Using survival skills can help with project management. Yes, you read that right.  

What is the Bushcraft Rule of Threes? 

The bushcraft rule of threes is a simple guideline that helps campers and survivalists to prioritize their needs in a wilderness situation. It states that you can survive: 

• Three minutes without air 

• Three hours without shelter 

• Three days without water 

• Three weeks without food 

The rule of threes helps you prioritize what will cause you to fail fastest first. When you follow the rules, it prevents you from wasting time and energy on less urgent matters.

For example, if you are in a cold and wet environment, finding or building a shelter to keep you warm and dry is more important than looking for food or water, because hypothermia can kill you in a matter of hours and a lack of water will take days. 

Great – I’m Not Into Bushcraft, Why Do I Care? Simple – Project Management

The bushcraft rule of threes can also be applied in principle to project management, as a way of identifying and prioritizing the tasks that are critical for the success of your project. By adapting the rule of threes, you can avoid getting distracted by lower priority tasks, and focus on the big picture and the main goals of your project. 

To use the rule of threes for project management, you need to ask yourself: what will cause my project to fail the fastest? These are the tasks you should tackle first and allocate the most resources and attention to. Then, you can move on to the next most urgent tasks, and so on, until you complete your project. 

Here are some ways the bushcraft rule of threes might help you correlate the survival needs with the project priorities: 

• Three minutes without air: This is equivalent to not having a clear and shared vision of your project objectives and scope. Without a clear and shared vision, your project will suffocate and lose direction. You should make sure you and your stakeholders agree on what the project is about, what the expected outcomes are, and what the boundaries and constraints are. 

• Three hours without shelter: This is equivalent to not having a well-defined and realistic project plan and schedule. Without a well-defined and realistic project plan and schedule, your project will be exposed to risks and uncertainties, and you will not be able to deliver on time and on budget. You should make sure you have a detailed and feasible project plan that covers all the tasks, milestones, dependencies, resources, and contingencies. 

• Three days without water: This is equivalent to not having effective and frequent communication and collaboration among your project team and stakeholders. Without effective and frequent communication and collaboration, your project will dehydrate and lose momentum. Make sure you have a clear and consistent communication strategy that keeps everyone informed, engaged, and aligned. 

• Three weeks without food: This is equivalent to not having adequate and flexible budget and resources for your project. Without adequate and flexible budget and resources, your project will starve and lose quality. Make sure you have enough and appropriate budget and resources to support your project activities, and that you can adjust them as needed to cope with changes and issues. 

Now I know you probably don’t want to correlate starting your new and exciting project with tipping your canoe in the middle of nowhere, but thinking about what will cause you to fail the fastest you can set priorities on your activities to get out ahead of that failure and create success. The bushcraft rule of threes is a great starting point to help with project management.

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