FeedburnerLast week on Productivity Tuesday we discussed your responsibilities.
This week I’m giving you some FREE tools to help you translate those responsibilities into goals, projects and ultimately simple and easy to do tasks.
The FREE Forms
Here are some forms I’ve created that should help you to get a grasp on where you want to go and how to get there.
There are four forms:
1. Goals Overview
2. Weekly Overview
3. Daily Overview
4. Project Planner
Download The Forms
Click here to download the forms.
How To Use Them
Here is an outline of how I use them.
Goals Overview
The Goals Overview form is meant to just give a high level overview and reminder of why you do what you do.
Your life goals should dictate your yearly goals.
Your yearly goals should dictate your monthly goals.
Your monthly goals should dictate your weekly goals.
Basically, your goals should impact every task you set out to accomplish so that you are focused and have vision for the things you do everyday.
Weekly Overview
The Weekly Overview is the form that started it all.
Goals
At the top of the form is a reminder of my goals. You can use any goal level that you want, but I’ve chosen my yearly goals. That way, every week as I plan my week I am reminded of where I am headed and what I hope to accomplish. This helps me to say no to things that aren’t relevant.
Projects
The next section of the form is the Project List. This is just a list of the projects that I hope to make progress on or complete this week. Again, the purpose of this section is to keep me focused and on track.
Actions
The main section of the form is the Actions section. This is where I list all the things that I hope to develop into habits. I allot points for each action and at the end of the day I add up the points. I am very competitive, so I enjoy trying to beat each previous days’ score. Your actions list could consist of contacting 3 venues per day to schedule a gig, blogging about your music, writing a song, spending 30 minutes on marketing or some other small yet productive action.
Review
At the bottom of this section are two areas that help me evaluate my day:
1. Input/Output - I tend to really enjoy learning and reading. Sometimes I spend more time doing that than writing or creating or being productive. I use this section to simply put a ratio of my performance for the day. This sometimes helps me realize why I didn’t get very much done.
2. Barriers/Excuses - If I didn’t accomplish something that is on my list for the day, I try to figure out why. I list the reason here and then try to think of a way around or past it. For example, if only contacted 1 venue instead of 3, evaluate why. Was it because you don’t have a database of venues and it took too long to look up contact info on local establishments? If so, then perhaps you need to create a new project entitled, “Create Venue Contact Database.” You get the idea…
Planning
The final section of this form gives you an overview of the week’s practices and gigs. I keep most of my planning info on my laptop, but I like to have it in my notebook as well for easy and quick reference.
Daily Overview
As always, my goals are at the top to keep me focused.
This form just helps me keep track of my day. Again, I keep all this info on my computer and my iPod, but by rewriting it on paper, I’m more likely to remember stuff and I have easier access to it while I’m running errands and such.
On the left is a list of all the events that I have for the day and on the right is a list of tasks I want to accomplish. I like to schedule my tasks so that I have a certain time set aside to complete it.
I also use the tasks section to make note of new things I think of throughout the day. If a task is a MIT (Most Important Item - I usually pick one or two tasks that I MUST finish for the day) then I put a ! beside it.
If a task is a new item I just thought of I put an “N” beside it. If I think of a new project that I need to add to my list I put a “P” beside it. These notes just help me sift through everything at the end of the day when I add the info to my computer.
Project Planner
The last form (for now...there is still a week left before the baby is due) is the project planner. Anytime I think of something I need to do that can’t be done in 1 step or within 5-10 minutes, it becomes a project. I make sure that this project is inline with my goals and then I list the purpose of the project, the overall goal of the project, any related deadlines and then I use the outline section to make notes.
Finally, I break the project down into 5 minute tasks that are easy to accomplish. I’m much more likely to start something if it doesn’t seem intimidating and breaking it down into simple steps helps me overcome my tendency to procrastinate.
Conclusion
Well, there you go. I hope you find these forms useful and that they help you to simplify to process of goal setting and achieving. If you try them out, I’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions on how to tweak them.
