Managing Weekly Tasks (for Overly Committed, Perfectionist, Somewhat Structured Creatives)
You can buy this pad, along with a lot of other snarky organizational tools, at Knock Knock.
By now you’ve had a whole week to ingest/digest/implement my genius/crazy/complicated time management system. Again, I beg of/implore/ask/plead with you to comment about it, as it would be so beneficial to me and society in general.
And yes, I’ve finally lost it.
Part 2 of my time management system involves a weekly checklist, which I have sillily titled Check Yo’self B4 U Reck Yo’self, because I’m a weirdo and also a fan of the Ice Cube song that contains those very intelligent lyrics. This checklist includes the weekly calls I have to make, blogs I have to write, and chores I have to do. The columns are easy:
- Task
- M (Date)
- Tu (Date)
- W (Date)
- Th (Date)
- F (Date)
- Sa (Date)
- Su (Date)
- wk of (Dates)
- wk of (Dates)
- and so on
It’ll be clear once you look at it:
Then, highlight the box in each row that corresponds to the day you want to do the task. For example, Motivation Mondays goes up every Monday (confusing, I know). So, I highlight the box for Monday, and move on from there.
Like this:
When I’ve done it, I check it off with a nice big X. If I only have to do it once, I then put a little smiley face in the box for that week. Once you start using this for a while and the weeks add up, it’s easy to see what’s getting done and what’s not – and you can figure out why. Are you trying to do too much? Is there a reason you’re procrastinating on one certain task? I’m also going to figure out a celebration for myself when I get a certain amount of smiley faces. Yes, grown ups do that!
If there’s a one-off task that I need to do on a certain day, I’ll add that to the end of the list & italicize it, so I know it’ll be wiped clean once it’s done. The end result looks like this:
If you want to see this checklist for yourself instead of in these distorted images, check it out along with Michelle Master Tasker here.
So, whaddya think? Madness? Brilliance? Would love/jump up & down/be thrilled to get your comments!
March 12th, 2009 at 5:43 am
This is a really cool tool for staying on top of the to do list! I have found that I am most productive using the good ole' pen & paper but always love to see new stuff & this looks pretty awesome!
Michelle Mangen
Owner, Your Virtual Assistant
Neenah, WI
http://www.TheVirtualAsst.com
March 12th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Madness I say, madness! The daily tasks I mean, those nasty little creatures popping up all over the place when you least expect them. So that list of yours is brilliance, keeps them in check and takes the surprise factor out of them. I like surprises, but not the ones that throw me under the bus called Life. Nice job on that, I like that this type of list is easy to implement and follow.
March 12th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Thorsten, you are my hero in more ways than one. Thanks so very much for the feedback, and not telling me that I'm a mad scientist! So glad you found my time management process helpful. Look out, David Allen!
March 17th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Thanks so much for your comment, Michelle! And my big fat apologies for posting it/replying to it so late – you got caught in my spam folder! Blurg.
I appreciate your feedback & compliments!