The Printable CEO VIII: Day Grid Balancer
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If you're just joining the conversation, I've been thinking a lot about
work-life balance the past / few / days.
I really suck at work-life balance, and have started to crave some
way of visually representing the essential elements of a good
day.
Although everyone will have a different definition of what "balance"
means, and that definition will shift over time, that didn't stop me from
trying to make a paper-tracking form to try out this week. I want to drink
of the sweet, sweet well of satisfying work-life balance! I'm also feeling a
bit impatient about finally getting me some of that balance, hence the title
at the top of the form ;-)
This is a draft in progress, so you may want to check
back in the future to see what's changed. The official page URL will always
point to the most recent
version. If you're the curious and creative type, however, please read
on!
The Day Grid Balancer
For my initial pass, I created a single sheet of paper to act as the
focus of your day throughout the entire week. It's really just a glorified
to-do list, designed around the idea of noting when you're
doing the kind of things that you'd like to be doing every day. By
the end of the week, you should get an idea of whether or not you were
successful. Since it's a single sheet, you can keep it on a handy clip-board
and carry it around with you.
Unlike some of my other forms,
The Day Grid Balancer is not intended to track time very
accurately. You can use the various grid boxes, as I've described them in
the earlier 24
boxes and asymmetric grids post, to note when you spend an hour doing
something that seems to fit in the balance diagram. Or you could put a
checkmark in it to mark something as "done", or use a "bowling frame style"
/ and X to mark half-hour and full hour.
Suggested methodology:
Start the week by writing down what you want to do in the
beginning of the week in the upper-right part of the form. There's
a space for up to three critical things you'd like to get
done (these are borrowed from the Emergent Task Planner) that require
concentration in measured blocks of time. I'd start just by listing one, if
I had to choose just one out of the dozens of things I wish were done. If
there isn't anything you need to list, just leave this part blank.
As the week goes on, add the inevitable tasks that
crop up that you haven't yet scheduled.
For each day of the week, write down the stuff that you got
done. You can pick them from the list you're keeping in the
upper-right part of the page, or you can just pencil in stuff as it happens;
the list is really just for your convenience. Cross out stuff you get done
from the list so you don't have to worry about it.
You can also schedule events for each day of the
week, as needed.
As you get particular tasks done, fill in a block
that corresponds roughly to the part of the balance grid.
If a particular task happens to accomplish both, then fill two of 'em
in.
At the end of the week, see how it went. As you revisit what you got
done, this will help you remember how that day went. You
can then choose to do a week review and fill out another
sheet for the coming week that attempts to make corrective action,.
The balance grid was designed to represent hours originally, breaking the
day into 24 hours split into equal parts sleep, productive work, and
personal time. This is based roughly on the idea that for my own
needs, I need to do at least 4 hours of billable work a day. Another 4 hours
of that ends up being business support, and the rest of the time is eating
and household management and sleep.
Download the Form
» Download
the Day Grid Balancer Public Draft 01 (PDF, requires Adobe Acrobat)
Everyone is different, of course, so this balance probably won't work for
a lot of people...hence, I'm making the source files
available so y'all can make your own custom versions.
Modifying the Form
I'm releasing this version under Creative Commons
A-NC-SA license, which means that the source code for this specific file
is now free to remix for non-commercial applications, so
long as you share what you've done and keep my name and link information
intact.
This is the first time I'm trying a Creative Commons license, so I have
no idea what will happen. In my imagined best-case scenario, a whole bunch
of people refine and remix the elements in here and create new things, and
email me their creations so I can share them here on this page. We'll see
how it goes!
The Day Grid
Balancer by David Seah is
licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Based
on a work at davidseah.com.
I'm providing two mash-up friendly file formats.
If you've got Adobe Illustrator CS3 and above,
here's the »
Editable PDF «. You can open it up in Adobe Illustrator
and all the groups and vectors will be intact. I'm using fonts from the
Helvetica Neue family, so if you do not have these fonts you will have to
license them or change them to something you have. Do not ask me to
email you fonts; fonts are copyrighted media and need to be
licensed from a place like
this.
If you don't have Illustrator, you can download the »
PNG bitmap « (8-bit with transparency to help with
compositing) that can be opened in a paint program. If you have Adobe
Photoshop or The GIMP or some equivalent
program, this version should work for you fine. However, if you have
Photoshop, you can also rasterize your own bitmaps by opening the PDF
directly.
Foundational and Followup articles
If you're interested in reading about the design process that lead up to
this form, these links may interest you:
This was followed by the first release (this page, which you're reading
now). Subsequent followup tweaks are here:
- Assessment
1 notes the issues that I and others came upon with this draft.
Excellent comments from readers!
- Draft
2 takes feedback into account and floats a new idea for a "figure
rhythm" type of diagram for tracking the week. I have mixed feelings about
it, but progress continues!
I've also created a forum thread
and re-enabled membership so people can sign-up again and
post. I'm also turning off manual administrator approval of accounts. I had
turned this all off before because you would not believe how many
bogus spammers were signing up and messing with the works;
it got to be too much of a hassle to administrate. I may have to turn off
membership again if it becomes a problem, but in the meantime I'm more
interested in providing additional means for people to collaborate. If
you're more comfortable just leaving a comment, go ahead and do so. Feel
free to post your thoughts on balance, design, and whether tracking works at
all for you. I'm interested in it all!
Enjoy!
Comments
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1. Deb said on 05/25/2009
05:07AM...
dave, thanks for this one. will try it this week. at first sight though,
i was thinking how about less space for the to do list and some addition to
have an eight robot that represents the week, where you can make the balance
evaluation?
i got it now with the division of work-creativity… i still need
though… 6 more hours in a day to finish my phd….! i guess no
robot can do that, right?
thanks again!
2.
alan said on 05/25/2009
09:47AM...
I like this idea and design a lot, and may do some tinkering with the PNG
file to fit my own work day a bit more cleanly. I do have a question: The E
- A letters that track time on “toughest tasks?” My intuition is
that those are sort of “grades,” but that doesn’t quite
fit. I generally think it’s hardest to *start* on tasks that I know
are going to be very difficult—and so maybe that’s reflected in
the clustering of “benchmarks” on the left-hand side. I’d
love to hear a bit more about your own intent for those letters. (I did
check out the Printable CEO pages, but didn’t see specific notes
there. Perhaps I missed them there?)
3.
Dave
Seah said on 05/25/2009 10:12AM...
Deb: You could maybe make a sheet full of robots for a week
evaluation as an overview sheet. Though I suspect that the weekly evaluation
can be done informally by looking over the sheet at the end and going
“yeah, this was a good week, got a lot of stuff done.” Or
otherwise. Good luck on your Ph.D! Perhaps you should have studied robotics
:-)
Alan: The A-E letters are from the Emergent Task Planner “time
boxing”...A = 4 hours, E = 15 minutes. The clustering of boxes, in
15-minute increments, borrows from the Task Project Tracker, which I made
to try to tackle that “getting started” problem. Getting started
is tough! I haven’t cracked that one yet…I suspect it would
involve colorful balls of yarn and clothing pins thrown periodically at
one’s head. The Emergent Task
Timer actually helps track momentum with periodic interrupts, but it
isn’t quite the same as having someone helping with that focus.
4.
Katrina said on
05/25/2009 10:34AM...
This looks good. I am going to give your version a try this week
and let you know how it works. I will mentally translate Happy as
Practice—not too difficult really. And I will view Converse as
Share—again, not too much of a stretch.
Getting started is tough! I haven.t cracked that one yet.I suspect it
would involve colorful balls of yarn and clothing pins thrown periodically
at one.s head.
That is way too funny a visual, esp since I know several folks who would
be more than willing to throw them at me! Let’s just hope they
are not reading the comments ... today. ;-D
5.
Tanya
Steinberg said on 05/25/2009 11:40AM...
Thanks David! I’m so excited to begin using this and thanks so much
for sharing the source files with us.
6. Spirilla said on 05/26/2009
02:09AM...
About to try this during this week,
then I’ll let you know.
At first sight the space for to-do-list isn’t too too much for me,
on the contrary it requires some some prioritizing, or my long list
won’t fit, but that is positive.
As for the tough tasks: I’d need to write the “subject”
and the concrete deliverables I aim to get done in the week and
there’s not enough space for that, so I wrote the 3 deliverables as
the first 3 points in the to-do list.
I like to think at “health” as “body”, and
consider there every time I spend dealing with my body, so time for shower,
haircuts, massages etc. but also gym, swimmingpool etc. It complements
nicely as the inner place where I live with the outer “home”,
but it breaks the symmetry of the 3 hs: home happy health.
It is interesting that for some labels you have used verbs and for some
not. The verbs are very effective, they are active and stimulate action
(well, not so much “sleep” ;-). For other labels you used a
state of mind (happy) a concept (helath
and then “home”. I find the verbs better than these
conceptualized name labels.
7. Jeff said on 05/26/2009
02:09PM...
Thanks for sharing your creative designs. I’ve used your
other forms to help with my productivity, and I really appreciate it.
I work an 8-5 job, so I would need to edit it a bit - maybe have a
“Work” section similar to the “Sleep” section.
One thing I’m not sure about: I’m counting 26 colored
blocks. Are the colored blocks supposed to correspond to hours in the
day?
8.
Dave
Seah said on 05/26/2009 02:17PM...
Katrina, Tanya: Awesome, let us know how it goes!
Spirilla: Writing the deliverables is a good step. I should
probably change the phrasing to “deliverable” or some other
concrete wording.
Another idea I had for the center rack was really “me stuff”
and “support stuff”, but I couldn’t think of a short
enough word. That’s why the labels are kind of all over the
place…I figure with time some better suggestions will appear.
I’m already unsatisfied with the categories, but am going to stick
with it during the week to see if it’s really awful or not.
Jeff: The blocks do represent hours of the day, but they could
also just be completion check-off boxes. The 26 hours I explained in the
previous post as “Maybe these will be bonus boxes when you do
something that feels particularly awesome, a kind of bull’s
eye.” :)
9. poscogrubb said on 05/26/2009
06:31PM...
Dave,
Very cool! Another PhD student here. My adviser has a very good system of
having a lab meeting every Friday afternoon where each student reports on
what was done the previous week, including review of papers read and results
obtained, what questions / research / experiments remain, and what is to be
done in the next week(s). Then he has a 1-on-1 with each of us early in the
week. The problem is how to track the middle of the week. Every Friday
morning we all are moaning, “What DID I do this week??”
Up until now, the PCEO series has lacked a week-long goals and planning
sheet; using this to balance work / life gives a good focus rather than
/just/ a glorified to-do list.
As far as verbs for the check boxes, I’d use “recreate”
instead of “happy”.
This form also reminds me I need to brush up on my Tetris skills. ;)
10. poscogrubb said on 05/27/2009
11:17AM...
Nevermind the “recreate instead of happy” suggestion. I had
not read the previous post on 24 boxes…
11. Tom Nagle said on 05/27/2009
03:31PM...
David,
The new planner looks great.
I had just read the NY Times’ piece on Jim Collins
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/business/24collins.html), and then I
stumbled across the new planner. He writes up his three most important
areas (versus tasks) in the upper right hand corner of a white board:
creative, teaching, and other. I may follow his lead - my three most
important tasks sometimes cannibalize the three most important things I
could be doing for overall happiness.
Also, I have read a chunk of your other posts, and I really am impressed
and inspired by your openness. My guess is it isn’t always so
easy to write that personally. I appreciate it and can empathize with
many of the issues you talk about.
An interesting note in the Collins piece had to do with his sleep, and it
made me think of things you had said in the past. Collins tracks the
amount of sleep he gets everyday, and he realizes that when he doesn’t
get enough…he can teach and do the “other” stuff…but
he can’t be creative.
Great stuff…keep it up.
Tom
12.
Dave
Seah said on 05/27/2009 03:59PM...
poscogrub: Thanks for the great feedback! I’m curious that
the original Concrete Goals
Tracker didn’t address the “what did I get done this
week?” question. Maybe it is time to refactor it into something more
useful for that mid-day hump. Thanks for sharing that…I shall
ponder!
Tom Nagle: That’s a great link! I didn’t know anything
about Jim Collins approach, though I remember liking his book when it came
out, and had absorbed some of its lessons. Also, his model for approaching
work is very inspiring…with luck and timing, maybe I can aspire to
that.
Regarding openness: I find it harder NOT to write personally, because it
is the number one resource I can draw on and represent accurately. I’m
glad, though, that it appears to strike a chord with people such that they
can empathize. Thank you, though, for the kind words :)
13.
Daryl
Furuyama said on 05/28/2009 02:56AM...
Hi Dave,
I’m glad you released this with Creative Commons. I’ve been
thinking about ways to better manage my week and focus on core things.
I modded your design to help me keep focus on the things I desire to
attain. If you want, you can check it out here: Weekly
Awesomeness Form. Thanks again!
14.
Lynn
O'Connor said on 05/28/2009 04:21AM...
Dave:
YES! I needed a new PCEO, was lagging on the ETPs, earlier today I swore to
myself I was going to use the ETP tonight, and plan for tomorrow. (It is
2:15AM and I still have not done any planning). Then I turned to your latest
and found this new form, inspiration for my endless problem of “I do
not plan for more than one day at a time, except my hard edged appointments
which are on and off all week long including the weekends
Poscogrubb:
Unknown to you, here I am on the other side of the lab table, the advisor,
and I have been a complete flake with my lab, and students working with me.
We just presented three posters at Association of psychological science
(APS) meetings, but somehow not been having regular lab meetings, and they
are badly needed. My students’ schedules (they are clinical students)
have been a big problem. THANK YOU THANK YOU, you have inadvertently given
me a needed kick in the ass. By reminding me of the efficient lab meeting
with students really checking in and being responsible, you’ve
organized the path, and Dave is giving some new means to record it.
15. Beverly said on 06/03/2009
08:04AM...
Hi Dave-
I’ve been driving myself crazy (again) trying to determine the BEST
method for project management, playing with One Note, Backpack, DeskFusion,
EverNote, Notezilla… But seem to still rely on your ETP sheets (only 1
sheet left on the pad)and Post It’s for my daily task planing.
This morning I decided I would have to design an actually daily sheet
with the automatic tasks built in, got to thinking “hey I should see
what Dave’s been up to” and found your new Day Grid
Balancer.
Once again it seems like your writing what I’m thinking. The
struggle for balance combined with a strong desire to just have it
everything organized and looking clever. I think I would feel more
balanced.
By the way, do you use software for project management? Any suggestions?
Thanks!
16.
Christian said on 06/04/2009
01:35PM...
Just to inform you that the editable PDF is editable using inkscape, an
opensource software…
http://www.inkscape.org/
Thanks for sharing your great forms!
17. Beverly said on 06/05/2009
08:56AM...
Is it ok for me to mod ETP and The Daily Grid Balancer? Using Illustrator
I added a Client Time Tally section, a Daily Gotta Do (checklist of items)
and arranged the color block sections for Productivity, Diet/Exercise and
Learn New Stuff - as a “points” system with The Happy Block
called the Mood O’Meter.
This is for personal use not commercial.
18.
Dave
Seah said on 06/08/2009 03:03PM...
Lynn: There’s something about your description that triggers
the image of trying to balance TOO MUCH stuff. I’ll reflect on this.
Maybe we should chat on the phone sometime too (it’s been a while
since we’ve caught up anyway :-)
Beverly: I don’t really use any software for project
management, as I haven’t needed it lately. However, I’ve found
that the project management boils down to a few things: keeping the
principles and deliverables clear, and tracking the time diligently. Then
the other part is managing and archiving decisions in context with the state
of the project at that time (emails, builds, versions, etc). I hven’t
cracked this nut yet, but I guess we can visit it after this form :-) One
thing that has helped with balance is deciding to “declutter” my
priorities and pick the 3 that are most important. I hve to let go of
everything else.
With regards to the ETP + DGB: It’s OK if you send me a copy
:-)
Christian: Thaks for the Inkscape heads up. I’ll have to
check it out!
19. Edwrad Fedorov said on 06/17/2009
06:25AM...
Dear David, from the first time I found your nice products I’m
thinking about possibility to tie them to Microsoft Outlook or Access form
I’m using in my daily work for autofilling prentable form from the
named programmes. Think it over to sell some rights to Microsoft to biult
your form into Outlook ))). Realy you made very promice product and you have
to offer it for integration your form to different planner programs.
I’m sure. All the best and grate thanks!
20.
masukomi said on 06/17/2009
09:37AM...
I wish there was some easy way to indicate which category the to-do list
items related to. That way I could easily answer the question of
“What’s something ‘happy’ that i need to get
done?”
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