Thanksgiving is around the corner, and you're already in the festive mood ready to have a feast with your family. How about organizing an in-house bash? For people who are planning for that perfect Thanksgiving, organizing everything on time can be daunting. You need to arrange the items for decoration, order the turkey, invite your guests, orchestra, games, and gifts. It's hard to know from where to start. Creating a handy checklist would be a wise choice, but as the list exceeds, you get puzzled. 

Let's see how David uses Zoho Projects to organize the Thanksgiving day

With the roads embellished with dazzling lights, churches cheering with rhythmic carols, people exchanging thank-you notes, and enjoying their dinner - It's time to show the gratitude to your dear ones. This Thanksgiving, David and family decide to organize an in-house bash. They have a lot to organize. Alas, they are running-out-of-time.

So, David calls all the members of his family to brainstorm the event.

David says, "Let's turn out this thanksgiving day to a fun-filled one. So, Jenny and I have planned for an in-house party."

Hendry exclaims, "An in-house party. Wow..."

"That's a great idea. But, how could we organize a party? We need to plan a lot of things to make it a great one." said Eliza.

"Everything is on the cloud. So, here is our plan and this is how it looks" said Jenny.  

Create a strict project 

Every start has an end and hence David and Jenny adds a new Thanksgiving project with a scheduled date range. Now, the family has a project and defined start and end dates to start with.

Set up milestones

The goals are progressed by every milestone that we accomplish. Thus, David and Jenny lists out the possible milestones they can achieve within the specified date range. It includes- music, decorations, food, gifts, and games. Every milestone will have a to-do-list (tasklist) that accompanies it. For the milestone - Food, they create two tasklists- Non-Veg and Veg; for decorations they create three tasklists- Hallway, lawn, and staircase; for games they create two tasklists- Indoor and outdoor. The family is all set with its tasklists and the milestones. All the upcoming milestones mark the progress of your goals.

Who is doing what?

The goals are set and the milestones are marked, what's next? Done? No, you need some hands to pull the chariot. So, David being the event organizer takes up the Admin role. He will own the entire privileges to manage his team. Now, he starts adding his family members to form a team. Be it Jenny, Hendry, Eliza, and other members, they will be responsible only for the tasks assigned to them. Alike the herd of horses that leads the war, you need a team to win the game.

Break down your work

You have a goal, milestone and a team to work out the process. Now, you need to divide the subsets that make your work simple. Each tasklist is divided into tasks to meet the strict project deadline. David creates a task for the listed tasklists, which makes his work easier. For example, for the tasklist (Non-veg) he creates a task: Roasted Turkey and the tasklist (Veg) has five tasks: mashed potatoes, cookies, cranberry sauce, apple tart, and salad. Some tasks require additional work to complete it and will have subtasks. It's now made simple with some tasks and subtasks to succeed the targeted milestones.

Be prepared for the worst

Everything is in place for the project, but something unexpected might pop. Yeah, these bugs will never leave you alone. David's family faced the same issue. So, what does he do? He files a bug "It's just a day to go, Jenny has burnt the pie. Any new replacement ideas for the pie?". The family posts their suggestions to resolve the unexpected glitch. Finally, Jenny checks her grocery list and decides to go for a banana pie. Unexpected snags are met on time when users know what is happening around.

Everything at one place

You have a well-planned list now, how about viewing everything at one place? That's when you remember a calendar. David's calendar is packed with tasks and deadlines. His logbook is occupied for the next one week. When he gets an idea, he creates a task, event, etc. from within the calendar. Your goal, milestone, tasklists, tasks and subtasks all at one place. Doesn't it look simple?

Bring in conversations

A team without interaction is like enjoying a boat ride without a paddle. You can feel the surrounding, but you can neither move further to enjoy the waves nor relish the scenic beauty of nature. Thus, David creates a group chat to lighten up a conversation and to receive insights, critics, etc. Together, the event becomes interesting and exciting. Similar to a paddle that helps in moving forward, you need conversation to go ahead in introducing new ideas and improvements.

A well-planned fiesta is the best Thanksgiving gift that you can present to your family. Everything is on the cloud and Zoho Projects will be the light to your celebrations. It's not too late to get started. Plan your Thanksgiving day just like David, so that it's organized and perfect.

Cheers,

Monica. R