Imagine Your Ideal Day to Create Your Ideal Life


Welcome to our weekly newsletter!

6 July 2025

Hey friend,

How do you feel about creating social media content? Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok etc? I ask because so many of the project managers I coach absolutely hate the idea of creating media. The unfortunate truth is that creating media creates brand. And brand is important in traditional as well as new job markets.

Some Thoughts

I listened to some research around presidential candidates around the world. The research shows overwhelmingly that charisma wins elections. You might not see yourself as a charming person, but thats not important. Because in our business, charisma means something different. It means treating people with respect and empathy. It means taking time to teach. It means being open to being wrong. So try to inject some charisma into your work.

What you will learn this week:

☀️ How to imagine your ideal day

🌍 What is alignment?

🍄 BONUS - Teaching others not to break your flow


Imagine Your Ideal Day to Create Your Ideal Life

The best way to create your ideal life is to start by creating your ideal day.

To me, this is an undeniable fact.

When I began thinking about my ideal day, that was when my career and life really started to change.

I asked myself what I wished I could be doing every day, and as I looked around my office, I realized that this was not it.

I loved my work, but I was sitting at a desk, surrounded by people I respected but would not ordinarily choose to spend my time with. I spent my time making small talk. I was constantly distracted.

The office life might have been comfortable, but it wasn’t inspiring or conducive to my productivity. I was working on a schedule that didn’t align with how I wanted to work. On top of that, I didn’t enjoy being constantly supervised, feeling like I was always being watched and micromanaged. That environment just wasn’t for me.

Imagining my Ideal Day

So, I started to imagine what my ideal day would look like.

For me, my ideal day would start with my kids.

...


You might enjoy this:


Postscript

I do 3 free coaching calls per week with project managers. Most of them say the same thing: “I have experience, but I don’t think it’s the right kind.” But when we dig deeper, I help them see that their experience is actually really valuable. I’ve been doing this for 15 years, so I know how to spot the good stuff in someone’s story. I wanted to help more people, so I built a tool that does what I do. And I made it free. Click the link to try it out. It might help you see your experience in a whole new way.

Until next time,

Jonathan (The Effective Project Manager)


Let me know what you thought of this email - I read every reply.

Share this email with your friends here.


Unsubscribe · Preferences

The Effective Project Manager

🌱Manage your projects better, in less time. 🥇Live a life free to do what you love.

Read more from The Effective Project Manager

Welcome to our weekly newsletter! 29 June 2025 Hey friend, So I was walking in the rain (I'm like a duck it seems) and I was thinking about how to learn better. Specifically with audio. The only real form of audio learning is podcasts and ebooks. On-demand learning is now easier than ever with ChatGPT and its friends. But mostly in the written word. YouTube is there for video but nothing great exists for audio. Got any suggestions? Some Thoughts The most important project management skill is...

Welcome to our weekly newsletter! 22 June 2025 Hey friend, I've been doing the sprint/rest work style for a few years now and I honestly cannot imagine going back to what I was doing before. Hours of slow painful grind. With little progress and constant feelings of dread. Some Thoughts Bulgarian weightlifting coach Ivan Abadjiev used to say "don't be too self-confident". I am trying to take a moment to pause before being too self confident. Too sure that I am correct in my thinking. Even on...

Welcome to our weekly newsletter! 15 June 2025 Hey friend, I'm feeling the effects of stretching myself too thin and focusing on too many things at once. My day job, my night job (writing articles for you), my family and friends, my health and my finances. While all of these things are necessary, it's hard to keep them all in balance. My new subscribers count is very low and I feel as if my rate of writing is lower. Oh well, I guess there's nothing to do except to keep going. Hope you have an...