time blocking

The Basics of Time Blocking

Time blocking is a great way to get things done. But it doesn't mean putting all of your tasks on your calendar.

Want to make me cringe? Tell me you put all of your tasks on your calendar so that you have time set aside to do them.

No. No. Just no.

Today we'll talk about how to do effective time blocking.
Questions for Your Weekly Review

Questions for Your Weekly Review

Far too often what is termed a "weekly review" is actually a planning session for the next week. A true review takes a look at what already has happened, as well as what is coming. The definition of review from [Dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) says that review means "a viewing of the past". This looking back is important, but few do it, unless it has bearing on what is coming next.

I have found that a series of questions designed to review the past week is crucial. In the first place, it fixes the events of the week in my mind. Too often the little details get lost in the rush and busyness of the passing days. Secondly, it gives me valuable insight to how I am living my life. Not in the sense of what I accomplished, but in the meaning behind it.

To that end, I give you ten questions that I try to ask myself each week as I prepare for the next.
How I Do Longer-Term Planning

How I Do Longer-Term Planning

Daily and weekly planning will get you through the day-to-day without having tasks pile up for a massive weekend task-fest. But isn't there more to life than just the day-to-day?

For a long time I existed on daily and weekly planning only. Partially it was because I was just so busy juggling all of my commitments (work, child, house, spouse and volunteer) that I didn't have room for anything more. I would plow through my days, insanely productive, falling into bed at night exhausted. But there was never anything more. The novel I wanted to write remained a remote dream, and my craft closet morphed into a craft room with supplies for unstarted projects.

Partially it was because I was completely flummoxed by the thought of thinking of a 5- or 10-year plan. I couldn't even see the end of the week for the enormous pile of tasks. How could I plan for anything more?
How I Do Daily Planning

How I Do Daily Planning

Doing a weekly plan is a great way to frame your tasks in your schedule. But it isn't enough, because you need to be able to figure out what you will do on any given day. Today we will look at how I do my daily planning, based on my weekly plan.

As I have shared before, I learned how to do daily planning when I purchased my first planner. It was a two page per day spread, with a time grid on one side, and a list for tasks on the other. Every day, I would fill in my schedule, then list the tasks I wanted to get done that day. If I didn't get them done, I rewrote them onto the next day, adding new tasks. Regardless of what my schedule looked like.

Since I was a full-time engineering student at the time, working half-time in the computer lab, participating in student organizations, well, there wasn't usually a whole lot of time. And so the tasks kept growing.

It wasn't until some years later that I realized that the daily plan has to be rooted in reality (yeah, I know, it's obvious). And while it's good to have daily goals, it has to be balanced. The daily plan is focused, but it is only with the context of the week that we see beyond what is immediately in front of us. Likewise, the weekly plan isn't worth much unless it is put into action every day (otherwise you'll likely wait until the end of week and try to get everything done on Saturday)
How I Do Weekly Planning

How I Do Weekly Planning

I do three different types of planning in order to keep myself on track and productive: daily, weekly and long-term. This month we will be looking at all three. We'll start with what I consider the most important for my productivity: the weekly plan.

When I first purchased my first planner, I didn't know anything about planning. And the system didn't educate me either. I had a 2 page per day Daytimer, and the instructions were just about how to plan a day. I was in college at the time, and I could never figure out how I always had so much left to do at the end of each day!

The problem for me, as most people I have talked to, is that the schedule is not constant. Some days are busier than others. And yet we never step back and take that into account.

Getting Things Done introduced me to a weekly plan - called the weekly review - and it was all about getting yourself reset. Get your in-boxes empty, empty your head, and process the paper. Then you review the lists - all of them - and bring them up to date to be worked on.

Even when I followed these instructions, I still didn't have a handle on my week. I still had too many days where I was busy and couldn't get things done, and too many Fridays where my task list was still alarmingly long.

And so I developed my weekly planning routine.
Making a Dream Board with Canva

Making a Dream Board with Canva

It has been said that a picture is worth 1,000 words. Since we can distill complex thoughts into single images, it makes sense that we can use images to represent our desires. Dream boards, which are collections of things you want, are a collage of images and words that we can look at to remind us of what we are seeking.

Today we will learn how to make a dream board with Canva.
30 Day Challenge: Planning The Night Before Wrap-up

30 Day Challenge: Planning The Night Before Wrap-up

I realized I was having difficulty sticking to my task list...because I had never made a plan. The Planning The Night Before challenge was to get me past that difficulty.

The challenge was to make my plan for the next day in my bullet journal the night before. The thought was that even having written list - even if I didn't look at it again until late in the next day - would help keep me on track.
30 Day Challenge: Planning The Night Before

30 Day Challenge: Planning The Night Before

I had thought to tackle something major this month, but honestly, I need something that is going to help me stay on track rather than something that is going to shake the foundations. And for that reason, I have decided that this month's 30 day challenge is going to be to plan the night before.

I've noticed that when I have a plan when I get up, I get more done that day. It doesn't seem to matter if I actually look at the plan first thing or not. It doesn't even seem to matter if I don't look at it until lunch. But having that plan already set means I will get it done, because somewhere my brain recognizes that it's been done.
My Bullet Journal Setup

My Bullet Journal Setup

Bullet journaling, at its core, is a simple system with no frills. Simple text notations; no fancy graphics or headers. However, one quick search on Pinterest will show you hundreds of fantastic expansions - and complications - of the original system. It's always put me off, because I have trouble drawing a straight line with a ruler. It put me off so much that I never really gave the simple system at its core a try.

For the past two years I have tried to plan on my iPad. I bought a PDF planner and used that as a basis, adding in a formatted page for each day. But the system wasn't working for me, and I experienced planner blindness. Planner blindness is a fancy way of saying I started ignoring the planner. So after setting up a system (again, that didn't work for me) for 2019 and spending a lot of time in prep, I abruptly abandoned it on Jan 2 for a paper bullet journal.

If you are a regular reader to the blog, you know that I used bullet journaling as my first 30 day challenge . Today I present my bullet journal setup.