Archive for the 'GTD' Category

My wife was messing around the other day with a sample of a five minute flowchart that I had printed out. She moved it around on the desktop and tried it in different formations. She came to one conclusion… “You need to make this into a weekly calendar,” she said with a smile.

I thought to myself… a weekly calendar….hmmmm… what would I need on a weekly calendar that would fit on a business card? I tried some different things and I realized that I would need to keep this simple to be effective. I currently use Outlook as my calendar of choice, so I wrote down the things I use it for.

I make notes of …

1. Appointments
2. Things To Do / Next Actions
3. Phone Calls I Need To Make
4. E-Mails I Need to Send

While Outlook works well for appointments, it’s clumsy for the other three on the list. Those are usually delegated to my daily goal sheet that sits by my computer. But creating a card based calendar would give me additional flexibility. I could easily take it with me in my pocket or wallet and I could easily display the cards on my desk in a plastic holder. My wife was on to something here.

With her feedback, we came up with a simple 5 day business card based calendar. We added color for additional versatility, and made them two sided for maximum information.

The front side of the card shows the day at the top and has three columns for appointments and to-do items. The alternating color rows make it easy to segregate information at a glance

The back side of the card has a place for phone calls and e-mails. You can put the cards in a card holder on your desk for instant reference and as a constant memory jogger.

The cards come in five different daily colors and two weeks of cards are printed on one sheet for added value. Since they are provided in Microsoft Word templates, it is easy to add text in MS Word or just print them out and use a fine tipped Sharpie. Both Word 2007 and 97-2003 versions are included.

Instructions for use:

• Download the Five Minute Calendar Template for MS Word
• Open the templates and modify as necessary
• Print out on Avery business card stock (10 Card)
• Print the back of the cards on the back of the same sheet
• Break cards apart
• Fill in a appointments and to-do items
• Fill in phone calls and e-mail sections
• Arrange as necessary on your desk
• For portability stack cards in order and clip together with mini clip
• Transport easily in pocket or purse

Enjoy your calendar!

You are out to lunch with your co-workers to plan out the new Thornton project. This is a very important task and the representatives from the Thornton company have related the importance of the short timeline for the assignment. You relate to your co-workers that the first draft is due by the end of next week.

You can tell they are anxious, but you tell them not to worry and pull a small stack of cards from your pocket. As you pass around the cards, the waiter brings your lunch. As you start to enjoy the wonderful salad, you realize you also need to get business done. You grab a business card sized project list card and a pen.

As you start to brainstorm the project, you write down the major items on your project list one by one on the cards. You then lay the cards out on the table in front of you. This is where it gets fun. You and your co-workers arrange the cards in order of completion, make notes, and write down who will be doing what.

You bring out a second stack of cards. This stack includes a …

1. Resource List
2. Department list
3. Document List
4. Crew List
5. Cost estimate
6. Three different timeline cards

As you continue to brainstorm, you make notes on the appropriate cards. Pretty soon you have a good list going. The little cards are great memory joggers and they are easy to pass around the table. You have your HR person fill out the department and crew lists, while your business services person makes a note of all the required documents and fill out the resources that will be needed.

As lunch is winding down you grab a 5 day timeline card and put one word in each box. You ask Sally to grab some highlighters out of her purse and you mark the important days with different colors. The colors help you organize the project by milestones that will need to be met.

Soon the waiter brings you the check, but in your short lunch period you were able to get a lot done. You have each one of your co-workers grab a to-do card and make a quick note of their tasks for the next week. This will give them an easy to use take away so they wont forget what they need to do.

You gather up the project and resource cards and clip them together with a mini clip. It won’t take you long when you get back to your desk, to transfer the information and get the project started. With the cards at hand the e-mails start flying and the appropriate people are able to get started on their individual projects.

The cards you used were part of a free download and the three 8.5 x 11 sheets easily printed out on Avery Blank Business Cards on your laser printer. A few minutes breaking them apart and you had a project planning kit that was small enough to fit in your pocket.

Here is how you can create a set for yourself…

• Download the Instant Project Planner for MS Word
• Open the template(s) and modify the text as necessary
• Print out on Avery business card stock (10 Card)
• Break cards apart
• Use the project list cards to outline your project tasks
• Arrange as necessary on your desk to set the proper order
• Use the resource project cards to fill in all the necessary resources that will be needed for the project
• Use the appropriate timeline card to set priorities
• Fill in the to-do cards for task management
• For portability stack cards in order and clip together with mini clip
• Transport easily in pocket or purse

Make your next project more enjoyable, download a set today. 

Other Project Planning Tools you may enjoy…

Five Minute Flowchart
Five Minute Organizer
Five Minute Motivators

I’ve been a fan of the Getting Things Done methodology for some time now. The idea of working with “Next Actions” works well for me. I usually use Outlook and the GTD Outlook plug-in from David Allen to categorize my action list.

While this works good in most cases, when I get really busy my next action list is buried in small print in Outlook. Unless I’m looking directly at it, it can disappear with different e-mail and calendar views. I’ve come up with different solutions over time that help with this situation, including Next Action business cards and a daily actions sheet on my desk.

The main idea is to keep next actions where I can see them. I realized the other day that a GTD screensaver would work well to put these next actions up in view when the computer is not being used for a few minutes. I put together three different slides in PowerPoint, one for each of my common actions that I do at work, and made it so that it could be modified in just a few minutes.

I saved the slides as bitmap files and used the built in screen saver function in Windows XP to make it work. The resulting screen saver shows my next actions at the computer, on the phone, and errands I have to run. It’s quick to setup and it jogs my memory when I need it most… when I’m really busy.

Since it works so well, I put together a copy for you to use on your own computer. It’s a quick download and you can have your own Next Actions Screensaver up in just a matter of minutes. This version is designed for PowerPoint 2000 and later and Windows XP.

Here are the instructions.

Download the Next Actions Screensaver for PowerPoint.

Unzip the file and save it in a folder on your computer.

(Note: There are two versions of the file included, one uses plain text for the actions and is quick to setup, the other uses WordArt for the text and the resulting text will have a cleaner look when presented. Give each a try and see what works best for you.)

Open the file in PowerPoint and edit the three next action slides as necessary to include your next actions for the day. Just click on the text and modify. When you are done save your slide or presentation as a .bmp file

Open the PowerPoint presentation. If you want to save a specific slide, select it in normal view.

On the File menu, click Save As.

Select an empty folder or create a new empty folder in which to save your presentation or slide.

Please Note: If you use the default My Pictures folder under My Documents, make sure it is empty.

In the Save as type box, click Device Independent Bitmap, and then click Save.

Give your presentation a new file name.

Click Every Slide or Current Slide Only, and then click OK. (In PowerPoint 2000, click Yes to export every slide.)

Your presentation or individual slide is saved to the folder that you selected. After you close your PowerPoint presentation, you will use Windows XP to open the presentation or slide as a screen saver.

Close your PowerPoint presentation.

Step 2: Create the screen saver

Instructions for Windows XP to perform this procedure.

Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Display, or click Appearance and Themes, and then click Display.
On the Screen Saver tab, click My Pictures Slideshow, and in the Wait box, set the amount of time you want to elapse before the screen saver is displayed.
 
Under Screen saver, click Settings.

Under How often should pictures change?, set the slider at the interval you want between pictures. try different settings to see what works best for you.

If you are making a single slide a screen saver, move the slider all the way to Less to avoid a distracting flicker on the screen during the transitions.
 
Under Use pictures in this folder, browse to the folder in which you saved the presentation or slide.
 
If you saved a single slide, make sure to clear the Use transition effects between pictures and Allow scrolling through pictures with the keyboard check boxes.

Note: The screen saver transition effects in this screen saver option are preset and cannot be modified.

Click OK.

To preview your new screen saver, on the Screen Saver tab, click Preview.

Enjoy Your Next Actions All Day!

Powerpoint Resources:

How To Do Everything With Powerpoint

Kingston Wireless Presenter

Portable Powerpoint

Other Powerpoint Posts:

Powerpoint Made Simple

Powerpoint that Sticks

Five Must Have Tools For Powerpoint

Do You Make These Mistakes With Powerpoint?

5 Quick Tips To a Better Powerpoint Presentation

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