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This post has been a long time coming. I actually wanted to wait until I found The Answer to my time management needs, and then post The Answer and have all of my fellow overly committed, perfectionist creatives revere me and my exemplary time management methods.

Truth of the matter is: I don’t think that The Answer exists.

Oh sure, there’s Getting Things Done. Oh sure, there’s Toodledo and Remember The Milk. Oh sure, there’s Moleskine notebooks and the hipster PDA and GTDagenda.com. I’ve tried them all. I could create a five page post of all of the time management tools I tried, what worked and what didn’t. But I won’t, because I’m tired just thinking about it. It’s draining. And sad.

So, instead of posting The Answer or a review on all the other tools I’ve use, I wanted to share with you my current method of time management, as it seems to actually be, uh, working so far (she says with trepidation). Now, I do have a tendency to make every spreadsheet more complicated than it should be, so feel free to comment away as to whether I’m a genius, or how I can simplify, or whether I’m crazy….I’d welcome it all.

First, I start with a good ol’ brain dump with a pen and some paper (and yes, I do it in my Moleskine notebook, which I carry with me at all times. I like to use the travel one for the divided sections, & then use a labeler to make my own darn sections. I’m a rebel like that).  I literally write down everything that is swimming in my head: stuff in the shallow end (friends I need to call, emails I need to return, cleaning I need to do), stuff in the doggie paddle area (papers I need to write, blogs I need to post, testimonials I need to get up on my website), and stuff in the deep end (marketing ideas for When I Grow Up, debt elimination plans, ideas for a new book).*

Then I go to my trusty friend, Google Docs, which I can access from any computer. I open up a spreadsheet called Michelle Master Tasker (I like silly names and things that rhyme), crack my knuckles and get to work.

The first page of the spreadsheet consists of 16 (yes, 16) columns:

• Goal (This is the big overall goal I’m trying to achieve, ie “Be a certified life coach!” Sidenote: for some reason, every goal must end with an exclamation point!)
• Project (This is the smaller goal that gets me to the Goal, ie “Graduate from ICA“)
• Task (This is what’s needed to happen in order to complete the Project, ie “Finish Written Exam”)
• Target Completion Date (This is the date in Michelle World that I would like it to be finished, ie “2/28/09″)
• Deadline (This is the day it’s absolutely due, ie “4/20/09″, which is when all of my requirements are due in order to graduate in June)
• Priority (This is where the task falls in line with the Goal. In this example, I have “Finish Written Exam” as a “1″, since it’s the most pressing compared to the other Tasks in that Goal)
• Task Number (This is where the task falls in relation to the other task. In this example, it fell at “4″. This is the 4th To Do item on my list, as in there are 3 To Do items I must do before it that are of higher priority)
• Notes (ie “Doc kept in the netbook”, so I know that I’m not working on it through any other platform like Evernote. These notes can be anything you need to, uh, note)
• Next Action (This is the next step I need to take in order to move the task forward, ie “Complete all questions”)
• 2nd Action (This is the 2nd step needed in order to move the task forward, ie “Email it”)
• 3rd Action (This is the third step….ie “Celebrate!”)
• 4th Action (This is the fourth step…ie blank, as the project is completed at “Celebrate!”)
• 5th Action (see above)
• 6th Action (see above)
• 7th Action (see above)

Now, when I first move a goal/project/task over to the Google Docs spreadsheet, I don’t assign it a Priority or a Task Number.

Here’s a print screen of the first 8 columns after the brain dump:

It’s only when everything is transferred onto the spreadsheet that I sort by Goal. Then, I can see all of the Tasks that relate to one Goal and prioritize them accordingly. The most important Task gets a “1″ in the Priority box, and on & on until the Tasks for that Goal are finished. Then onto the next Goal. And yes, if I have more than 1 Project associated with a Goal, I still prioritize the task by goal.

With me? Heck, I ain’t even with me! OK, I’ll give you an example. Under the goal, “Make WIGU** a full time job (yay hooray!)”, I have “WIGU: Website”, “WIGU: Marketing” & “WIGU: Financial” as Projects. But I don’t feel that “WIGU:Website” is more important than “WIGU:Marketing”, so all the Tasks are given equal weight. I assign them Priority numbers against the ultimate Goal of making WIGU my full time job.

Here’s a print screen of all my Tasks organized by Goal. For this example, I bolded the tasks that are part of the Goal “Make WIGU a full time job (yay hooray!)”:

Once I’ve assigned each task it’s Priority number against the Goal, I look at it against every other Task that I have on my spreadsheet. To do this, I sort by Target Completion Date. I then go down the list and mark the highest priority Task with #1 under the Task Number column, and move down from there. Normally it’s not exactly in Target Completion Date order, but it’s usually pretty close.

Here’s Michelle’s Master Tasker sorted by Task Number. Note how the Target Completion Dates are almost in order here:

Once I’ve sorted by Task Number, I highlight Task Numbers 1-3 in a bright yellow. I’ve made a deal with myself that I can’t go do anything else on the list unless these first three are out of the way. But I can work on these three at once, which allows me to pick what I want to do at any given time. That’s important to me because I don’t like to be boxed in to one particular task that I HAVE to do. For me, that’s a recipe for procrastination, boredom, resentment, and/or failure. Y’know, the Not So Good stuff.

These are my first 3 Task Numbers, highlighted. Duh:

I’ve come to realize, though, that there are times when I’m waiting on someone else to complete my next action for me. It’s then and only then that I highlight that task with a gray shade, and move on to the next task in the task list to highlight with yellow. This allows me to focus on something that is in my control, while not letting the other task slip through my fingers.

Yes, every time I finish something I have to re-prioritize by both goal and task number. But so far, this spreadsheet has given me what I need: structure, a way to see the steps that go into completing a task (and estimate how long it should take me to get there), focus, balance, and prioritization. Even going in and re-prioritizing keeps me updated as to what I should be working on. It’s taking me away from that formula that has been my truth for so long (busy=productive=success) and allows me to come back to the focus (which is my word for 2009).

Does my brain still swim sometimes? Sure. But do I feel like this is my way to get things done, to remember the milk, to toodle-do? It’s not too constricted, or too loosey goosy, or too confusing, or not visual enough. It’s Michelle’s Master Tasker. And you can find a demo of it to play around with here. Of course I’ll keep you posted as it evolves or I ignore it completely.

Because this is such an all-consuming part of my brain lately, I’m going to spend most of March talking about time management and the various parts that make it up. Next week I’ll show you the checklist – aka Check Yo’self B4 U Reck Yo’self – that I created to stay on top of my weekly tasks. The week after I’ll show you a tool to help Block Yo’ Time So You Don’t Lose Yo’ Mind. Throughout, I’ll be nudging you, looking for comments. I’m a professional nudger and a Jew that’s been programmed with a lifetime’s worth of guilt, so please contribute. Otherwise I’ll have to go back to my schtetl and eat some homentashen awl by myself. But that’s awlright. You nevah come visit any mawh. Sigh.

* Wasn’t the pool analogy good? I know, right? Thanks.

** WIGU = When I Grow Up. It’s also fun to say. WIGU. Try it! You’ll like it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Happy Hooplah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.