How do you set clear objectives for communication projects?

In my experience, setting the objective and the goals at the beginning itself helps in setting the tone for the project. Start with the objective and the purpose, communicate it well while aligning it to your mission and vision and make sure to take inputs from your teammates aswell. Then, create SMART goals to keep track of this purpose.

I talk to large organisations, universities and schools. It is crucial to understand what they want from talks and have zoom meetings with them to discuss the required content. I then tailor the talk/ presentation so that I can deliver appropriately.

I would add more guiding questions to each criteria. Like how can goals be smart? What questions should I ask? How can they be measurable? What question should I ask? I would also mention how to “formulate” the answers

In my experience, when multiple projects are overlapping with different priorities; I color code my projects by green (on target) Yellow (30 days to deadline) Red (overdue). This gives a quick visual over what is priority and what can wait. Keeping those specific projects as focused with specific end goals in mind that are tangible and measurable.

Questions are valuable feedback. Examine the questions you commonly get from your intended audience. Are the same questions being asked multiple times? Do the most frequent questions have a common theme? Do any of those questions lead to more uncertainty and further inquisition? If so, how can those questions be answered in your communications sooner in the process? Try to anticipate the types of things people will want to know, but also consider the way the info is presented to make it easy for your intended audience to digest. That is, does the info need to be in short bullet points, or is a paragraph more appropriate?