Project-Planning for PhD-Project

Herewith I officially declare a “mini-sabatical” as over and will restart to work on my project and plans for my dissertation/phd. Some time “off” from writing and reading was important and helpful to regain power and motivation. Especially the latter is back after a really inspiring conference in July and an invitation to submit an extended version of my conference-paper for publication in an international journal.

I decided that waiting for the decision who will supervise the Phd before continuing writing does not make sense. Even though it is a little difficult to find a reading/writing-flow while “fearing” that each supervisor will have another focus or different feedbacks and critics that have to be implemented. On the other hand I really have a “Burning Passion” for my project and the idea was “born” long ago and has continually grown and enhanced during my studies and research. Therefore it is unlikely that I will decide for a supervision that would demand a totally different focus and therefore I can just as well use the time I have at the moment to work intensively on the recent idea of the project.

To do so I am looking for a project-planning-software – not just a “to do list” but something more complex that is able to picture all steps and tasks and milestones of my recent time-frame of 2 to max. 3 years. Yesterday I found “smartsheets” (http://www.smartsheetcom) and “played” with the free version which seems to be quite complex but nevertheless very usable and combinable with for example Microsoft outlook. An alternative to such a software (which is not free after 30 days – then it would be about 10 Euro per month) would be to combine OneNote/Excel/Outlook which I already owe and with which I am already familiar.

Here are some screenshots from smartsheet (results of my playing yesterday ;-)). I would be happy to receive your feedback on how you structure such a complex project of more than one year. I for my part will use the next month for intense reading, contacts to possible supervisors and necessary changes/additions to my proposal. And I will restart to regulary post on the state of the current work!