Goals (Paper Planner)

The accomplishment of worthy goals is not only rewarding, but a central aim of time management. Achieving goals virtually always includes multiple steps. Rather than listing a single task on a to-do list and checking it off as “done” after a single action, goals are composed of anywhere from a few to a great many tasks. When each one has been completed, some type of follow-up remains. All too often, lack of follow-up stalls the progress towards a goal. “Falling through the cracks” describes far too many well-intentioned goals.

Fortunately, setting and achieving goals (big and small) is not complicated. The process involves only 4 steps:
1. Define your goal in such a way that you will know when it has been achieved.
2. Define as many of the steps involved as is practical.
3. Develop a methodology for incorporating those small steps into your total daily activities.
4. Seal the cracks through a good system of follow-up and follow-through.

Define Your Goal

I define my goals as statements which answer the question, “I can mark this goal as done when what is true?” Examples would include:

· The piano has been tuned.
· My weight is at 170.
· Income tax returns have been mailed.
· Surprise party has been held.

In each case, it the statement is true, the goal has been accomplished. If the statement is false, I have more work to do.

Where do you write your goals? For those using a paper planner, reserve a section in the back of the planner and stock it with blank, lined paper. Each goal gets a page. Begin by defining the goal at the top og the page.

Define the Steps
Defining your goal tells you where the “finish line” is located. Defining the steps takes you from where you are to where you want to be. For some goals, you will be able to list every step. For most goals, you will be able to list the first few. For some goals, you will only be able to list only the first one.

One the page where you define your goal, list beneath it each step in the order they need to be done. You may even want to list out to the side a target date for when you hope to accomplish each one. If the goal will have many steps, it would be advisable to work out the steps on scrap paper first and when you are satisfied that the list is complete and in the proper order transfer it to its page in your planner.

Whereas your goal will be a statement with a noun up front, the steps to achieving your goal will begin with verbs. Common examples include:

· Call
· See
· Decide
· Write

The critical element is that every step is worded in such a way that it is doable. Make no mistake; if what you write is the least bit “fuzzy,” you will skip right over it. Take the time on the front end to define your steps so they are doable and you will more than recoup that time in how quickly you are able to execute them.

Do not worry if you cannot list every step between now and the completion of your goal. If you can list only one step—but get it right, you are ahead if most people. Often, you really won’t be able to list more than a few steps. “Call Buford” may be your next step. What comes after that? The answer may well be that you do not know until you talk to Buford. The information he gives you and the agreements made in that conversation may determine what the next steps will be.

In addition to defining your goal and listing the steps to its successful completion, you will use this page for one more purpose. On the road to accomplishing your goal, you will need a place to write information you gather. For example, as you plan the surprise party, you will need a place to jot down prices for paper goods, phone numbers for entertainers, and names of guests to invite. You will use this page to list this type of information.

Incorporate the Steps into Your Daily Activities

At this point, you have defined your goal and know when it has been accomplished. You have defined at least the first step that will lead you towards the completion of that goal. Now, look at the first step your listed and copy it onto your to-do list. This act insures that as you go through your day, you will be making progress on your goal.

The chances are that you are working on several goals at any one time. By having the next step for each one on your to-do list, you are pushing each goal forward a step at a time as you go through the day.

Seal the Cracks

You have defined your goal, listed the steps, and put the first one on your to-do list. You complete that task and check it off. So far, so good. You go about the rest of your day checking off tasks without another thought to you goal. Soon a week has passed still with no more thought about that goal. What happened? Your goal has just fallen through the cracks!

To seal the cracks, add one simple thing at the action step that will refer you back to your goal. An easy way to do this is to simply number your goals. If “Piano is tuned” is goal #5 and your next step on that goal is to call Buford to ask who tunes his piano, you would enter this on your to-do list:

Buford-Who tunes your piano? Goal #5

Adding this ending serves two purposes. When you call Buford and need a place to write the information he gives you, looking at the “Goal #5” directs you to the page where you are tracking the information for that goal.

More importantly, before you check-off that call to Buford, you are reminded to turn to the back of your planner and refer to your goal. You will pick up the next step and enter it on your to-do list. Every time you accomplish one step, the next one will be added until your goal has been accomplished.

To summarize the process:
1. Define the goal.
2. Define the steps.
3. Add the next step to your to-do list.
4. Add a tag that will refer you back to the goal.

The Categories on My Palm Task List

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These are the categories I have in my Palm task list:

• Building--This category houses all of the tasks that I need to accomplish when I leave the school office and go out into the building. These include reminders to check on maintenance problems, talk with the custodian in the hallway, visit with the child nutrition program manager, stop by a teacher's room.
• Calls--Here I will find a complete list f all of the phone calls I need to make.
• Delegated--This category holds a list of what I am expecting from other people. When I place an order with a company, an entry in this category reminds me of what I ordered, the order number, and who I placed the order with. When someone borrows a book, I make a note of it here. When I delegate a task to a teacher in my school, I track it here.
• Errands--I will spend less time running errands if I "batch" them. This category provides a place to collect all of those errands. When I decide I want to run errands, I have a complete list.
• Home--This category is obvious. When I arrive at home, I see a complete list of all of the tasks I need to accomplish at home.
• Office--When I am in my office, I look here for a complete list of what I need to be doing.

The idea is that these categories allow me to see a list of what I can do right where I am at that time. By the same token, when I am not in that location, that list is out of sight. While it is important to see a list of what I can be doing at home when I walk in the front door, it is equally important that when I am not at home, that list is not in front of me since I cannot do anything about those items anyway.

New Circumstances--New Procedures

Once upon a time a mother and daughter who were working together preparing the Easter dinner. At one point, the mother took from the refrigerator fridge the ham that had been defrosting. Before putting it in the oven, she cut about an inch off of either end of the ham.

"Mom why did you cut the ends off the ham?", the daughter asked.

The mother thought for a moment, and then replied, "That’s the way my mother always did it."

Overcome with curiosity, as often children are, the little girl asked if she could call Grandma and ask her.

“Grandma, Mommy cuts the end off the ham before she cooks it and says that’s what you always did. Is that true?”

“Yes, dear, that true. I always did it that way.”

“But why Grandma?”

Grandmother thought for a moment and replied, “Because that is the way my mother always did it.”

At this point, nothing would do other than to call Great Grandma.

“Great Grandma, Mommy cuts the ends off the ham before she cooks it. She says she does it becomes Grandma did it. Grandma says she did it because you did. Is it true that you cut the ends off the ham?”

“Yes, indeed, my dear. I always did it that way.”

“But why, Great Grandma?”

Holding her hands about 10 inches apart, the great grandmother replied, “Because my pan was only that long.”

The point is this:

When we are faced with certain circumstances, we come up with procedures to handle those circumstances. So often, the circumstances change, but our procedures stay the same.

Up until now, our organizational tools were pencil and paper and we came up with procedures that made the best use of those tools. Our procedure was to make a daily to-do list. That insured that we would start the day with a list that was neat and legible and had some kind of order to it. The price we pay for it is the time it takes to rewrite that list every day and recopy all of the things we didn’t get done yesterday. Plus the truth of the matter was that the most of what is on the list does not have to be done today, it just needs to be done as soon as we can get it done.

Our circumstances are the different. We have a digital tool. When we check something off the list, it disappears. The list sorts itself. Undone tasks simply remain on the list for the next day. There is no recopying lists ever.

I organize my to-do list primarily by context. Show me a list of what I can do where I am whether I am whether that is I am at home, on the phone, running errands, walking through my school, or in my office.

Organizing the To-Do List

I don’t know who originally thought up the idea of the to-do list. I have no doubt, however, that as soon the first to-do list grew to more than about 5 items, the question arose, “How do I know which one to do right now?”

Every one of us certainly can generate a list of obligations that we have that far exceeds what can be accomplished by the end of the day. Having some way to organize a laundry list if tasks into a doable “game plan” is the challenge.

First, look at what you have written and see if any of you your to-dos are really goals which will take a number of steps to complete. If you find the later, decide what will be the first step towards completing that goal. You will find that when you look at your to-do list and see two items—a hard one and an easy one—you are probably going to choose the easy one. “Buy shoestrings” is going to win out over “Solve world hunger” every time because you know exactly how to go about buying shoestrings. Solving world hunger, like so many other goals we may have, is like a big, undefined blob. We really don’t know where to start. What types of undefined blobs do you see on your list? Can you define a first step on each one of those? That is the stuff of which your to-do list should be made!

Secondly, “batch” your to-dos. Find similar items and do a “batch” of them at one time. Here are some same categories:

1. Calls—List all of the phone calls you need to make together on your list. That way, when you pick up a phone, you can crank through the whole list. You will spend less time on each class when you know you have 5 more to make right after it.
2. Errands—Do you find yourself running halfway across town to pick up an item and then the very next day going to the store right next door to it to pick up something else? Decide what day is a good one for you to run errands. Maybe its after-school on Friday, or maybe Saturday morning. Pick a day and keep a running list of errands on the to-do list for that day. Then, run all of them at one time. Your time on the road will be greatly reduced!
3. Home—List the things you can do at home together.
4. Classroom—List together those things you need to get done in your classroom
5. Building—Some things you can only do outside of school hours or during your planning time. Keep those items listed together, so that when that time arrives you can take action swiftly.

Finally, follow the advice of Stephen Covey when he says to “plan weekly” and “adjust daily.” Take some time on the weekend not to simply plan for Monday, but to spread out your to-dos for the whole week. Pick a day for your errands and group them all there. Choose a day for all of those not-so-urgent phone calls and knock them all out in one session. At the end of the day, spend a few minutes looking over the items on the to-do list that did not get done and re-write them on a future day. Look carefully at the right-hand page to see what to-dos you have inherited through phone calls and other interactions during the day.

Frank Buck

The master thinker knows that ideas are elusive and often quickly forgotten, so he traps them with notebook and pencil. He heeds the Chinese proverb: “The strongest mind is weaker than the palest ink.”

—Wilferd A. Peterson in Adventures in the Art of Living

An Easy System for Documentation

Habits take about a month to form. The habit of writing things down as soon as they arrive is the single biggest time management and organizational technique, as well as a great stress reliever. Going one step further is the question of WHERE to write it. For those familiar with the Day-Timer, I want to focus on the right-hand page, the page called “Diary and Work Record.” Franklin-Covey has a similar page.

This page is meant to take the place of the memo pad by the phone, the grocery list by the refrigerator, the back of an envelope you grab to jot a phone number, and the Post-It notes that decorate your desk. Here are some examples of what you might find on that right-hand page:

1. You get a call from a friend inviting you to a party. While he tells you the particulars of the day, time, what to bring, and directions on how to get there, you jot it all in one place—today’s right-hand page. When the call is over, you can close the book and resume doing whatever it was you were doing, trusting that all of the information has been captured in your planner.
2. You order some materials over the phone. The right-hand page is where you jot down the name of the person you spoke with, his/her extension, the order confirmation number, any discount you will receive, and other information you might need later.
3. You normally go to the grocery store on Saturday afternoon, so Saturday’s right-hand page is the place to make the grocery list. Every time you think of something you need, flip to Saturday, jot it on the right-hand page, and close the book.
4. You have a conference scheduled with a parent. Every time you think of something you want to discuss, open the book to the day of that conference and enter it on the right-hand page. You are building an agenda as you go. During the conference, take notes on the right-hand page.

A quick review of that right-hand page at the end of the day is vital in keeping the system alive. Look at what you have written throughout the day on today’s right-hand page and ask yourself, “What does this mean to me?” or “When will I need to see this again?”

The first example was an invitation to a party. When you look at those notes at the end of the day, that will be your cue to flip to the appropriate day in your planner and note the party on the appropriate time slot. You also see from your notes that there are a few items you are to bring. You flip to Saturday’s page and jot on the right-hand page a couple of items you need to buy at the grocery store.

On the day of the party, how are you going to remember what to bring? How are you going to remember how to get there? Here is the real magic of that right-hand page—being able to go right back to information exactly when you need it. Let’s say the conversation about the party happened on May 10. As you review your notes at the end of the day, you will not only turn in your planner to the day it is going to occur and write “Party” by the correct time slot, but you will also put out beside it this—(5/10). Anything in parentheses in your planner tells you, “Go to this date for more information.” When its time to get ready to leave for the party, that little note that says (5/10) tells you to look back in your planner to May 10. Now you are right back at the notes you took. You are looking at a list of what to bring and directions on how to get there!

We have talked about taking notes on the right-hand page when placing orders by phone. When the call is over, your documentation is over. At the end of the day, you look at your notes and ask yourself what would be a reasonable amount of time to allow for the order to arrive. You flip ahead in your planner and in the to-do section, you write “Acme (5/10)”. When that date arrives, that entry sends you back in your planner to May 10, the day you placed the order with the Acme company. When you call to check on the order, you have the phone number with extension, the name of the person you talked with, confirmation number, and all of the information you need at your fingertips.

We all know that documentation is important. It’s about time we had a system that was easy enough that we would actually do it!

Frank Buck

Choosing a Signature Tool

We have all been to workshops where we heard some good ideas and had full intentions of implementing them. When we leave the workshop and step back into our lives where things are coming at us from all directions, so many of those good intentions go by the wayside.

The best minds in the area of professional development keep telling us that for things to "stick," there has to be follow-up and time to practice. That's the whole reason for establishing this blog. This is a place where we can review material from the workshop. It also gives me the opportunity to bring these ideas to people I would never meet face-to-face.

If I could isolate one idea as being the most important from the workshop, it would be that of having a "signature tool" that does your remembering for you. That tool could be a Day-Timer, a legal pad, a notepad in your pocket, or a handheld digital device. Any of them work provided: 1) you have your signature tool with you all the time; and 2) you have formed the habit of writing down that appointment, to-do or idea immediately.

The idea seems simple, yet so many people ignore it and try to simply hope they will remember it all. While we may have gotten by with this approach as late as our college days, it simply doesn’t work in our busy day-to-day lives. We wind up with sleepless nights wondering what we have forgotten, or waking up in the middle of the night remembering what we forgot to do.

Others write things down but do it on any scrap of paper at hand. With pockets full of Post-its and various slips of paper scattered everywhere, putting our hands on the telephone number of the salesman we spoke with last Tuesday is impossible.

What will that “signature tool” be for you? Make a decision on that. Make sure it is something that will hold your calendar items—that is, things that happen at a specific day and time. Make sure you have room for your to-do list. Also, you will need a place to write down ideas or notes from meetings and phone conversations.

Forming a habit takes about a month. So, for the next several weeks having that capture tool handy and using it will be something you will force yourself to do. After that, habit takes over, and you will begin to notice a good deal of the stress in your life will start to vanish.

Welcome!

For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in systems that people had that helped them get their "stuff" done--or what kept them from getting their stuff done. I have been in education for over 20 years, and am currently a school principal. During my career, I have managed to put together some a system and some strategies that I believe not only work for me, but can work for anyone who is interested in being more organized, experiencing less stress, and managing the limited amount of time available to us. Please visit often and enjoy.