Projects vs. Tasks: The Hidden Reason Many Online Courses Never Get Launched
- Toni Federico
- Oct 5
- 5 min read
What creative entrepreneurs must know to plan, build, and launch successfully.
When I got the contract for my first novel, I struggled. I knew I had to sit down and write the book, but all the other things that were part of creating that novel were amorphous. The story and characters were all I saw. I felt comfortable building character profiles. I had a good idea of specific scenes I wanted to include. But the book itself seemed far off in the distance. I couldn’t get a sense of it as a whole, which impeded my ability to write it. It took a whole week of full-on writer’s paralysis before I came to a perspective-altering realization: I was stuck in tasks when I had a project on my hands.
This aha moment occurred while sitting in my living room, sipping coffee as I worked on the project plan for a proposal I was writing for my then-employer, a bleeding-edge technology company with military contracts. I had six weeks to write a proposal and deliver it to the Department of Defense, and I had created a detailed project plan to guide the writing of that proposal, ensuring I met the deadline and all the requirements.
Within the plan, I had mapped out a timeline and broken down the necessary work of research, writing, editing, and delivery. As I worked, my subconscious made the connection my conscious mind had not. My novel was a project, no different from that proposal. To create my novel, I also had phases like research, character building, writing, editing, and delivery. Building character profiles and writing specific scenes were tasks within the project.
Understanding this distinction between a project and a task is crucial.
In that moment, I saw that I was making the mistake of turning my creative project, my novel, into something amorphous. I was allowing the ethos and mystery we infuse creativity with to obscure the truth in front of me: a creative effort isn’t just “something I’m working on.” It has shape, edges, and a destination.
In the world of teaching online, this distinction matters. Many creatives go into course building the way I went into writing that book: passionate about an idea, laser-focused on tasks, but lost about how to make it a reality. This leads to abandoned drafts, unfinished outlines, and students never reached.
Part of the reason for this is that the word “project” has become like the word “Kleenex”; it has lost its specific meaning through overuse. When someone asks for a Kleenex, they aren’t asking for the specific Kleenex brand of tissue; they are just asking for a tissue. The word “project” has suffered the same fate. We say something is a project when what we mean is, it’s an effort. But we do ourselves a disservice when we adopt this colloquium as creative entrepreneurs.
By definition, a project is any work that has a defined beginning, middle, and end. Anything else is an ongoing task. Projects are approached very differently from ongoing tasks. They have a defined lifecycle, they have structure, and most importantly, they end. The project lifecycle looks like this:
Tasks are part of a defined project plan, but tasks themselves are not projects. And, within creative entrepreneurship, I see too many creatives falling prey to thinking a task is a project, or worse, that a project is actually a task. Therefore, they fail to plan accordingly, resulting in incomplete and abandoned projects.
Let’s examine a few common arenas within the life of a creative entrepreneur where tasks and projects are often confused:
Creating an online course: The design, filming, uploading, and launching of a course is a project. The ongoing maintenance, updating, and promotion of the course are operational tasks requiring the continued oversight of content relevance and the necessary marketing and promotion.
Creating social media content: The filming and posting of a series of videos or photos for a new collection or product launch is a project. However, building and maintaining a consistent and meaningful social media presence is an ongoing operational task requiring continuous effort to engage followers, respond to comments, and analyze performance.
Building an email list: Creating a lead magnet and designing a new sign-up form is a project. However, building and nurturing an email list is a persistent operational task that involves regularly sending valuable content, responding to subscribers, and monitoring engagement.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The initial SEO setup for a website is a project. Yet, the work of consistently monitoring and improving keyword rankings, creating new content for search, and checking links is a regular, recurring task.
Are you catching my drift here? A project ends. I can’t stress this enough: a project ends. Tasks are ongoing and persistent. Mistaking one for the other changes how you approach your work.
You’re probably wondering why I am hammering this home. The reason it is essential to understand the difference between the two comes down to mental and emotional load. The connotation we give to the word “project” is heavier than that of a task. And, the reality is that projects do require more concentrated effort than a task, but they also come to an end, whereas tasks are ongoing.
With correct categorization, we can distribute our mental and emotional effort proportionately. Doing this frees up our minds to allow us to keep going, remain creative, and, most importantly, stay sane in the process.
Online course creation is booming—but so is creator burnout. Too many brilliant teachers get stuck halfway through because they treat their course like an ongoing task instead of a finite project. That mistake keeps them spinning their wheels, exhausted by a mountain of “shoulds” with no finish line in sight.
The truth is, your course is a project. It has a start, a middle, and an end. And when you treat it that way, you give yourself permission to focus, finish, and launch. Tasks will always be there—updating lessons, posting on social media, and responding to students—but your course itself deserves project status. Without that clarity, your dream course risks staying an unfinished outline on your hard drive.
Fortunately, projects come with tools that provide the structure and framework needed to get you over the finish line. More on that next month.
TAKE ACTION: Take one idea you’re working on now and use my free Project vs. Task worksheet to see which one you have on your hands.
Janet “Toni” Federico, PMP, MBA, MFA, is an illustrator, surface designer, writer, and curriculum designer from Washington, DC, now based in the Midwest. Toni helps online course creators optimize their content to ensure students learn what is being taught. Toni’s courses have been used by the State of Texas, major insurance companies, and in her own work as a teaching artist. Are you an online course creator looking to optimize your courses to set your students up for success? Get Toni in your inbox.