# Personal Projects > The *Personal Projects* framework was developed by psychology scholar Brian R. Little to interrogate the way people understand and organize their actions in the world. He defined personal projects as "extended sets of personally salient action in context." RELATED FUNCTIONS: [[People Operations]], [[Program & Production]] SEE ALSO: [[Value Proposition Canvas]] When someone asks "What are you up to these days?" – and you decide to answer rather than simply quipping "not much, you?" – you will likely consider and share a list of bundled action sets: I'm creating a marketing plan at work, I'm helping my kids navigate their new school, my spouse and I just started an herb garden, I'm learning Spanish, I'm reading a book about stoicism, I'm trying exercise more and get healthier. Psychology scholar Brian Little would call these "personal projects." And he could tell you a lot about your personality, your approach to work and world, and even a bit about your well-being from what you shared. *Personal projects*, according to Little, are "extended sets of personally salient action in context" (Little 2007). Each word in that description carries a purpose: - "extended" because they represent behaviors that take place over time and in different places – some for hours, some for days, some for decades; - "sets" because they rarely involve a single action, but a group of interrelated actions; - "personally salient" because they are selected and described by the person involved, not by some external observation or standard; - "action" because they involve behavior in the world, not just internal reflection; - and "in context" because they necessarily entangle with the physical, social, and cultural environments in which they take shape and take place. Personal projects live at the interplay of "goals" (internal objectives) and "actions" (external behaviors) as understood and organized by the individual who claims them. They can and do include projects in the workplace, at home, in social settings, and anywhere else. They are "personal" because a person names and frames them in their list of salient activities. The primary function of any personal project is to attain, maintain, or avoid a state of affairs foreseen by the individual, and to integrate the disparate demands they experience across their lives. By gathering and assessing thousands of personal projects over the decades, Little and his colleagues have found that "human flourishing" corresponded to five key themes in people's current project lists: - **Project Meaning** - whether and to what degree projects resonate with an individual's self-identity and align with their values - **Manageability** - whether and to what degree an individual believes they had adequate time, capacity, and control to achieve the projects - **Community/Support** - whether and to what degree the projects are visible to friends and colleagues, and considered by them to be important - **Positive Affect** - what array of positive emotions or experiences are associated with the project bundle - **Negative Affect** - what array of negative emotions or experiences, such as stress or anxiety, are associated with the project bundle. In the workplace, both "tasks" and "jobs" are generally assigned to an individual, along with external definitions and measures of purpose and success. The personal project framework can offer a more human, subjective, and holistic lens on what someone believes they are doing in the world – both at work and beyond. And it can offer a whole-system analysis of how those many personal projects combine to support flourishing or floundering in a team member's life. According to Little: "well-being is contingent on the sustainable pursuit of goals and projects that are accorded vital importance in our lives." ## Sources Grant, Adam. “Deciphering the Puzzle of Our Personality with Brian Little.” Re:Thinking with Adam Grant. Accessed July 11, 2023. [https://www.ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant/deciphering-the-puzzle-of-our-personality-with-brian-little-transcript](https://www.ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant/deciphering-the-puzzle-of-our-personality-with-brian-little-transcript). Little, Brian R. “Personal Projects and Free Traits: Personality and Motivation Reconsidered.” *Social and Personality Psychology Compass* 2, no. 3 (2008): 1235–54. [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00106.x](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00106.x). Little, Brian R., Susan D. Phillips, and Katariina Salmela-Aro, eds. *Personal Project Pursuit: Goals, Action, and Human Flourishing*. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associations, 2007. --- ## Tags (click to view related pages) #frameworks #functions/people_operations #sapling