Simple Project Management for Individuals

Project management tools are designed for teams. They have Gantt charts, resource allocation, dependency tracking, sprint planning, and dozens of features built around coordinating multiple people.

If you are an individual managing personal projects, you do not need any of that. You need to know three things: what are my active projects, what is the next action for each one, and what am I waiting on from others.

What Makes Something a Project

In GTD terminology, a project is any outcome that requires more than one action step. “Book flight to Denver” is a task. “Plan Denver trip” is a project (research flights, book hotel, arrange transportation, pack, etc.).

Most people have 10 to 30 active projects at any given time when they include both professional and personal outcomes. The key to managing them is not tracking every detail. It is ensuring each one has a clear, defined next action.

The Next Action Principle

A project without a defined next action is a project that is stalled. “Launch newsletter” is an outcome, not an action. “Write welcome email draft” is an action.

During your weekly review, verify that every active project has at least one next action on your canvas. If a project has been sitting without a next action for more than a week, it is either stalled (and you need to figure out why) or dead (and you should eliminate it).

Managing Projects in Nix It

Nix It does not have a dedicated projects feature with Gantt charts and milestones. It does not need one for individual work.

Instead, projects are managed through cards on your canvas. Each project has one or more cards representing its current next actions. When an action is completed, the next action for that project becomes a new card (or the project is done and everything gets eliminated).

Cards can be grouped to keep related items together. A project with three active threads (one you are working on, one delegated to a colleague, one waiting on a vendor) becomes three cards with different states, grouped under the project name.

This approach keeps projects lightweight. There is no project plan to maintain, no timeline to update, no dependencies to manage. Just cards with next actions, organized by state, reviewed weekly.

When to Eliminate a Project

Projects should be eliminated when they no longer justify their existence. This happens more often than most people admit. Circumstances change. Priorities shift. Interest fades. A project that felt important three months ago may be irrelevant today.

During your weekly review, look at each project and ask: if I dropped this entirely, what would happen? If the honest answer is “not much,” drop it. You can always restart it later if circumstances change. But carrying a dead project on your canvas is a daily tax on your attention.

Nix It manages projects through cards, states, and regular elimination reviews. Learn more and try it free.