How a cross-country move can improve your project management skills

04/18/09

Anyone who has moved across the country or even from a house to an apartment will agree that it reveals valuable lessons in planning and project management. It doesn’t matter how perfectly or smooth you think the move will be, something will go wrong.

When things do go wrong during a move and you don’t have time to mull over the problem, there’s only one thing you can do – improvise.

Among other important life lessons, here’s how moving cross country can improve your project management skills:

Planning is helpful, but it still won’t be perfect. You’ve spent hours planning your move, figuring out where to rent a truck, what route to take and how to get the pets from location A to B. Though the planning will help you out, you should always leave room for adjustment. It’s inevitable that something will come up, a road will be closed for construction or the truck rental will fall through, and you’ll have to think on your feet to get things running smoothly again.

You don’t know exactly how it will all work out until you get started. Plan as much as possible, but some things you won’t find out until you get started on your journey. It’s only after you’re a third of the way through that you’ll discover your plans need an adjustment. You may think that all the furniture will fit perfectly in the new living room, but won’t find out until you get there that your end table will have to go.

You won’t get it on the first try. Sure, you thought things through as much as humanly possible, but you’ll still probably end up with something different than your original plan. If you don’t get it on the first try, make adjustments and find a way to make it work using a different method. Like we said in the first point, leave room for adjustment in your plans.

In some cases, ‘good enough’ will be good enough. So, you hang all of your paintings and one is hanging just slightly lower than the other, you’ll get it right next time. Perfection is hard to come by and anything you plan will most likely turn out different than you imagined it. Give it another try and maybe this time all of your paintings will line up.

If you’ve ever moved across town or across state lines, you know that even with all the planning in the world, something is bound to throw a wrench in your plans. It’s how well you adjust to that wrench and improvise that will truly determine if your project will be a success.