With remote work being bigger than ever before, keeping your team motivated may be cause for an extra push. Engaged people have a positive attitude, better performance, and are more open to adaptability. Trying different practices and tools with your team can help you implement this motivation. Creating milestones and mapping them out with a milestone chart is a key tool to boosting your team’s motivation.

What are milestones?

A milestone is an achievement that is projected to be reached by a certain period. Milestones allow you to remain organized with your plans, track progress, and acknowledge reached goals. Milestones amongst a team make it simple for co-workers to understand each other’s journey and common goals.  

Each milestone will lead to another milestone. This will create a series of milestones until the overall goal is reached. You can utilize milestones at any time whether it is for your daily tasks or a certain number of tasks of a period leading up to the bigger picture.  For example, if you were working on a project to write a new book, you might identify milestones such as the title, cover page, outline, number of pages, publishing company, and release date There are many ways to identify and track milestones, but one of the most effective ways is by visualizing those milestones. 

How to visualize milestones

You can visualize your milestones by creating a milestone chart. This chart organizes the milestones into a format that is easy to understand for you and your team. There are many platforms with templates that you can utilize to create your chart. Setting out your milestones allows you all to determine the time it will take to complete a project.

The team leader has the opportunity to determine each milestone, but it will be beneficial to communicate with your team members so they are aware of upcoming deadlines. You may even want to include your team in setting milestones so they feel included in the process and more in charge of the project.

It is also important to acknowledge any accomplished goals, so you can take time to celebrate. Celebrating teammates and co-workers increases confidence, motivation, and productivity. Feeling appreciated also gives your team  a sense of value in the space.

The power of milestone charts

Work, projects, and the effects of daily life can be a lot, but breaking things down can make these things more manageable. Learn how to create a milestone chart that works for you and your team by checking out the tips in the visual guide below. 

This infographic was created by Asana.