The purpose of a project is to make progress on specific issues, and you can generate an inventory of themes or items to be solved in one of two types of projects: either what we call bottom-up or top-down. **Bottom-up** is effectively creating a project from a list of items that you previously recorded. And **top-down** is to take an overall objective and break it down into components, into a work breakdown structure, which then forms the list of items to include in a project. ## Purpose is top-down If you have a purpose, you can retro-plan actions to achieve the objectives that the purpose defines. Purpose can also give focus by providing a starting point. It is not only a higher objective, it can also be the reason why you get up in the morning. However, to paraphrase the [[Getting Things Done management framework]] there’s little point in having a purpose if you can’t get things done. A top-down project starts with an idea to implement. The rest is about how to get it done, the steps involved, objectives, budgets, etc. ![[breakdown-and-build-up.png]] Top-down analysis is about breaking a big or small idea down to get it to move into action. To make it doable, it may well need to be broken down into steps, analyzed and then moved into action. ## The Funnel - a source of ideas The intention of the Funnel concept is to effectively convert past and present experience recorded in [[The Trusted System in Getting Things Done]] into action. ![[The-Funnel.png]] ## The Ayoa My Planner as the Funnel One way to sort out these priorities is to record tasks in Ayoa and then prioritize them using the Ayoa Planner. The Planner is an opportunity to juggle tasks around, focusing on the important and urgent priorities and determine what you should be doing Now, Next and Soon. Consider using [[Ayoa project planning and mind mapping software]] to prepare your backlog and yet focus on the Now.  ## Record Your Ideas Place your thoughts, concepts, ideas, options, possibilities into [[The Trusted System in Getting Things Done]]. If a subject needs analysis: create a task (or a 'system reminder') to deepen your understanding. If it’s an actionable item, add it to the task manager, at an appropriate priority. There are ongoing tasks and activities, and also other ideas waiting. It may not be immediately obvious what priority to give to new thought and how to manage it. ![[a-new-idea.png]] ## Evaluate New Ideas If you have a great new idea, don’t immediately knock it down or analyse it away by thinking it’s impossible for reasons of time, money, or difficulty. Note it down and be positive. Think of and write down the path to implementation, the steps you could take to getting it done. Over time, you will have many ideas noted down, and some may overlap; you may need to put some aside. This sorting and linking phase is where you evaluate each one, but also see if an item relates to others. ![[linking-ideas-together.png]] ## Linking Ideas Together Linking items together may demonstrate that you can implement several things as a group, which you should be pulling together into an action plan, which is coherent and actionable in real life. You need then to find the (financial, material and human) resources to get it done and then plan (sequence) to see a logical, sensible, doable order in which to get things done. ![[evaluating-new-ideas.png]] However, you will evaluate and plan more than once; it's a relatively continuous process. Partly because you will always think up new things, which you need to evaluate, and partly because you need to continuously assess the plan to make sure that it’s still the best approach. ![[making-things-happen.png]] ## Turning new ideas into action It’s essential to capture ideas faithfully in the spirit of the desired outcome. The evaluation comes later both by linking into the existing environment and evaluating ideas for feasibility and resource requirements. The objective is to maintain the coherence of the current plan but also to give new ideas a chance of being implemented. Get them down, put them into your trusted system, then come back to evaluate them later and pull them together into an overall project plan. Business is about evolving, so whatever ideas you retain, throw away or don’t use, the ideas that you implement will help your business to grow. Some items may remain unused because the timing was wrong, the resources or a solution were not available, or the issues require more analysis. But these unused items will be available in your library for later. ![[turning-new-ideas-into-action-pdca.png]] ## Bottom Up Analysis Top-down analysis breaks one idea into parts, or an objective into steps or actions. ![[top-down-bottom-up-analysis.png]] However, we describe how you can [[Use Kanbanote to display Evernotes in a kanban]] which can be part of a process to build up a project from individual, or atomic, notes. See also how you can [[Ayoa project planning and mind mapping software#Push tasks from Evernote to Ayoa|push notes Evernotes to an Ayoa task board.]]