Viewing Category: Productivity
A few years ago I was in a McDonald's during the lunch rush, and after placing my order I observed the cashier arranging my order slip on a rail with the rest of them. Food preparers were already assembling orders, but fries were held up and a few special orders took longer to assemble. The check rail was the continual point of reference, allowing everyone not only to see what was in each order, but also providing a visual sense of just how backed up they were. There was an electronic version, glowing greenly in the corner, but it was positioned just a bit too far away from the actual bagging area to be convenient. The paper order slips were more permanent, and upon fulfillment they were taped to the side of the bag to tag its contents. I thought this was very cool, so I designed the Task Order Up to play with the concept at home. It was designed to collate the two important questions about one's work:
- What I am supposed to do?
- When is it due?
As originally envisioned, the Task Order Up implements a priority queue in a production environment. As tasks come in, Task Order Up slips are filled out and handed off to a worker who will handle it. The worker can then array the tasks over his workstation, knowing exactly what needs to be done. Each slip is like a mini job contract, a prop for discussion. The worker can arrange them by the order he is going to do them, and what's cool is that everyone else can see what's on his plate just by glancing at his desk: work queue becomes more transparent. I think this helps avoid those micromanagement situations, but I must admit the main reason for making these slips is because I just like check rails. However, I've heard of people using this in production environments...check out their photos on Flickr.
Download The 2010 Printable Task Order Up Forms
This year's updates make some cosmetic changes to the typography, including darkening some of the background tints which were printing too lightly.
Standard Format
3x5 Index Card Format
4x6 Recipe Card Format
For more background information about the Task Order Up, see the original article. Enjoy!
SUMMARY: While the Concrete Goals Tracker, Emergent Task Planner, and Emergent Task Timer PDFs are being updated, the more obscure forms may not get an update unless I hear that someone needs them. The current roster of forms is listed in this blog post.
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The Compact Calendar is a printable calendar based on an Excel spreadsheet, designed to be easy to use in impromptu planning by yourself or with a group of people.
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SUMMARY: I've been busy, and feeling a little overwhelmed by the sense that nothing was getting done. There are two ways I deal with that, and a few mind tricks that help the process go more smoothly.
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Summary: A quick review of Matt Cornell's new e-book on establishing a productive methodology.
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SUMMARY: Sometimes, you don’t really see what you could be doing differently unless you can see yourself from another point of view. You can either ask someone (and most likely take their advice under advisement), or you can GET AWAY FROM HOME and see how life is different when doing what you normally do.
I didn’t know it at the time, but my recent trip to California would do just that. I learned five things about myself that will help me tune my work-life balance.
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In yesterday's post summarizing the 5 day liveblogging of my day, I made a grid in Excel that to help me visualize not only where the time had gone, but what kind of time it happened to be. This was an interesting exercise, and the shape of it stuck with me as I began this week's chore of figuring out what I needed to do when. I realized that I could easily adapt the new Emergent Task Planner design (which I haven't yet released) to a 5-day planning format.
It's pretty straightforward, which is why it's called the "Plain Old 5-Day Planner". Basic grid paper, downloadable as a PDF. You'll need something like Adobe Acrobat Reader to print it out. Additionally, for the first time I'm starting to make A4 sizes part of the series. I'll eventually refresh all the designs in the coming months to include European sizes.
instructions
- Fill in the hours on the left-hand side.
- Jot down what you need to do, when.
- Keep notes on the right-hand side.
downloads
» Download the Plain 5-Day Planner US Letter size
» Download the Plain 5-Day Planner A4 size
Enjoy!
SUMMARY: Last week’s journaling of my day culminates in a color-coded graph that might help me see certain patterns in my day which either contribute to productivity or sap it away.
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SUMMARY: The recent insights I’ve had regarding the productive mindset have resulted in a set of procedures that are helping me manage my behaviors for what feels like improved productivity. For example, when I wake up I have a series of steps I follow to ensure I get out of the house quickly so I plan the day first thing in the morning. I also have been allowing myself to be a more selfish creative for part of the day, because I need to run interference against my own customer relationship standards. I’m not presenting a complete solution by any means, but my ongoing experiences may be interesting to those of you working out your own personal productivity rituals.
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SUMMARY: I recently read Paul Graham’s essay on Maker and Manager Schedules, and I realized that this had bearing on overcoming the procrastinator-perfectionist mindset, which is essentially that of management. If you can’t shake that, you can’t make stuff. From there, I describe two changes in perspective that might help me get into that productive “maker” mindset.
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