Weekly Goals, Week 34: Trying a New System

Last week wasn't as productive as I had hoped, but I'm hoping the next week will be better.  I have a new tool and a plan!

A month and a half ago, I read a book that had a significant impact on how I view time management.  Four Thousand Weeks is all about how our time is limited, and the time management tends to make us feel like we can do it all if we just organize our time well enough, rather than encouraging us to focus on doing the important stuff and not feeling bad if we don't get the other things done.

For a little while after reading that book, I struggled in the face of trying to restructure my priorities.

Now I think I may be figuring out something that might work better for me.

You may remember that I schedule my tasks in Google Calendar.  It works fairly well for me, as I have to think about how long tasks will take and block out the time for them.  It helps to keep me from overscheduling myself, although I still do, of course.

Unfortunately, when I don't get to tasks, that means rolling over the calendar events to the next day and, eventually, the next week.  Since I still tend to overschedule myself and procrastinate, I have amassed a number of events that get rolled over week after week.

Four Thousand Weeks addressed this, in a way.  That book talks about having a master list of to-do items, with the understanding that you'll never be able to get to all of them, and a short list of active to-do items that is no more than 10 items long.  Then, as you finish one item, you can put another on the list.  The result is a rotating list that isn't dependent on day and allows you to keep a master list of items that you can choose between when selecting your priorities for the day.

Google Calendar doesn't allow an efficient way to do this, since moving all my undone tasks to the next day or week is quite inefficient (not to mention demoralizing).  So I revived my old Todoist account, which allows me to keep a "master" list and easily move things to my active list by having different ranks of priority.  The projects and tags also offer myriad ways to organize and view my tasks, which I also like.  It'll give me a way to do things like note down photography or content ideas, for example, that I'm not going to get to any time soon but don't want to forget to do eventually.

So this week, my goals are as follows:

1. Get a good system going in Todoist
2. Get back to writing every day
3. Prep for the Fall Show in just under 3 weeks

As I get going in Todoist, one of the things I need to decide is whether to spring for their paid subscription, which might allow me to manage both my to-do list and my task scheduling in Google Calendar without having to duplicate work.

I do want to get back to writing every day, as well.  I've done better in the past week, as I worked on my novel about every other day, so I'm making progress there at least.

And the Fall Show for the museum is coming up quickly!  I have a workshop at the show, two speakers that I've organized, and a variety of things I still need to recruit doll people for (exhibits, volunteering, etc.), so I have a bunch to do in regards to that.

Lots to do!  It'll be a busy week for sure!