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I had a long post drafted and firefox crashed and lost EVERYTHING. Argh. Trying to recreate. Something appears to be wrong with DW drafts.
Last week was a great week in planning and productivity. I got SO MUCH done, which was great for my mood and outlook. My most important tasks got done, including several coaching lessons and coaching homeworks, and I decimated my task list in general. Most importantly, I FINALLY finished my pond filter update and got it up and running. (I have been trying to get that done for weeks and it's just been one roadblock after another. Shipping snafus, tool problems, a FREEZE, etc. I mean to make a post about that but I may not- let's just say that many obstacles were in my path but it is FINALLY done and the new medium appears to be doing the job.)
What's working:
1: Task-based planning: Every day I have 3 tasks which are the most important ones for that day. They are the first things I do after my morning routine (morning routine: coffee, morning pages, prepare my face for the outdoors, and coming this week, 10 minutes on the stationary bike!) At least one of the Top 3 is coaching-related, and at least one is self-care-related. It's important that I prioritize things other than the coaching program, because prioritizing ONLY coaching means everything else, including self-care, falls away and that's bad for me. After my top 3, I schedule 3-4 more tasks for each day. Those tasks are less important than the top 3, but some of them are still really important, like soaking Rex in the sink, so those get done before others whenever possible.
Schedule-based planning was disheartening and stressful to me, because I inevitably got behind, which made me feel disheartened and stressed and overwhelmed. Overwhelm makes me feel kind of paralyzed, so then I get even less done and feel even worse. Task-based planning means I don't really "get behind;" if I accomplish my Top 3, that's great! If I get more tasks done, even better! So I go through the week feeling good, and not being stressed or overwhelmed means I get more done than I would with schedule-based planning. Last week I got almost every task done every day, which was awesome.
2: Planning twice a week: I used to plan my whole week on Sunday. About 3 weeks ago I switched to twice-weekly planning. I still plan most of my week on Sunday: that's when I do my Weekly Boot Camp, weekly layout, task list, morning/evening routine, and scheduled appointments/events. I also plan meals for the week on Sunday. (We've worked out a routine in which we plan meals together on Sunday and make a grocery list, then on Monday evening B does the grocery shopping on his way home from work. This works great for us because we get our produce box on Saturday, so we know what we have and can figure out what we need, and I am usually out on Monday evenings.) When it comes to daily tasks, though, I only plan those through Wednesday. On Wednesday, one of my Top 3 is planning the rest of the week. This gives my plan flexibility; if something comes up that means I have to change my schedule early in the week, I can reschedule those things for later in the week without having to change plans and use correction tape all over. It's another way of reducing my stress/overwhelm level and feelings of falling behind.
3: Sticky notes: I bought a set of Happy Planner sticky notes. The set has several different sizes and add more flexibility. I use the longer ones when my task list is very long and I need to add more space to the task list. I use the short ones when I need to add more tasks to a day than I have space for, or when a planned event/appointment doesn't have a firm day/time so it may need to be moved from one day to another, etc. Like if I know I need to have a homework session with a friend during the week, and it might be Thursday, but it also might be on Friday. I will write that on a note so I can just move it around rather than break out the correction tape.
4: This week's weekly note page: I've tried doing different things with the weekly note page. Last year I barely used it, this year I am trying to get more out of it. This week it's the most functional it's been yet, imo. It's divided roughly into 4 sections. A quote, a gratitudes list (I do have a daily gratitudes section on each day but it's very small) a meal plan, and a list of topics that I want to journal about.
What's not working:
My task list. I posted this video a few weeks ago, which I highly recommend. In the video Alexis recommends having a monthly master task list. My planner has a monthly project section, where one breaks monthly projects into tasks, so I thought I had a monthly master task list. But what I realized last week is that it's not really a master list, because it doesn't cover tasks that are not project-related. So far, I have tried setting up a "Next Week" list on my weekly notes page, to write down whatever tasks come to mind, and I've tried just cramming all the tasks I have ahead of me onto my weekly task list. This isn't working. It means my task list is always over-full and it's not the best way to organize my tasks, just pushing them from week onto week.
So, I need a monthly master task list to list tasks that aren't part of a currently active, goal-related project. I don't have a place for this in my planner. I don't want to add an insert to the back, or use one of my notes pages, because I would have to flip around a lot; I keep things in the back that I don't access often, like my index and future log. So, I am going to try using a large sticky note; that way I can move it from week to week and keep it easily accessible. I am ok with the idea of it being kind of a hybrid task list/to-do list; I need to have something like a to-do list where I can write down new tasks and to-dos as they occur to me, because let's be real, things come up. If the sticky note doesn't work I will revisit an insert. Maybe something that I put between my monthly project planning pages. Or maybe I will just do that in the first place.
I am really good at optimizing things, and I do find it satisfying, but honestly optimizing the planner isn't a FUN kind of optimization. It's self-care though and that's really good!
Last week was a great week in planning and productivity. I got SO MUCH done, which was great for my mood and outlook. My most important tasks got done, including several coaching lessons and coaching homeworks, and I decimated my task list in general. Most importantly, I FINALLY finished my pond filter update and got it up and running. (I have been trying to get that done for weeks and it's just been one roadblock after another. Shipping snafus, tool problems, a FREEZE, etc. I mean to make a post about that but I may not- let's just say that many obstacles were in my path but it is FINALLY done and the new medium appears to be doing the job.)
What's working:
1: Task-based planning: Every day I have 3 tasks which are the most important ones for that day. They are the first things I do after my morning routine (morning routine: coffee, morning pages, prepare my face for the outdoors, and coming this week, 10 minutes on the stationary bike!) At least one of the Top 3 is coaching-related, and at least one is self-care-related. It's important that I prioritize things other than the coaching program, because prioritizing ONLY coaching means everything else, including self-care, falls away and that's bad for me. After my top 3, I schedule 3-4 more tasks for each day. Those tasks are less important than the top 3, but some of them are still really important, like soaking Rex in the sink, so those get done before others whenever possible.
Schedule-based planning was disheartening and stressful to me, because I inevitably got behind, which made me feel disheartened and stressed and overwhelmed. Overwhelm makes me feel kind of paralyzed, so then I get even less done and feel even worse. Task-based planning means I don't really "get behind;" if I accomplish my Top 3, that's great! If I get more tasks done, even better! So I go through the week feeling good, and not being stressed or overwhelmed means I get more done than I would with schedule-based planning. Last week I got almost every task done every day, which was awesome.
2: Planning twice a week: I used to plan my whole week on Sunday. About 3 weeks ago I switched to twice-weekly planning. I still plan most of my week on Sunday: that's when I do my Weekly Boot Camp, weekly layout, task list, morning/evening routine, and scheduled appointments/events. I also plan meals for the week on Sunday. (We've worked out a routine in which we plan meals together on Sunday and make a grocery list, then on Monday evening B does the grocery shopping on his way home from work. This works great for us because we get our produce box on Saturday, so we know what we have and can figure out what we need, and I am usually out on Monday evenings.) When it comes to daily tasks, though, I only plan those through Wednesday. On Wednesday, one of my Top 3 is planning the rest of the week. This gives my plan flexibility; if something comes up that means I have to change my schedule early in the week, I can reschedule those things for later in the week without having to change plans and use correction tape all over. It's another way of reducing my stress/overwhelm level and feelings of falling behind.
3: Sticky notes: I bought a set of Happy Planner sticky notes. The set has several different sizes and add more flexibility. I use the longer ones when my task list is very long and I need to add more space to the task list. I use the short ones when I need to add more tasks to a day than I have space for, or when a planned event/appointment doesn't have a firm day/time so it may need to be moved from one day to another, etc. Like if I know I need to have a homework session with a friend during the week, and it might be Thursday, but it also might be on Friday. I will write that on a note so I can just move it around rather than break out the correction tape.
4: This week's weekly note page: I've tried doing different things with the weekly note page. Last year I barely used it, this year I am trying to get more out of it. This week it's the most functional it's been yet, imo. It's divided roughly into 4 sections. A quote, a gratitudes list (I do have a daily gratitudes section on each day but it's very small) a meal plan, and a list of topics that I want to journal about.
What's not working:
My task list. I posted this video a few weeks ago, which I highly recommend. In the video Alexis recommends having a monthly master task list. My planner has a monthly project section, where one breaks monthly projects into tasks, so I thought I had a monthly master task list. But what I realized last week is that it's not really a master list, because it doesn't cover tasks that are not project-related. So far, I have tried setting up a "Next Week" list on my weekly notes page, to write down whatever tasks come to mind, and I've tried just cramming all the tasks I have ahead of me onto my weekly task list. This isn't working. It means my task list is always over-full and it's not the best way to organize my tasks, just pushing them from week onto week.
So, I need a monthly master task list to list tasks that aren't part of a currently active, goal-related project. I don't have a place for this in my planner. I don't want to add an insert to the back, or use one of my notes pages, because I would have to flip around a lot; I keep things in the back that I don't access often, like my index and future log. So, I am going to try using a large sticky note; that way I can move it from week to week and keep it easily accessible. I am ok with the idea of it being kind of a hybrid task list/to-do list; I need to have something like a to-do list where I can write down new tasks and to-dos as they occur to me, because let's be real, things come up. If the sticky note doesn't work I will revisit an insert. Maybe something that I put between my monthly project planning pages. Or maybe I will just do that in the first place.
I am really good at optimizing things, and I do find it satisfying, but honestly optimizing the planner isn't a FUN kind of optimization. It's self-care though and that's really good!
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