How We Keep Projects Organized (and How You Can, Too)

At Kera Collective, we average around 20-30 active projects at a given time, of varying size and scope. As a small team, people often ask us how we handle so much work at once. The short answer? We prioritize staying organized. 

Over the years, we’ve developed some seemingly small—yet hugely consequential—practices to help us stay organized throughout research and evaluation project life cycles. We wanted to share them with you in case you find them useful for your work, too! 

1. We take time to write down (and share) our project plan 

“Startup Docs,” as we like to call our project plan documents, are the first thing we create and share with our clients for every project, no matter its size or scope. They serve as our north stars, outlining our vision for the project from start to finish including our evaluation objectives, methodology and sampling plan, a detailed timeline and description of each anticipated call, meeting, and deliverable, and who is responsible for each task. We find that taking the time to create a Startup Doc at the beginning of every project helps set clear expectations about the goals and logistical details of a project and lays a strong foundation for collaboration amongst our team and with our clients. 

2.  We template (almost) everything  

Over the years, we’ve come to realize the time-saving benefits of starting certain project tasks from templates. For example, when data collection spans months, we use log templates to automate tracking progress towards quotas, allowing us to shift our brain power toward other tasks that require more focused attention like monitoring data quality. Similarly, we use pre-formatted and stylized templates to avoid having to always rebuild standard components (like a Table of Contents, Cover Page, and built-in font styles) from scratch, so that we can spend more time on the most important part of any report—telling a story with the data. We find that using templates as a starting point actually boosts rather than detracts from our creativity and flexibility. By removing the need to devote lots of attention to tasks that are common across many projects, we give ourselves the time and space to instead focus on each project’s unique qualities and needs. 

3.  We separate internal and external project communication

Recently, we made a big shift: we stopped communicating internally about project tasks via email. Instead, we shifted all of our intra-team project communication to our favorite project management software, Asana, which allows us to easily thread messages by specific project tasks that everyone on the team can see. Now, when one of us needs to ask a teammate a question, say, about managing data collection (“do these dates work for data collector training?”) or trade drafts of project documents (“could you review this draft survey?”), it doesn’t become lost in a sea of emails about other topics or trapped in one person’s inbox. While we still use email for communicating with our clients about projects, compartmentalizing internal project communication in this way has allowed us—and our inboxes—to breathe a collective sigh of relief. 

4.  We embrace checklists and reminders 

We all know how good it feels to finally clean up your room after avoiding it for a while and then wishing you’d taken small, daily steps to keep it that clean all along. The same principle applies to research and evaluation projects—the more regularly you check in on how things are going, the more calm and in control you will feel. One thing we find helpful towards building this habit is setting recurring reminders at the beginning of a project (usually on Asana or Google Calendar) to check on discrete project tasks throughout its duration. Having an automated list of upcoming tasks, whether it's a first draft of a report or a reminder to send out participant incentives, can help you avoid letting things pile up and keep track of multiple projects at a time without having to worry about important details slipping through the cracks.  

5.  We systematize our wrap-up tasks 

Even the end of a project can be organized. Have we made sure all of the project’s deliverables are archived on our shared drive? Have we removed contractors from shared documents they no longer need to work with? Have we written a project summary and requested a client testimonial? Our custom-built project management templates in Asana include a checklist of all of these items to help us ensure they all happen at the conclusion of each project. This is important not just for the satisfaction of neatly tying things together, but also because it helps us preserve institutional knowledge of each of our projects, helping us reflect on and carry forward lessons learned to new projects.    

We take great pride in helping museums bring their visions to life and it’s an honor to be trusted with this work. Keeping project tasks and communication organized helps us ensure we are always there for our clients’ needs and that everyone stays sane in the process. Plus, it’s fun!