My friend had just missed an important consultation with a professor. She was doing everything right - keeping an icalendar with reminders, had a physical calendar, tried to review her schedule and "to do's" regularly. But it wasn't enough.
We talked about some strategies that are working well for me and I promised to take some pictures of how I'm working through the same issues.
1. Color Code your responsibilities in to main categories. This is my monthly calendar. Blue means that I am conducting or attending a session. Yellow means that I am planning or providing technical assistance. Pink is travel. When I have course requirements - those go on other colors with the assignments. Personal appointments or other duties, I've written in pencil, pink, or black - depending on what I'm supposed to do.
2. Get a bigger picture of what's coming. Much of our work involves a long term progression. Keeping a visual calendar helps me see the "trees" for the daily details, but then I can look up and see the "forest" of what's ahead. I tend to burrow in and only focus minute by minute, day by day. When I have a big calendar in front of myself, stuff doesn't creep up on me so much - like dentist appointments and jury duty. This one is my coworker's - I'm behind on getting that done.
3. Managing the details seems to overwhelm me. I tried a bullet journal, but it was too messy. I couldn't keep track of it. Sometimes, there would be one lonely item on a page of accomplishments and 14 pages of next steps. I needed something that would allow me to see just what I had to do and erase all the stuff I'd completed. And I needed something that would help me keep all the "genres" of activities compartmentalized. And I needed something that allowed me to see just one part of what I was doing. Seeing it all at once made me want to cry. Workflowy is working great for that.
Basically, I make a left justified bullet for all my categories of tasks. Then I subordinate all the tasks under them. When I want to work one of the categories, I click on that heading and I can focus just on that item. When I complete the item, I hover over it and can cross it off the list. I can also share the task if I am working with a group.
4. Highly successful people review their day and set goals for the next morning. Usually, they select six goals for the next day's accomplishments and focus. This is what I left on my desk Friday afternoon: (Cousin Ashley needed help with how to deal with a chicken turned cannibal, so I jotted that down too. And I needed to send a friend suffering through stats a link a helpful resource. Not really a focus for the day, but I didn't want to forget.)
5. I also use a chrome extension called Momentum. When I open a new tab, I'm greeted with a beautiful picture, a quote, and an opportunity to commit to my first step. I can also put down my six focus steps on the side and cross them off as I accomplish them. Since it's digital, I can always find my list - especially when my desk is too messy or I'm away from the office.
No comments:
Post a Comment