Feb 10, 2007

Daily Personal Organizer


I created my own personal daily organizer, based on the principles of the 7 Habits, with a few of my own insights thrown in. You can click on the images to get the Adobe PDF file. You can edit it to your own needs with Adobe Illustrator if you like. It's made to be printed on 8 1/2 X 11 inch paper and cut and half and hole-punched for organizers that take 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch sheets.

It's really much like many other daily organizers, but with one extra section for 'Blocks'. Blocks are tasks that you get stuck on for some reason and are unable to complete. There is a line to describe the task, and then two other sections.

The first section has you identify the cause of the block. I though a bit about what usually gets me stuck on something, and made set of one letter codes to enter on the problem line for these causes of blocks. For you they may be a bit different, but for me they are:
  • Knowledge - I just don't know how to do the task
  • Skill - I don't have the skill to do the task competently
  • Shyness - I'm just not putting myself out there
  • Pride - I'm concerned about my image
  • Focus - I've lost my focus on what is important
  • Prediction - I've predicted a negative outcome before even trying
Once I've pinpointed the cause of a block I can move on to the two lines below it and look at some approaches to moving past it:

  • Research - fill in gaps in my knowledge
  • Ask For Help - Seek out experts to answer a question or assist
  • Patience - take a break, relax, and try again
  • Bravery - Do something something a bit uncomfortable but that would probably help
  • Mission - Take a look what the larger goal is see if a different task is more appropriate
  • Delegate - Ask or hire somebody else to do it

These new approaches then become tasks for the next day. That's it!

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