Viewing Category: Tools
There are a couple of esoteric versions of the Concrete Goals Tracker that are specifically designed for sales people and networking efforts. I never really understood the point of cold networking, and I don't really like to push myself on people, but when I have to I do have a particular process in mind. These two forms are designed to enforce that process from both the top-down and the bottom-up.
Top-Down: Network Catch-o-Matic
The Network Catch-o-Matic (NCM) is the top-down tool for making connections and networking toward a lasting relationship. You start by making sure you are at least getting in front of as many people as you can in a week (here I am choosing 50 people, which is kind of arbitrary) for meaningful face time. The goal: some kind of collaboration. There are several steps one needs to go through to build up that relationship, and the NCM recognizes that there are fewer people passing through each subsequent stage. For more information about how it works, read the origin Makin' Rain post.
Bottom-Up: Sales Habits
The Sales edition of the Concrete Goals Tracker is something I don't think I released before, but it is based on the same principles of show people what you have and make impressions as a driving force. If people can't see what you're doing, and don't have a way to remember to have a conversation with you, then your chances of landing a sale are pretty dim. The additional wrinkle in sales, IMHO, is to be able to tell when a prospect becomes interested, what piqued that interest, and for what reason. If you don't keep these in mind, then your sales effort is scattered and essentially random.
The rationale behind this form design is more thoroughly explained in the original Concrete Goals Tracker articles.
DOWNLOAD THE 2009 FORMS
» Download The Network Catch-o-Matic
» filename: PCEO-NCM01-NetworkCatcher.pdf
» Download Concrete Goals Tracker: Sales Edition
» filename: PCEO-CGT01-Sales.pdf
Managing and Scheduling Multiple Projects
After a year break, I'm re-introducing the Resource Time Tracking (RTT) forms I first tried out in 2006. At the time, I was trying to figure out a better way of visualizing future time to a number of different simultaneous projects.
This is a two-part form, consisting of a task scheduler and a task quantizer. The Task Scheduler is basically a calendar that shows what deliverables are due on what days of the week in addition to when production time is allocated. The Task Quantizer is a kind of worksheet to allow you to determine what those deliverables are in the first place, and how long it will take to to them. The Quantizer forces you to measure in standardized blocks of time, which comes in handy when it comes to fitting them into the Scheduler's time grid.
The 2009 update is unchanged from the original 2006-2007 form, other than some updates to contact information and of course the year.
Download 2009 Resource Time Tracking Forms
For more information about the use of the Resource Time Tracking forms, check out the original post. Enjoy!
A few months ago Sean Johnson contacted me for permission to create an online version of the Emergent Task Timer (ETT), a form I had designed a few years ago to maintain focus in the face of unscheduled task chaos. Anecdotally I've heard that it's popular with graduate students and people who get pulled into a lot of meetings; a filled-out ETT provides documented proof that there's just too much crap getting in the way of getting real work done, in a compelling visual manner. While I had created a prototype of an online version of the ETT, I didn't have the back-end database expertise to create a full-featured web application. Others have asked for permission in the past, and I've generally granted it (ideas are free, after all), though few have actually followed through. Geoffrey Grosenbach was the first out of the gate a few years ago with his Online CEO, an implementation of my Concrete Goals Tracker, and now Sean Johnson presents his BubbleTimer application to fill another gap.
About Sean's BubbleTimer
I checked out the BubbleTimer for a few minutes today, and am generally impressed. Initially I wasn't sure I'd use something like this myself, suffering a bit from envy at someone actually having made a working version of my own tool, but as I clicked through it I again became excited by the possibilities, particularly with the task sharing feature. And it's nice to know that the data is saved and backed up on a server somewhere. Pretty cool! And unlike my prototype, Sean's version has the long-requested task reordering feature. Sweet! What's missing are some of the future planning features so you can block out how you THINK you'll use your time (something that didn't work well on paper, and was not implemented in my prototype). The basic idea is to mark future time as slightly-highlighted ovals, which are malleable right up to the time when the time-counter "fixes" them forever. This allows you to establish the intention to do something at a certain time, mark off meeting times and errands, and so forth, without being committed to them. Consider this a feature request :-)
I'm not involved in Sean's enterprise, and I have no financial stake or partnership interest, but I think it's awesome that he's made something that he really wanted to use himself. I asked him for some background information via email after he told he he'd gotten the application ready for release:
I've always had a lot of goals and I've been quite frustrated that poor time management was holding me back from achieving many of them. I've never been lazy, quite the opposite, I was working long hours, I was using GTD, but I was not really working smart. I just wasn't spending enough time on the things that I said were truly important to me. My time usage didn't match my goals and I didn't even have a good sense where all my time was being spent. I found a great tool in David's Emergent Task Timer printed worksheets that made a huge difference in my life in just a few weeks time. With emergent task timing I was able to quickly get a sense of where my time was being spent and I was able to start adjusting that to better match my goals. I knew right then that I wanted to take the method online and make it available to everyone. I found David's prototype flash application and knew that the technique could work as well online as it does on paper. I contacted David and then I went for it.
I created BubbleTimer using Ruby on Rails it was a key technology that made it possible. I never could have done this much development in my nights and weekends time without a productive platform like Ruby on Rails. This is my fourth Rails application now, but I come from the Java world, and this application would be twice as big, twice as complicated and would have taken twice as long if it was done in Java.
I'm excited about the prospect of BubbleTimer helping people achieve more. I've been using it myself for months now and it's be a great tool for a goal oriented approach to time management. It's as easy to use as the paper version but without the dead trees. It also has some important improvements in terms of instant feedback on cumulative totals and graphs showing how your time is being spent that can't be done with only paper. More than anything, I'm excited to get people trying it out and giving me feedback so l can make it even better.
Check it out Sean's Ruby on Rails implementation of the ETT at BubbleTimer.com. I think it's pretty cool; just don't blame me for anything and complain directly to Sean by his request ;-) Congrats Sean on launching the app, and THANK YOU!
About a month ago I got a cool email from Yoshiomi Kurisu to tell me that he'd created an Online Compact Calendar Generator based on my design. It's pretty sweet, capable of importing holidays from Google Calendar and generating PDF files. Check it out!
He also has a Japanese version of the original Compact Calendar Excel sheet.
The power of the human voice is such that when someone called me up to ask me about the 2009 version of the Compact Calendar, I was so moved that I actually got off my butt to make it. Easier said than done; I said it would take about 15 minutes + about an hour to post. Four hours later, I'm finally done with tweaking, testing, download testing, virus scanning, packaging, and updating. It takes a bit of work to make sure these archives are clean...hopefully I didn't miss anything. I almost posted a version that was off by one day...close call!
What Is It?
The Compact Calendar is my impromptu planning calendar, designed to be printed on paper from Excel. Print a bunch of these sheets out; it's great for bringing to a meeting and sketching out a schedule on-the-fly. I keep a supply on hand when I'm actively out in the field. Unlike other calendars, it represents the months as a solid "bar of time", which makes it easier to visualize how much time you really have. Plus, it just looks neat.
You can read more about the use and design of the Compact Calendar on the Compact Calendar Page.
What's New
I finally have a version that will update the entire calendar when you change the year field at the top of the spreadsheet, based on the work of Todd Foster. So now, it's super easy to make new versions of the calendar yourself for any arbitrary year. Just remember to update the Holiday Table.
"Jenny" and Jim Service both submitted techniques for handling the automatic month labeling on the left side, and I've incorporated it.
There have been several other modifications submitted to me over the year, and I've tried to pick the ones that are simple to maintain (e.g. they don't require additional Excel modules, or tricky hidden extra columns). Thanks everyone for your submissions!
Check It Out
You can download the 2009 version at the regular Compact Calendar Page. I have only updated the US version; the international versions are handled by independent bloggers and are not under my control at all. I just link to them!
You'll need Office 1997 or later to open the Excel Templates. Personally I have been using Office 2007, so there may be some issues with earlier versions of Office that I don't know about. Please leave a comment if you come across anything. For users of non-Office productivity suites, good luck!
