Project Management, Suddenly

Project Management, Suddenly

  • 4 min. read

You're running this now, and no one trained you for it.

You didn't plan to be in charge. Here it is anyway.

A launch. An office move. An event. A "quick" favour that turned out to be anything but. Someone has to run it, and that someone is you, only nobody ever taught you how. No certification. No buzzwords. No Gantt chart you secretly don't understand.

Project Management, Suddenly is the method without the management-speak: a calm, friendly, jargon-free guide for the millions of people who run real projects without the title "project manager." If you can follow a recipe, you can run a project. This book shows you how.

Because "we'll figure it out as we go" is a brilliant plan, right up until the week before the deadline.

Get the book

Project Management, Suddenly on Amazon →

Available in paperback and Kindle. ISBN 979-8-18394184-5 (colour edition) and 979-8-18425849-2 (black-and-white edition).

What you'll learn

In five plain steps, you'll turn a vague, stressful "I have to handle this" into something you can actually see, steer, and finish on time:

  • Set it up, a one-page charter so everyone knows what "done" looks like before you start.
  • Plan it, break the mountain into stones, decide who does what, and put it on a timeline that survives contact with reality.
  • Do it, start before you feel ready, and keep things moving without burning out.
  • Watch it, the dashboard in your head: spot trouble early and change course on purpose, not in a panic.
  • Finish it, close cleanly, hand over, capture the lessons, and actually celebrate.

Written for you, not project managers

  • Written for beginners, not project managers. No prior experience needed.
  • Warm, funny, and human, you'll never feel talked down to or bored.
  • Real worked examples you'll recognise: launching something new at work, a trip with friends, a wedding on a budget, a community event, told like real life, not as dry corporate case studies.
  • Works whether it's just you or a whole team, and whether your "software" is a notebook or an app.
  • Ends with a one-page cheat sheet you'll keep coming back to.

From the author of Project Management for Teenagers and the creator of Tejun, this is the book to hand anyone who just got put in charge of something and quietly thought, "wait, how do I actually do this?"

No training. No jargon. No idea where to start. Good, that's exactly who this book is for.

What's inside

Twenty-five short chapters, grouped into the five plain steps, set it up, plan it, do it, watch it, finish it, plus real worked examples, the inner game, and a send-off.

  1. A project is just a shape
  2. Why bother
  3. Your three real budgets
  4. Breaking the mountain into stones
  5. Who does what
  6. Putting it on a timeline
  7. Starting when you don't feel ready
  8. Keeping it on the rails
  9. When plans break
  10. Actually finishing
  11. Handing over and letting go
  12. What did we learn
  13. A trip with friends
  14. A wedding on a budget
  15. Open an Etsy shop
  16. Learning Korean
  17. When it's just you
  18. When it's a team
  19. The psychology of getting things done
  20. Making decisions without freezing
  21. The gentle art of saying no
  22. Knowing when to quit
  23. Juggling more than one
  24. Make it a game
  25. Meet Tejun

Back matter

  • Epilogue: You don't need permission
  • Appendix A: The pocket toolkit
  • Appendix B: A tiny, un-scary glossary
  • About Tejun