During the past few week, while editing Successful Project Management, I had an opportunity learned to discover other ways I weaken my writing.

I already knew about “get” and “put” and “do”–any words you can command a computer–are weak verbs. It’s ok to use them to start writing, but my writing is stronger when I change those verbs to describe what I really want. I’d changed “Get people” to “Acquire people.” Luckily, Esther reminded me we don’t acquire people in organizations; we recruit, attract, or hire them, but we don’t acquire them. (That’s why we have review :-)

I also knew about the “lullaby” words: “just” is my favorite.

But I hadn’t realized I was so enamored of “in order to,” “So,” or “Now.” I managed to find all the “in order to” and remove the “in order”. That helped me see what I really wanted to say. “Find a large wall in order to post your project dashboard” became “Find a large wall to post your project dashboard” which became “Post your project dashboard on a large wall.” (That’s an example, not a quote.) I started too many sentences with “So;” so I removed them all. (I might have 2 left, in dialogue.) Now, With those edits complete, I could attack the “now” removals. I used “now” as a way to sequence actions, without making a list.

I’m sure I have more strengthening to do can strengthen my writing more. The copyeditor is great, so I’ll have lots of ideas/fixes when the copyediting is complete.

Labels: Manage It, Successful Project Management, writing

Successful Project Management is off for copyediting. While reviewing, Esther and Daniel found some of my take-space words: So and Now. I just did a find-in-project (thank goodness for TextMate) and excised most of them. We’ll see if the copyeditor leaves the few I left, or if she has a better idea.

If I can organize my thoughts, I’ll post about take-space words that weaken writing.

Labels: Manage It, Successful Project Management

There’s a great quote over at The pernicious thinking behind multi-tasking.

Note the admission that required multi-tasking is an implicit means to avoid conflicts around setting priorities.

I’ve been doing a bunch of multitasking talks this year (and suggesting ways for people to say no), and have written about it in Successful Project Management. (I did rename the section that originally said, “Multitasking is the root of all evil.”) When I talk about it, and tell people it makes no sense, at least part of the time they say “Ooh.” Too many people have no idea what the cost of multitasking is.

But the conflict avoidance part is because management, especially senior management is unwilling to make the hard decisions about what’s most important to do. That’s unacceptable. Managers are the only people who can make these most strategic decisions.

Multitasking guarantees your project will be late. If managers don’t make the decisions, project staff will. And it won’t be the way the managers want it.

Labels: multitasking, project management, Successful Project Management

I’m in what I hope is final editing for Successful Project Management. (I”m still doing gross editing, final copyediting is one more stage. But I’m not supposed to change ideas in that stage :-)

If you want to know how to write a book, read PragDave’s series of So You Want to Write a Book. I’m rewriting several chapters that I didn’t get right early in the writing. I had not yet found my voice. I think I now have. Here’s a link to what Dave says about Finding Your Voice.

Roy says Writing A book Is Like Developing Software. I completely agree.

So my challenges now are to keep to topic and not add more. (It’s already long enough.) I actually have release criteria for the book. (Bet you’re not surprised :-)

Once I receive more feedback from my editor, to see if the changes I’ve made are good, I’ll be able to get into the small markup editing. I won’t be making April 2 as a release date. Sorry.

Labels: Manage It, Successful Project Management, writing

The PM book has a title: Successful Project Management: Modern, pragmatic techniques that work. And, it has a cover!

Cool, eh? I’m done with this round of editing, and am waiting for Andy’s comments before we go to technical review.

Labels: Manage It, Successful Project Management