Realizing You Were a PM All Along

Many people are actually executing projects – even small ones, like that surprise birthday party for a cousin, or a trip to Uruguay, or the sale of a house, or a political campaign – without knowing they are actually managing a project.

In this class you will find that often you were “doing PM” and even applying specific tools without knowing their names. Discuss some examples of personal or business projects that after looking at the Syllabus and doing some of the preliminary reading defining PM, now appear to you (retrospectively) to be projects.

There are two examples
1.Running a Half Marathon

Starting this course was overwhelming thinking I had no experience at all regarding project management. After reading Richards example and attending our first live classroom, I realized that was far from the truth.

A unique personal project Ive completed was running a half marathon.

Project Management Process

Initiating What do I want to do for a challenge? Id like to complete a half marathon.
Planning How will I go from not running a lot, to being able to complete 13.1 miles? When and where would I like to complete it? I found a training regiment, and chose a warm climate with a scenic view running around Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.
Executing Beginning to train and increasing mileage along the way to be able to meet my goal of 13.1 miles by a specified date.
Monitoring and Controlling How is training going? Do I need to increase how far Im running? By keeping to my training schedule and hitting milestones along my training, I was able to keep on track. With 2 weeks to go I should be able to run 9 miles.
Closing It was race day, and I was able to complete my goal and cross the finish line.

It definitely wasnt easy, and a few times throughout training, I wondered why I was doing it, but finishing was well worth all the training.
Below is the regiment I used to complete my goal. Has anyone ever run a full marathon?

2.Finding an apartment

Here is an interesting summation by a college student looking to find an apartment. What I like about his analysis is the student goes through the five (5) processes needed for Project Management.

You need to find a new apartment to rent. You have your requirements and you need to meet them in the best way possible. Heres how you can use PM techniques to systemically plan and perform your apartment hunt:

Ask yourself these questions and write down the answers proper documentation is a prerequisite to effective project management.

Project Management Processes

Initiating What exactly are you looking for and what are your expectations? A place to live in an apartment for the upcoming school year September 2019 June 2020.
Planning What are your specific requirements? How much can you spend? Do you want a roommate? What about location? – One bedroom with parking for no more than $1500 a month. Do you have any priorities (must-have and nice-to-have)? It must be accessible to the campus. Do we use a broker and Zillow. or the Internet?. How long are we planning for this take..2-3 months/..Is it realistic?
Executing Search for the apartment. Contact brokers. Browse the internet. Set up visits with landlords.
Monitoring and Controlling How is the search proceeding? Now you find yourself with less money and needing to lower expectations. What will you do? Do we have a contingency plan? Look outside the convenience radius or maybe consider a studio rental. What are our options?.
Closing You have successfully found the apartment (with possibly a reasonable compromise between scope, cost and time). Time to sign a lease and put down a security deposit.
Not easy!

Project management can provide you a framework to take a structured approach to problem solving. PM concepts can be applied to just about anything in our every day life, irrespective of your area of expertise. There are project managers in almost every organization, and knowledge of project management will help you work better dealing with these people and understanding your own work better.

https://ischool.syr.edu/infospace/2014/05/07/how-project-management-can-help-you-in-everyday-lif

(I need the same format as example, you can find your favorite project)