Are moving and marriage registration also considered as business?
I tried directing at a turning point in my life
~Director docx. Extra Edition~

Hello, this is Nakagawa from the direction team.

This may be a sudden question, but how do you plan for life events?
On a personal note, I moved and got married at the end of last year, and at that time my current experience as a director came in handy.
I usually talk mainly about direction within the workplace, but this time, as an extra, I would like to talk about my experience directing in my private life.

It all started with organizing the tasks for the move.

I decided to get married and start a new life. The apartment I was living in was for one person, so I had to move.
However, since moving and getting married was my first experience, I didn't know what to do first.
I could vaguely think of each task, such as preparing for the move, but there were so many of them that I couldn't really get the big picture.

When I looked online, I found a lot of information about each task, but there was so much information that I couldn't really understand what I needed to do to complete them.
In addition, since it is necessary to align understanding and collaborate with others, not just with oneself, it was also necessary to make these things visible.

At that moment, a voice from heaven, or rather my boss's, crossed my mind.

"Why don't you try to sort out all the items first?"

I see...deciding what to do and by when is the same as what I normally do as a director.
Should we think of marriage registration and moving as events?

Thus began the "moving and marriage case."

Identify the tasks leading up to the move and marriage registration and create a WBS

First, I thought I would identify the items and create a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), just like I do in my regular direction work.
*For information on how to create a WBS, please see Oyabu's " How to Create a Project Floorplan and Schedule [Basic Edition] ."

WBS for moving and marriage registration.

The WBS items were created using the following example:

• Major item: Moving
  • Moving to
    • Search for a new place to move to
    • Considering where to move
    • Preview
    • Decision
  • moving
    • Submit a cancellation notice
    • Moving company quote
    • packing
• Various procedures
  • After moving
    • Submit a moving-in notification
    • Change of residence certificate (change of address, consolidating households)
    • Change of name and address on license
    • Change of name and address of financial institution (individual) … etc.

By breaking it down into smaller parts, we finally completed a WBS consisting of four major items, 10 medium items, and 40 minor items.

Also, since the period itself will take about a year, each square on the schedule is one week instead of one day.
From there, we worked backwards from the time until the move to determine what needed to be done during that time and created a WBS.
By having an idea of what I should do and by when before moving, I was able to proceed with important tasks such as when to start looking for a property to move to and when to get my resident registration and family register with plenty of time to spare.

Make a list of things you want to buy after moving

As I steadily worked through the tasks based on the successfully completed WBS, I came across some things that I couldn't organize. Because I was moving and communal living was starting at the same time, I had a lot of things that I wanted to buy after the move or that I should have bought in advance.
Of course, I can't buy everything I want to buy. I needed to organize and prioritize, so I decided to make a list of things I want to buy after moving in the form of a task management sheet.

If you include the amount, you can keep track of your budget.

After each of us entered our lists, our list of things we wanted to buy totaled about 20 items.
From there, we discuss and decide priorities for what we actually buy.

for example…

• I thought it would be a must-have if we didn't have a washlet, but the other person didn't think it was that necessary.
• I never used a rice cooker when I lived alone, so I had forgotten about it, but it was something I absolutely needed and wanted.

By doing this, we were able to prevent misunderstandings such as, "I thought this should be my top priority, but the other person thought differently," and reduce missed purchases.

Depending on how you use it, you can use your work experience in your personal life

What do you think?

When you hear the word "direction," you probably have a strong sense of business.
It's true that there may not be much direction work like what you normally do outside or inside the company.

I asked the other directors on the team if they did any directing work in their private lives, and they said,

• "I write down tasks on paper, but I've never thought about making a WBS or task management sheet."
• "In the first place, I never thought of directing my work in my private life."

Many people said this.

There are many opportunities to direct in our daily lives, and it's possible that we do it unconsciously without realizing that it is direction.

If you're someone who is thinking, "I'm thinking about doing XX, but I don't know where to start...", try making a WBS (schedule) first. You'll probably start to see things that you couldn't see before, so please give it a try.