A couple of readers have asked me for more detail of the
diary and planning system that I use, so here goes. Warning – this is a really long article!Click on the pictures to see a larger version.
The core of my ‘system’ is a set of key area to goals to projects to next action sheets that sit behind a tab in my filofax which is unimaginatively
labelled “goals”. I learned, somewhat to my cost last year, that getting the
heart of this section right is more important than completing the “next-action”
(to-do) list that flows from it. In 2011, I spent more time following the plans
and not enough time on making sure the plans were right for me and as a result,
I spent a lot of time on things that, in the grand scheme of things, weren’t
right for me, or I got stressed because I didn’t complete things. The fact I
had unticked items on my daily/weekly lists made me feel like I had failed and
so I wasn’t trying hard enough or something. It didn’t really occur to me until
I took the time to sit down and think, that they were things that didn’t matter.
Just before this New Year, I spent a lot of time thinking.
What did I
really want from my life?
You can read the result of these thoughts
here. The upshot of it all was that
quite a lot of what I thought were important goals last year, turned out to be
just things I
could do, not things I
dreamed of doing.
So, my key areas – the aspects of my life that are really
important to me – are:
Writing
Health and Happiness
Chimwemwe
(Work)
“Work” is in brackets because I am trying this year to focus
on the good bits of my current job and see it as a way of earning money. It isn’t
especially my career. It sure as hell isn’t my dream job. My dream job is to be
a writer. So “work” is in brackets because there are no goals stemming from
this key area except “to leave work at work” and “don’t hate it so much”. I
know, I could have better goals that included getting a new job, but, as I
said, my dream job is to write and spending time re-training or applying for
other things would just take my time and energy away from pursuing my dream of
writing. Of course, I’m sure there are many jobs out there I could do. Frankly, few that would pay me
what I currently earn without major re-training and few that have as nice a
pension. I have no desire to be a penniless writer in an unheated garret, on
the brink of starvation!
The first page in my “goals” section, is therefore a
mind-map, drawn on plain filofax paper and using colour-coding for each of the
key-areas. I am a very visual person and you will see that the colour-coding
runs right through my system.
On the page after my mind-map, I have a page with two
questions on it:
Is it my dream?
Is it essential?
Then a statement: Time is finite.
These are to remind me not to get bogged down by the coulds and focus on the dreams.
Then there is the meat and drink of the section. I have a
sheet for each key-area, under which the goals are listed. Next to each goal is
a list of the projects that will allow me to attain that goal. If I take the Chimwemwe
key-area sheet it looks like this:
 |
| Key area summary sheet for Chimwemwe |
The first goal was to raise £500 by the end of 2011 (you
will see a lovely “achieved” in red under it!). The projects that allowed me to
reach that goal were:
Produce and sell 50 calendars
Market and sell ‘good gifts’
Approach local Rotary clubs
(again, the first two are ticked)
After these summary sheets for each key area, come the
project sheets. Again, let’s consider one for Chimwemwe.
On the front side of the sheet the key-area is written in
green (the colour for this key-area). Underneath, the goal is repeated. Then
the project is listed, followed by the purpose of the project and a section for
notes.
 |
| front page |
 |
| reverse side |
So, the sheet goes (forgot to photo it...):
Key area: Chimwemwe
Goal: to raise £500
Project: to sell 50 calendars
Purpose: to raise £150
Notes: (blank, but could be used to jot down info about
which company to use to make the calendars etc.)
On the other side of the sheet, I list my next action and when its due date is. For the calendar, these were
as follows:
Shortlist pictures for club to vote on (the club being my
Rotary club); end Oct, 2011
Investigate companies to produce calendar; end Oct, 2011
Get calendar printed; mid Nov, 2011
Sell calendar (Rotary and work etc); end Dec 2011
As I hope you can see, the next actions are clear, achievable
things that can be ticked off. This isn’t my invention of course! I owe a lot
to many, many time/task management systems and in particular to David Parker
(check out
his
website including some of the pages he uses in his system).
Okay. I’ve spent some time explaining the key areas to goals
to projects to next action system because it’s important to get that bit right.
What I do with that set of project to next action pages doesn’t really need
much thinking time in my weekly/monthly planning; the thinking time came
before, making sure my goals were not only clear, but important to me and that
the projects would support those goals.
After my goals section comes my diary section. This seems
really complicated, but isn’t (to me at least!). In order it goes:
1. a home-made month to view diary (for long-range awareness)
2. a monthly planning page for the current month
3. a weekly planning page (listing all the next actions and
to-do for the week) for the current week
4. a week of day per page diary sheets (for planning each
day) with a Today marker in, marking Today
5. a weekly review check sheet
6. the weekly planning pages for the remainder of the month
7. a monthly review check sheet
8. the monthly planning pages for the remainder of the year
9. a week on two pages diary with a second Today
marker indicating the current week
10. a forward planning sheet where anything beyond 2012 is
noted down (mostly my vaccination dates but before I bought the new WO2P diary,
there were lists of when the car tax, car insurance etc. were due
11. (slightly randomly) a log of my running and weight
I’ll walk you through the system bit by bit.
1. The month to view section
I use this for long-range awareness. I only log big things
like birthdays, holidays, events etc, not day to day stuff. I could probably do
without these pages, but I don’t like flipping through lots of weeks of a diary
to see things and I have a better awareness of how far away things are when I
see the month laid out like this.
2. The current monthly planning page
Each month, I produce a list of ‘things to be done in that
month’. This list is semi-automatically generated from my “projects to next
actions” sheets, using the due dates to allocate the actions to the months. If
you were using a computer, you could generate these lists automatically I
guess. I like to write them out as it makes me feel more connected to them.
Here is January:
 |
| January's planning page |
As you can see, it’s colour-coded. Things that relate to the
key-areas are written in the colour assigned to that key-area. Then it doesn’t
matter if I write them in an odd order, I can still see how much of each colour
there is (and therefore if the balance looks okay). Some of them have
tick-boxes after them so I can indicate when I have completed them. One of them
is pretty vague – “be able to run 8 miles” but I’ll explain that one in a bit! On
the reverse side is a list of the books I have read and the blog-posts written
(just for interest really!).
3. The weekly planning page for the current week
At the start of the month, I allocate each task from the
monthly sheet to a week of the month, keeping an eye on how many other
commitments I have each week to try and avoid overloading myself. By doing them
all at the start of the month, I can make sure that the tasks are spread out
over the weeks.
At the bottom of each weekly task sheet is a space for “don’t
forget” – things I have to do but which aren’t part of any key area or goal.
Here is this week’s list (with a few bits redacted):
 |
| This week's planning page |
Again, you will see the colour-coding running through. The “be
able to run 8 miles” has morphed into a couple of specific things for this week
– a 4-mile run and a 3-mile run (at different paces). Next week, these targets
will be closer to 8 miles and I’ll finally (hopefully) do the 8 miler at the
end of January. The “don’t forget” includes taking meter readings and posting
things to a friend.
4. A week of day per page diary sheets
At the start of each week, I sit down with my “list of
things to do this week” and a week’s worth of day to page diary sheets. I work
part-time and the days aren’t regular, so I mark out which will be work days in
the coming week and which not. I also transcribe any appointments across from
the week on two pages diary (see below) to the day per page and then I allocate
the things-to-get-done-this-week onto individual days. I write these in coloured
pen on the day, on the RHS. Unless they are particularly time-specific, I just
allocate them as and when throughout the week. Any appointments that arrive in
the week go straight into the day per page sheets. Anything later than the end
of this week goes into the appropriate bit of the week on 2 pages diary.
Here’s a snapshot of today and tomorrow:
 |
| LHS (today) with some of today blocked for tasks; RHS (tomorrow) will be planned/blocked tomorrow |
At the start of each day, I review what I’m supposed to
achieve that day and then often allocate a specific time to do it. For example,
I prefer to run in the morning, so if I was scheduled to run, I would block off
time in the morning for it and allocate other tasks to other parts of the day.
I’m less creative in an afternoon, so would put writing into a morning and
other things into an afternoon (chores; less creative tasks like editing or updating
an email list etc). I know many time/task management gurus would advise against
it, but it’s a system that works for me.My filofax lies open at the current DPP day at the side of me on my desk during the day.
5. A weekly review check-sheet
Each week, I take out the DPP diary sheets and file them (in
a spare filofax). I check off what’s been done (or not) from the weekly list
then put in the next 7 days’ worth of sheets and allocate the tasks for the
following week. I do a few other bits and pieces in my weekly review and this
check-sheet keeps me right!
 |
| check-sheet (printed on card for durability) |
6. The weekly planning pages for the remainder of the
month
Just one after another until the month runs out.
7. A monthly review check sheet
Similar to the weekly review check-sheet and used once I get
to the end of the month to keep me right in my monthly review/planning session.
 |
| again, printed on card for durability |
8. The monthly planning pages for the remainder of the
year
Again, just one after another until the year runs out. I
have the whole year in the filofax – that way if I know something absolutely
has to be done in a particular month I can write it in and not worry that I’ll
forget.
 |
| some advanced planning! |
9. A week on two pages diary (full year)
This indicates which days I’m working (I work part-time and
the days aren’t regular), important things like when the car-tax is due or when
I need to pay the balance on the holiday etc. It’s probably a bit of a luxury
as I only look at it once a week when I am planning the week ahead, or when I
am booking appointments in, but I don’t want to carry a year’s worth of daily
pages and my month to view is too small to put everything in. A week to a page
is too small too! I prefer the lined version as it keeps me neater.
 |
| sticker from Accessorize. This week isn't very busy! |
10. A forward planning sheet
Anything beyond 2012 is noted down here (mostly my
vaccination due dates, but before I bought the new WO2P diary, there were lists
of when the car tax, car insurance etc. were due)
11. (slightly randomly) a log of my running and weight
It’s in this section for no particularly good reason!
I still think people may need to see it in the flesh to
really get what my system is, but hopefully the walk-through has been fairly
clear. I would have to emphasise that the main thinking bit took place when the
goals were drawn up. Although in the weekly reviews I cross through completed
next actions (with highlighter so I can still read them), I’m intending to do a
deeper “root and branch” review of all the goals on a quarterly basis to try
and make sure that I am not wandering into the I could do this territory and away from my dreams.
Anyway, what do people think of the system? “Complicated as
hell!” or “Might work for me”?
