I’m starting another proposal for another potential client, and I just remembered something I did wrong for my last big proposal. When I’m looking at a multi-step project, I mentally assign an amount of time I think it’s going to take to complete the project.

A better idea: Write your time estimates down.

This time I’m making a grid of all the project components and putting in my time estimates. That way when I’m working on the project, I can track how long I think a project will take versus how long it actually took, thus helping me to refine my estimating procedures.

My project management system allows me to track time spent on each project.

Here are the other tips on estimating and proposals that I posted the other day.