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[00:00] Are you about to start a new project? Whether you're launching a campaign, building a product, or running an internal initiative, one of the best things you can do is create a high-level project plan before you get started. It gives everybody clarity on goals, scopes, deadlines, and who's responsible for what. In this video, I'll walk you through each step of building a highlevel project plan and suggest tools and templates to fasttrack the process. Let's go. Every project needs a clear [00:28] reason to exist. So, you should start by defining the project's goals. But wait, where do you list them down? While there are hundreds of project management tools to choose from, I personally suggest using ClickUp. It comes with over a thousand ready-made templates to get your project plan set up quickly. Not only that, but [00:46] it'll help you set up tasks so you can [00:47] monitor them and execute them all in one [00:49] place. The example ClickUp project plan template is perfect to define your goals and project outcomes in one place. Use task descriptions within the template to define what the project is trying to accomplish and why it matters. You can add custom fields like priority or business impact. Assign project leads and tag all the departments involved. [01:08] This keeps everyone focused on the same [01:10] outcome whether they're hitting a [01:11] revenue target, improving a process, or [01:13] launching a feature. Step number two is adding milestones and breaking down the deliverables. Now that your team's aligned on goals and scope, it's time to break the project down into specific deliverables and milestones. In ClickUp, you can create tasks for each key deliverable and mark milestones to track major checkpoints. You can use custom fields like impact level, department, priority, or effort estimate to give more context to each individual task. This makes it so much easier to [01:40] spot what's at risk or behind schedule [01:42] and keeps momentum moving throughout the [01:44] project. Once your goals and milestones are set, the next step is deciding how you'll measure success. Add measurable targets to each goal and task, such as lead volume, retention rate, or delivery deadlines. With ClickUp's KPI template, you can do this really easily with just a couple clicks. Then use custom fields on task to track those numbers directly, or build dashboards that summarize your most important indicators in real time. [02:10] With the ClickUp dashboards, you can [02:11] also monitor key metrics by team, time [02:13] period, or task type. And the cherry on top, AI cards that summarize the trends and analysis for you without you wasting hours of time going through everything. For the fourth step, we need to define who's responsible for what by assigning DRIs. This is a directly responsible individual for each task. In ClickUp, you can assign tasks to specific owners or even an entire team. Then add [02:38] watchers who are notified of task [02:39] activity and add subtasks to ensure that [02:42] no step gets missed during the [02:44] execution. If you're working crossf functionally, you can also at@mentntion collaborators in the task or you can assign comments to them to keep the conversation in context. Our next step is to estimate cost for budgets and resources. You can estimate how much time a task is going to take by using the time estimate and time tracking inside of ClickUp. Then just add the money custom field to track the budget per task and per deliverable. [03:09] Then you'll use the workload view to [03:10] make sure that team capacity is aligned [03:12] with deadlines and nobody is [03:13] overburdened for a specific project. This will help you adjust overages early without having to do everything manually. In the sixth and final step, you bring everything together in a timeline. In ClickUp, you have multiple views to work with. You've got timeline, calendar, gant or list. If your project has strict [03:32] dependencies or overlapping details, [03:34] Gant is the way to go. You'll map out when each task starts and ends, set dependencies, and adjust dates by dragging and dropping. This helps you avoid missed handoffs, manage workloads better, and keep clients or stakeholders in the loop with a visual timeline. And that, my friends, is how you create a high-level project plan. But before you pause this video and start building one, remember this. Even with the right [03:59] tools, planning well requires asking [04:01] good questions. You need to get clear on stakeholder expectations, potential blockers, and any constraints before you get started with the project. So, make sure you talk to your team, review past projects, and figure out what has worked and what hasn't worked. A pro tip for this is using ClickUp Docs to keep a running log of research, notes, and answers so nothing gets lost in somebody's inbox. Once your plan is live, execution gets a lot easier when everything is in one place. ClickUp [04:27] gives you your task management, docs, [04:29] time tracking, dashboards, team chat, [04:32] and automation all in the same place. You can set reminders, create reoccurring tasks, and even use ClickUp Brain to summarize updates or draft project documentation faster. That means less switching and more time spent moving the project forward. To get started, use the project plan template in the description. It's free and it gives you everything we just talked about, so you're ready to go. Don't [04:53] forget to like and subscribe for more [04:54] tips from ClickUp.