Work plan #2: create one!
Goal: move from an idea to something that can actually happen, on time, within capacity, and without burning out everyone involved.
At the link below, you’ll find a work plan template to help you think through steps of event production. No event will go as planned, and you can sometimes wing a lot. But you can do more and foster better experiences — including the production team — by thinking through details. Strong plans tend to share these qualities:
Labor-conscious: They name who is responsible for what & when it’s due.
Realistic: Timelines reflect actual capacity, not best-case assumptions.
Flexible: They allow room for change, learning, and unexpected conditions.
Transparent: Roles, costs, and decision-making are visible and shared.
But great plans are only as useful as you use it. As projects get underway, try to set up 20 minutes each week to clean it up. In an ideal world, everyone involved also uses the same plan. Set up time to show it to folks close to the project and use it in group chats. This usually requires early norm-setting, honest conversations on capacity, and developing processes that work for everyone.
At the button, you’ll find a pre-filled “Workplan” template to list everything you need to do up until the event, like artistic creation, logistic, fundraising, and outreach. This work plan is designed to show what needs to happen, when, and who is responsible. It helps you break a project into manageable pieces and see how tasks overlap across time.
The template can be downloaded as a spreadsheet. It’s prefilled to give you a starting structure, but it is meant to be edited. You can rename tasks, change timelines, add or remove rows, and adapt it to match your actual project.
Key Columns
Main Task Area: Groups tasks into major categories of work (selected from a dropdown and fully editable).
Title: A simple description of the task so anyone can understand what needs to happen.
Lead: The one person responsible for making sure the task gets done (not necessarily doing all the work). Add columns if you need to list helpers or advisers.
Start: When the task begins.
Due: When the task should be completed.
Done: A checkbox to mark the task as complete and track progress.
Weekly Timeline: Shows when work is happening over time, highlights overlaps, and helps visualize workload across months.
