Planners, Schmanners

Over the years, I’ve tried so many planners, hoping ‘this’ is the one.?

A plain old themed, weekly calendar with beautiful photography used to work so well for me. Then I started going digital -- anyone remember the Sharp Organizer? Well, that was way before the iPhone, (or even the Palm Pilot, Treo, or Newton) came on to the scene.

How about Getting Things Done by David Allen? Anyone deploy that successfully? I was so excited when I read that book. I did the ‘empty your brain’ exercise and had a list of 95 ‘to do’ items, not a one was related to work.?

Hmm, that’s concerning. Although, my inbox did accidentally go to zero when I changed computers. That worked… NOT!

What about Commit 30? No?

Then there was the inspiration-based one, the taming-your-home-based one, the Passion Planner, the 12-Week Year, 18-Minutes… and on and on.

So, so, so many choices…

Yet, they don’t work for me. And at the same time, they didn’t not work for me.

I’d use the planner of the moment for a little bit, diligent about doing all the things and then slowly it became a chore, or worse, a hindrance.

Was it a matter of discipline? Focus? Attention? May be, maybe not… I don’t know. I just know that I haven’t found the ‘one.’

I’ve had a few that I’ve loved but don’t use completely – Passion Planner and the Self Journal have been the best and most useful so far.

A few weeks ago, I started examining why all these different planners haven’t worked. What functionality do I actually need, use, and want?

Do I need…?

• A calendar
• A notebook
• Help managing to do items
• Focus on priority completion
• A journal
• Inspiration
• A tracking mechanism
• Something else entirely?

The Calendar, Notebook, Journal trilogy worked perfectly for me. For years.?

Then two things happened to upend this supposedly fine-tuned system…I had kids (three in 4 years) and I went completely digital using Notes, and Evernote.

This digital change worked fine for a while (during the ‘it’s new, shiny, and I’m enthusiastic about this system’ phase), except that I am visual and tactile. I like to hold a paper copy in my hands, and I like to see it, write on it, color code it… so, I would print the monthly calendar and write changes to it. I’ve chosen to make the digital calendar, accessible across all my devices, the ruling arbiter of all things schedule related.

At the same time, I feel overwhelmed by all my to do items and often find I can’t focus on a priority item.?

Years ago, I was so desperate, I resorted to tossing my to do list and just focused on the one this I had to get done each day. That worked out fine until I was at a start-up where the workload was crushing, and priorities shifted depending on who was sitting in my office. My one thing became someone else’s one thing… I’d get 14 things done but not the one thing I set out to do that day.

Over time, I keep trying methods. But in the meantime, I have taken the ‘best of’ methods that work for me – read that again… THAT WORK FOR ME… and deployed them in a way that works for me.

What I have found works best for me is the structure from several methods

• Getting Things Done – the brain dump, writing down the next step for each to do item, each project
• 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done – the weekly focus on?my?goals and the next step, and the structure of the week (actually, I find the visual of it the most helpful).
• The 12-Week Year – the focus on your goals and backing out of the to do items to meet the goal over 12 weeks instead of a year.?
• Self Journal from Best Self – the focus on your goals and what needs to be done that day, plus their structure for reflection (but not the daily calendar scheduled out in 15-30-minute increments – that freaked me out and short-circuited my brain).

Notice these structures are all focused on goals, keeping track of to do items, and seeing what the daily priority is.

None of them are about tracking, the calendar, or finding/keeping inspiration… these methods are focused on what I need and where I need the most help – staying on track to complete goals and the priority items to reach those goals.

I want to hear what works for you and why – share with me in the comments or send me a DM.

Or join me for the latest Executive Function Roundtable Discussion – Thursday November 10 at 9 am PST.