As you know by now, I believe that how you present yourself, online and in person, goes a long way in communicating your message to your audience.  I've noticed many unintentional changes to American English that should be avoided at all costs to maintain a professional front.  I have ranted about a few of these recently (see my earlier post) and now I'll focus on a few more items that are either ungrammatical or simply are not words.

1.  Gratefulness: No such word!  We seem to have a tendency to create nouns from adjectives, even though there are perfectly good nouns already in place!  Try GRATITUDE instead.  I am grateful that I feel gratitude.
2.  Invite: a verb.  You send an invitation to invite people to an event.
3.  He wrote about you and I . . .  Jim and me went to the store . . . confusion between a subject and object of the pronoun.  Huh?  Easiest way to remember is to say it without the other person.  Me went to the store . . . I don't think so!  Jim and I went to the store.  And the other half of that issue "between you and I."   Take the sentence apart to see if it still makes sense:  "He wrote about you" is fine.  "He wrote about I" is, well, not.  It should be "he wrote about you and me" . . . object not subject.
4.  Irregardless: No such word!  The "Ir" doesn't belong there.  Regardless is a perfectly good word on its own.
5.  Do you want to lay down?  Wrong! If you're talking about getting horizontal, the verb is "lie".  Do you want to lay that heavy box down?  If you're talking about an object, the verb is "lay."  I won't even get into the past tense confusions between those!
6.  Orientated:  No such word!  To get oriented to your new position, you should go to an orientation meeting.
7.  It's literally killing me!  Well I hope to goodness that's not true, because it'd mean someone is stabbing, shooting or otherwise attempting your demise!  Remember that "literally" means "truly", "really", "absolutely."

There are more to rant over, but I'll stop now . . . you're welcome!  I understand that languages evolve over time, where once-accepted words become archaic, and where slang becomes accepted language.  However, grammatical mistakes like the ones above can make it harder to project a professional, expert image, so don't lay down on the job, irregardless of what you and me think.  HA!

It's easier than you might think to manage short- or long-term projects. Oh, I can hear the maniacal laughter coming through the ethers, but believe me, it's true!  All it takes is organizational skills.  Well, OK, organizational skills and time management.  But anyone can do it if you get organized! 

Think about your project - is it a series of tasks taking place over a period of time?  Is it a one-time event with several aspects to manage?  Who is involved?  What is the timeline? (This is probably the most important part - write down the deadlines for each stage of planning.)  Once you have the details written down, it's time to enter them into a spreadsheet.  Excel has several templates you may want to look at (click on File/New and search on Project), you can use one I created, or create your own.  Create columns titled with each category you're tracking.  For example, contact information for the people involved, date of initial contact, date of followup, date of their response, what the response is, date final sent to person, etc. The columns for which you are responsible should contain the date ranges for the tasks you have to take care of.  For instance, a column might say "initial email 10/1-10/7" and then the dates each email is sent in the column below that title.

As the project goes along, it's vital to keep the spreadsheet updated every single day.  If you lose track of whether you talked to Joe Gomez about the catering, or whether Shelly Carroll called you back about your email, you might find yourself floundering.  When I'm working on a project, I keep the spreadsheet open the entire time I'm working, and enter data every time something changes.  Yes, it seems anal, and that's how I manage projects, but believe me, this kind of careful record-keeping is key to a successful and organized project.  And key to sanity as well!

Another aspect to keep in mind is communication.  If others are working on a project with you, be sure to categorize them as "need to know only,"  "decision maker," "partner," etc., and communicate regularly as needed for each of these roles. I've been on many projects in my career where a change was made that affected my work yet I was not told. Don't be that person!  And expect communication from your staff in return.  I communicate with my client often about the status of our project and where we stand.

I hope that this basic guide will get you started on ideas to simplify the next project you work on.  If you find yourself overwhelmed, of course, I know a GREAT project management resource you can call on - Holly@LightseedsOffice.com!