Best of Project Management — January 2026

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   Article

   Hacker News·20w

   I charged $18,000 for a Static HTML Page

   A contractor shares their experience being hired for what should have been a simple one-day HTML page project. Due to organizational dysfunction, delayed responses, missing assets, and endless email chains, the project stretched from an estimated 20 hours to 7 weeks of on-site work. Despite feeling like an impostor for charging so much for minimal actual coding, the contractor invoiced for their time. The company not only accepted the $18,000 invoice but recalculated it to $21,000, acknowledging the contractor had been available and ready to work throughout the extended timeline.

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2. 2
   Article

   GitHub Changelog·18w

   Hierarchy view now available in GitHub Projects

   GitHub Projects now supports hierarchy view in public preview, allowing users to visualize issue hierarchies up to eight levels deep directly in table views. The feature enables expanding/collapsing sub-issues while maintaining grouping, sorting, and filtering capabilities. Future updates will add inline sub-issue creation, drag-and-drop reordering, and synced ordering. Additional improvements include performance enhancements reducing issue load times, a new View menu, REST API endpoint for creating project views, and better pull request integration.

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3. 3
   Article

   Work Chronicles·19w

   (comic) When You Get a Chance

   A comic illustrating the common workplace frustration when urgent requests disrupt carefully planned work priorities, forcing developers to switch from prioritized task management to first-in-first-out processing.

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4. 4
   Article

   Product Hunt·19w

   Terramind: Search: AI Search integrated with notes, calendar, projects, etc

   Terramind is an ecosystem of 10+ integrated AI-powered applications including an IDE, search engine, project management, calendar, notes, file storage, and code editor. The platform features a custom AI model called Helium 0.1, supports multiple AI providers (Claude, Anthropic, Gemini), and includes an agent marketplace. Built by a solo developer, it offers 25,000 free credits for new users and integrates across development workflows from code generation to GitHub reviews.

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5. 5
   Article

   The Daily WTF·18w

   Marking Territory

   A contractor shares a story about modernizing a 1988 BASIC transformer design program into a web application. The technical work went smoothly, converting BASIC math to C# and building an Angular frontend. However, an IT director who attended a single meeting demanded the entire Angular frontend be rewritten in MVC because he didn't want to learn TypeScript and Angular, then never participated in the project again. The unnecessary rewrite wasted weeks of developer effort and exemplifies how management interference can derail otherwise successful projects.

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   Article

   Make WordPress Core·17w

   Announcing the WordPress 7.0 Release Squad

   WordPress 7.0 release squad has been officially formed following a call for volunteers. The release continues the streamlined approach of smaller, focused squad roles with emphasis on collaboration with Make Team representatives. The structure aims to reduce overhead while ensuring all team contributions are represented throughout the development cycle.

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   Article

   swizec.com·19w

   Small projects, clear scope

   Planning before coding saves significant time and reduces stress. A simple project brief answering five key questions—what problem you're solving, how you'll solve it, how you'll know it's done, what's explicitly out of scope, and who benefits—provides enough structure for teams to work effectively. The entire team should collaborate on the execution plan, with managers defining goals. Explicitly documenting what's NOT included prevents scope creep, and vague project names like "Make X better" should be avoided. Experienced engineers often do this intuitively, but adding structure helps others.

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8. 8
   Article

   Make WordPress Core·19w

   WordPress 7.0 Call for Volunteers

   WordPress 7.0 is scheduled for release on April 9, 2026, with alpha development already underway. The core team is seeking volunteers for key leadership roles including Release Coordination, Tech Leads, Triage Lead, and Test Lead. The release will use a streamlined Release Squad structure that emphasizes collaboration with Make Team Representatives. Contributors of all experience levels are encouraged to volunteer by January 16th, and attending WordCamp Asia is not required to participate.

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9. 9
   Article

   Hacker News·20w

   The Napoleon Technique: Postponing Things to Increase Productivity – Effectiviology

   The Napoleon technique is a productivity method where you intentionally postpone dealing with non-urgent matters that may resolve themselves without your input. Based on Napoleon's practice of leaving letters unopened for three weeks, this approach helps conserve time and energy by filtering out issues that don't truly require immediate attention. The technique works best for minor, routine matters where delayed action carries minimal risk, such as waiting before responding to non-urgent emails or addressing potential issues that may never materialize. Key considerations include weighing potential benefits against risks, avoiding procrastination disguised as strategic delay, and setting clear deadlines to prevent indefinite postponement.

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