), these are my best resources to help you do exactly that. Each one is made specifically for project management professions and leaders.

1. How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile For Success - So you can land that dream role.

2. ChatGPT Prompts for Resume Creation - To help customise your resume for each application

3. Project Management Task Tracker (Google Sheets / Excel) - Super useful for working remote

4. 3 Big Goals Daily Template (Printable) - My daily way to make sure I get my goals done

5. Project Folder Structure for Project Managers - A messy folder structure is a disaster

6. Ultimate Project Management Hub - The best Notion template for project management

7. The Amazon 6-Pager Memo - The method Amazon uses to get decisions made, without wasting your time on Powerpoint presentations

   Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

A direct Network Effect is when each additional member to your network makes the network more valuable.

The value increases as more users join.

Imagine a social media platform like LinkedIn or WhatsApp—more users mean more connections and engagement.

You can see why creating a network effect in your own career would be a good idea.

But how do you do it?

Simple.

Start with one person.

Then ask them: “Do you know someone who can help me with XYZ?”

Rinse and repeat.

As you build connections, focus on giving value first. Share insights, offer help, or make introductions. People are more likely to reciprocate when they see you as a valuable connection.

Next, stay visible and engaged. Comment on LinkedIn posts, share industry updates, and contribute to discussions. The more you engage, the more people remember you, strengthening your network effect.

Another key step is leveraging weak ties. Connections who aren’t in your close circle but can introduce you to new opportunities. Reconnect with past colleagues, attend industry events, or join online communities where your expertise is relevant.

Keep the momentum going. A strong network isn’t built overnight.

Set a goal—maybe one meaningful conversation per week—and stick to it.

Over time, your network will grow organically, and each new connection will make it even more valuable.

Action Step: This week, reach out to three people—one you know, one you recently connected with, and one outside your immediate circle. Ask them about their work, share something useful, and see where the conversation leads.

The more you do this, the stronger your network effect becomes—and the more valuable your connections will be.

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

To communicate well, talk in pictures.

When we communicate, we give facts and figures.

We tell people this, that, and the other.

We stand before them, earnest and dry, and give our opinions.

We lean forward, elbows on the table, and tell them our wisdom, straight-faced, and it goes over their heads.

Their eyes glaze over, and they’re focusing on other things.

To communicate better, animate your words with pictures.

Create movement and dynamic, create personality, and make it personable.

This way you take your ideas from black-and-white to full color.

I think I know why.

It’s not talent or special intelligence. It’s how far ahead they think.

Most of us are trained to react. Something happens, we respond. A problem comes up, we fix it. An email lands in our inbox, we answer it.

This is first order thinking. It is fast, it feels productive, and it keeps us busy.

But busy is not the same as effective.

I’ve studied the best leaders and they do something different. They do not just ask “what happens next?“ They ask “what happens after that?“

They think in layers.

Every choice you make has a direct result. You skip the gym, you miss a workout. Simple. We can call these first order consequences. They are easy to see. They happen right away. Most people stop their thinking here.

But what about second order consequences?

That skipped workout? The second order consequence is lower energy, less focus, and a slower path to the version of yourself you want to be.

Second order thinking means asking: “And then what?”

It sounds simple. It is not always easy. Because the second order consequence is rarely right in front of you. It shows up weeks or months later.

By then, most people have forgotten the small decision that caused it.

Need More Help? 👏

😎 I’ve been implementing the Amazon 6 Pager Memo with my team over the past year. Jeff Bezos uses it extensively and it’s helped me get more out of meetings. And not waste so much time. Because the fewer meetings the better. So I made a template. Check out the Amazon 6-Pager Memo template.

Think about your work week.

You avoid a difficult conversation with an underperforming team member. First order consequence: no awkwardness today. Second order consequence: the problem grows, the team notices, and your culture quietly weakens.

You say yes to every meeting request. First order consequence: people feel heard. Second order consequence: you have no deep work time, your thinking becomes shallow, and your best ideas never get developed.

None of these second order consequences are dramatic on their own. But they compound. And compounding works in both directions.

Here is how to use this today.

Before making a small decision, pause and ask yourself one question: “If I keep doing this, where does it lead in 30, 60, or 1000 days?”

The question works in both directions. Use it to spot bad habits early. Use it to double down on good ones.

Improve your leadership and your decisions by not just reacting to what is right in front of you. Play the long game by seeing what others miss.

All the best,

Courtney

“The first iteration is delusion” ~ Dan Koe

Hey friend

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

In lifestyle design, it’s very useful to come up with a vision for your life, and very often, your first vision will be a grand vision.

It’s important to realize that that first vision is often a delusion.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it.

You should absolutely do it - take that first vision and create from it a base, head towards it with all the intensity that you can. If it works, it works, that’s great, unbelievable.

If it doesn’t work, it becomes the first iteration in the process of delivering your ideal life to you.

But something very important is to not let those iterations dumb down your vision, to keep grand design in mind, to never ever ever ever ever settle.

First: Try to Fix It

Before you think about leaving, try to change the job from the inside. Ask for more freedom in how you work. Push back on things that aren’t working. Reshape the role to fit you better.

This is always the first move. A lot of what feels permanent is actually negotiable. Leaving before you’ve tried to fix things isn’t brave. It’s just avoiding the harder conversation.

But some things can’t be fixed. When you’ve tried and hit a wall, that’s when you start paying attention to the signals.

Sometimes you feel guilt. Should I leave? What about my projects? What about my colleagues? What about the time they’ve invested in me? You feel bad about things. That’s normal. But guilt is not a reason to stay.

👋 No more Powerpoint(!)

Have you heard of the Amazon 6 Pager Memo? It’s what Jeff Bezos uses to keep his mega-company productive. But it works so well that I use it for project management. Thousands of others do too. If you want my personal Amazon 6 Pager Memo template you can find it here.

The Signals That It’s Time

You feel it before you can explain it. Sometimes you ignore feelings because you’re an intellectual, right? You should be able to reason your way in and out of things, right? But your body often knows before your brain catches up. If something feels off, that matters. Don’t talk yourself out of it.

You think about leaving often. Not just on bad days. Regularly. If something keeps coming up in your mind, if you keep ruminating, it’s a big sign.

You look up and don’t want any of those jobs. Look at the people above you. If you don’t want a single one of their roles, why keep working toward that?

You’re hiding who you are. How you work. What you really think. When you start changing yourself to fit in, something important is being lost. Yourself. You shouldn’t have to perform a different version of yourself every day. Yes, you might need to hide some of your eccentricities, but you shouldn’t have to hide yourself.

You feel alone. No one in your corner. No support. That’s both unpleasant and unsustainable. People do their best work when they feel backed. Does your boss back you? Are your colleagues out to get you?

Nothing is pulling you forward. The right job should stretch you a little. It should sit just outside your comfort zone. If everything feels easy and flat, you’ve stopped growing. If you’re on autopilot every day, that might be easy, but it isn’t growth.

Don’t get me wrong. If you’re in a phase of life where you want easy, that’s fine. I’ve been there. If you’re a new parent, dealing with health issues, living in a new city, taking care of family, or a million other things, and you want a quieter life for a while, that’s okay. We’ve all been there. Don’t beat yourself up about it.

But in all other times, for people who care about getting better, comfort is a warning sign. And a sign to move on.

The Personal Signals

Some signals are harder to put on a general list. They depend on your life.

Money. The big one. If you want more money and you can get it, go get it. And if you have enough money and you want to step back from the grind of stressful work, do that too. When you have enough saved to take a risk or weather a gap, your options open up. Don’t let fear of instability keep you somewhere that isn’t working.

You’re not yourself. We mentioned this earlier. When you can’t be yourself, that’s no way to spend eight hours a day for years and years. Not a work version of yourself. Not a quieter version. Just not you. When that’s true, it’s time.

So When Do You Go?

One signal doesn’t always mean leave. But when they stack up, it’s time.

You’ve moved from should I leave to what am I waiting for.

Start by trying to fix it. Talk to your manager. Renegotiate your role. Ask for what you need. If nothing changes, or nothing can change, trust what you’ve been feeling.

You already know what you need to do. Give yourself permission to do it.

👋 Want to Learn More?

If you want to go deeper, I’ve put together resources to help:

• LinkedIn Guide: Optimize Your Profile for Success

• ChatGPT Resume Creation Guide (Full prompts)

• How to use the 80:20 rule to get more done in less time.

“Decide in advance what you’re going to suck at.” ~ Oliver Burkeman

Hey friend

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

Life is busy. Most of us try to be good at everything - work, family, fitness, hobbies, and more.

But this doesn’t work well.

When we try to do it all, we end up doing everything just okay, and nothing really great.

Author Oliver Burkeman gives us smart advice.

Pick where you want to excel and accept that the rest will suffer.

Think about your energy like money in your wallet. If you spend a little bit everywhere, you won’t have enough to buy anything big. The same goes for your time and effort.

You need to save them for what matters most.

So pick what you’ll let slide. Maybe your house won’t always be super clean. Maybe you won’t answer every text right away. Maybe you won’t join every club or say yes to every invite.

That’s fine!

When you decide what’s okay to do badly, you can focus on what really counts. Want to be a great parent? Your email inbox might get messy. Want to crush it at work? Your garden might have some weeds.

Remember: nobody’s perfect at everything. Choose what matters most to you, and let the rest be just good enough.

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

We all have good days and bad days in our careers—ups and downs, setbacks, and moments when things go wrong or people upset us.

There are times when it feels like the hard work we’re putting in just isn’t paying off.

In those moments, it’s important to take a step back and ask yourself:

What is the larger trajectory of my career?

When you look at the big picture, are you making progress toward your goals?

This is what we mean by tracking the tides, not just the waves.

Waves come and go, but when you zoom out, you need to see whether you’re moving in the right direction overall.

So, take a moment today to reflect. Are you heading toward your goals? If the answer is yes, keep going.

👏 Need more AI shortcuts?

If you found this useful, I’ve got more AI prompts like these made specifically for project management. Check out these AI prompts made specifically for project managers - I have with tons of ready-to-use prompts that will make your PM life so much easier.

All the best,

Courtney

But when work feels meaningful, everything changes.

You still have hard days. But you finish them tired—not hollowed out. When someone asks “what do you do?“ you feel genuine pride instead of an empty feeling in your stomach.

Why Meaning Matters More Than Money

Here’s the thing: meaningful work makes you better at your job. Better skills mean more opportunities. Better opportunities mean more money.

Money and meaning aren’t enemies. They actually work together. Meaningful work compounds over time.

The Four Elements of Meaningful Work

What makes work feel meaningful? There are four core elements:

1. Creative - Work that lets you use your brain and judgment. You solve problems your own way instead of just following instructions.

2. Impactful - Work where you can actually see the difference you’re making. Maybe you help a customer. Maybe you ship a product. Maybe you contribute to something bigger than yourself.

3. Autonomous - Work that gives you control. You decide how to approach tasks, when you do them, and what methods you use.

4. Engaging - Work that captures your attention. Work that’s genuinely interesting on a normal Tuesday.

Here’s something important: the most meaningful work isn’t always fun in the moment. Shipping a hard project feels like struggle. Mastering a difficult skill feels painful. But looking back? It feels amazing. Some people call this Type 2 fun. It’s like a hard workout in the gym. You enjoy it even though eating a bowl of ice-cream might feel better in the short term. That’s the satisfaction that matters most.

What to do next

This is how to make your current job meaningful:

You don’t need to quit. You need to find meaning where you already are.

Start with an audit.

Most jobs have hidden pockets of creativity, impact, autonomy, or engagement. Where are yours? You might not redesign your entire role. But you can expand at the margins.

Volunteer for projects that stretch you.

Ask to take on work outside your normal responsibilities. Different projects use different skills. That builds the creative element.

Connect your work to real impact.

Even if your contribution feels indirect, trace the line. Administrative work? It frees your team to focus on their strengths. Customer service? You’re the calm in someone’s chaotic day. Look for the impact. It’s there.

Propose solutions, not just problems.

This is how you build autonomy. Instead of waiting to be told what to do, present options. Ask which approach makes sense. Show that you can think.

Redesign tedious processes.

Find the puzzle in boring tasks. How could this be done better? Faster? More elegantly? Even small improvements give you creative control.

Your Training Ground

When you practice creating meaning in your current role, you’re building your future.

You develop skills. You build a track record. You discover what actually matters to you versus what sounds good in theory.

People who wait for the perfect job often miss it when it arrives. People who build meaning where they are? They become the kind of person that meaningful work gravitates toward.

Your current job is your training ground. Treat it that way. You won’t just survive it—you’ll use it to build something better.

A Little Something Extra

👋 If you do want to work remote (or simply work better in the office), these are my best resources to help you do exactly that. Each one is made specifically for project management professions and leaders.

1. How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile For Success - So you can land that dream role.

2. ChatGPT Prompts for Resume Creation - To help customise your resume for each application

3. Project Management Task Tracker (Google Sheets / Excel) - Super useful for working remote

4. 3 Big Goals Daily Template (Printable) - My daily way to make sure I get my goals done

5. Project Folder Structure for Project Managers - A messy folder structure is a disaster

6. Ultimate Project Management Hub - The best Notion template for project management

7. The Amazon 6-Pager Memo - The method Amazon uses to get decisions made, without wasting your time on Powerpoint presentations

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

Dan Martell explains that every task needs a process, even those that feel like an art. For example, dealing with customers or making sales might seem like skills that require creativity and intuition.

You or your team might already be great at these tasks.

However, that doesn’t mean you should skip creating processes for them.

Processes are especially important in work and business. They provide structure and ensure things are done consistently.

Without a process, it’s easy for people to do things their own way, which can lead to confusion or mistakes.

When there’s a clear process in place, everyone knows what to do and how to do it.

Even for something as creative as sales or customer service, having a process can make a big difference.

A talented person will perform even better when they follow a well-designed process.

It helps them work smarter and more efficiently.

The key is to create processes that work for your specific tasks.

Train your team on how to follow them.

Check that they are doing their work in line with these steps.

By combining creativity with structure, you get the best results.

A strong process doesn’t limit creativity; it enhances it.

All the best,

Courtney

You feel like you’re doing too many things.

But fear is stopping you from letting them go.

You’re Spread Too Thin

Does this feel familiar?

Sometimes it feels like I’m running from the moment I wake to the moment I go to bed. You might have experienced the same.

Half the time you’re doing things you don’t actually want to do.

You’re studying something because maybe you’ll get a job with it. You’re keeping hobbies you don’t love because you’re scared to choose. You’re spreading yourself across so many things that you’re not getting truly good at any of them.

Mastery takes time. A lot of it. You can’t get there when your attention is split ten ways.

In the beginning, trying lots of things makes sense. Exploring is important. But at some point you have to focus. You have to cut the hobbies that don’t serve you. Cut the commitments draining your time. The friends who don’t align with where you’re going. The extended family obligations that aren’t really meaningful to you.

The work tasks that are the 20% not the 80%.

The 80/20 rule matters here more than you realise. Most of your results come from a small number of things.

So why are you protecting the rest?

Clear Your Space, Clear Your Head

Look at your physical space.

When your home has less clutter, you feel better. When you get in your car and it’s clean, you feel better. When you sit at your desk and there are only the two things you actually need, you feel calm. Serene. Like you can breathe.

We weren’t built for constant overstimulation. We already get hammered by our phones, our laptops, the media, everything around us. When you add the mental noise of too many goals, too many projects, too many things half-finished; it compounds. It wears you down in ways you don’t even notice.

Until you break.

So reduce. Simplify.

Keep asking what’s actually moving the needle and what’s just filling space.

You might feel like you’re falling behind by doing less. But that’s exactly backwards.

Less is how you get ahead.

👋 Want to Learn More?

If you want to go deeper, I’ve put together resources to help:

• LinkedIn Guide: Optimize Your Profile for Success

• ChatGPT Resume Creation Guide (Full prompts)

• How to use the 80:20 rule to get more done in less time.

Welcome to 200 Word Tuesdays. Where we give you short, actionable ideas to implement in your project management. We promise that you haven’t heard these powerful ideas anywhere else.

Let’s get started.

Do your values align with those of your team? And does your team’s collective set of values align with the broader organization? When values clash, frustration can become a persistent and draining issue, creating unnecessary friction in daily work.

Misaligned values can lead to misunderstandings, erode trust, and stifle productivity. Yet, despite the clear impact, conversations about values are often avoided.

They can feel uncomfortable and challenging, but these discussions are essential for a healthy, high-functioning team.

Taking the time to explore and align your team’s values is an investment in its long-term success. Periodically – perhaps annually – set aside time to revisit, define, or reaffirm your team’s core values.

Engage in open, honest dialogue where everyone has a voice, ensuring that the values reflect not only what is important to the team but also align with the broader goals and culture of the organization.

To start the conversation, ask questions like:

1. What personal values guide the way you work and interact with others?

2. What do you think makes our team successful?

3. Are there any behaviors or attitudes that you feel are essential for our team’s success?

4. What aspects of the organization’s culture resonate most with you?

5. What would an ideal team culture look like to you?

While this process is not easy, the benefits far outweigh the discomfort. A team with shared values experiences less day-to-day frustration, greater cohesion, and clearer decision-making.

Aligned values create a foundation of mutual understanding and purpose, empowering teams to work more effectively and thrive in harmony with organizational goals.

Until next time,

Courtney