The Printable CEO™ Series
Posted on November 12, 2005 in Productivity
(last edited on March 28, 2015 at 8:46 am)
(last edited on March 28, 2015 at 8:46 am)
Why the Trademark (™) symbol?
- I want to make sure that the DIYers out there can make use of the forms and ideas here, without giving up commercialization rights. The Printable CEO™ is also copyrighted; I want to protect what I’m doing from being ripped-off and commercialized by some third party. Public use of the ™ symbol is the first step to establish protectable commercial use—at least I think it is…IANAL.I’m considering Open Source-style licensing, or maybe Creative Commons, but I haven’t yet looked into the ramifications of either system. Like which one is more applicable, if at all?
- It’s my goal to create a DIY-friendly system that is accessible to anyone with a printer. I chose the name “Printable CEO” because it sounds accessible; there’s nothing stopping anyone from tapping into the ideas behind effective execution. Right now, I’d say it’s a combination of insight, inside-information, and the ability to invent ways of measuring progress. This is the basic premise behind countless self-help and business books on the market. Creating a universal toolkit to help the process along would be super cool. When you need to get the right things done, you need the mindset and the tools to show you the way. Rather than hire your own CEO, use these paper-based and online tools to discover how!
26 Comments
think the simple idea of weighting biz dev tasks is a great one. It should help you get the most out of your efforts. But he doesn’t stop there. He also provides a great weekly progress chart to help keep track of it all.
I am a firm believer in tracking progress and creating charts to visually monitor things. I ran a phone card and cell phone distrubtion company for 1.5 years, and we really took off once we implemented rigid charting procedures. Our mainstay was a product that we introduced in June of 2004, and by the same month of 2005, we had sold $5MM worth (retail dollars) of the product. Because of the specific data that we amassed, we were able to decisively choose routes to success. I think it’s probably high time I started applying the same rules to my personal life, especially now that I own my own business(es).
Dude-
I get it.
I suddenly feel free, there are others ;-)
No doubt- ROCK ON!
Great stuff Dave. You’re going to put me out of a job Your site was shared with me by one of my smarter clients.. we should talk. Cheers,Pam
Hi,
I’m looking at your site… thinking wonderful! Now I just need to get started.
I’m in a frazzle and often don’t know where to begin. Just a thought but your site would probably be inundated with an “I’m overloaded – where do I start” post for those that are at breaking point!
Just a comment and I will continue to slug it out!!! Job well done on your site!
Various links, e.g. task order up show as empty, e.g. just the header graphic but no content
This is in both firefox and safari on my powerbook, worked the other day
Probably wp-cache screwing up again…sometimes it does that.
I have been using a much more barebones grid system for keeping me on track for the past 2 years, but I love color and your sheets are so much more visually pleasing! Great work. Glad I found your blog (thanks to SuccessfromtheNest.com). I’ll be back for more reading.
Hi Dave, I’ve suggested the flash task timer to many teachers and students (high school and college) – it’s so reasonable and practical. The folks at both Teachers At Risk and Greenwich Academic have it in their toolboxes for their students!
Also, here’s something you may like – an educational tool in the style of PCEO, a printable color-coded form for students to learn how to organize their essays. Thought you might like this from Elona’s Teachers at Risk blog: “Graphic Organizer for Writing Better Essays.”
Best, S.
Great series, it gives me butterflies in my stomach :P
About GTD, I have yet to buy the book. I’m so glad I stumbled upon your site (no pun intended), for I wouldn’t have discovered the system.
What do you do about daily tasks, like meditation, exercise, etc… Put this to thought, a way to organize daily tasks, and necessities. That way our food intake, study habits, and exercise can be managed with the elegeance you manage freelance work.
I’m working on that now, a daily activities system. Once again, thanks for the post! You’re officially in my feed reader :P
~Jp
these are all great and i use the stand-alone ett nearly every day. my only complaint with all the others: i wish they were interactive and didn’t require me printing them out. if i could click on the bubbles and have them be marked (like the stand-alone ett), i would use almost all of these in your printable ceo lines.
thanks for all this and keep it up.
I’m in the process of learning how to actually talk to databases and integrate them with some kind of user management…software systems are a long-term goal (I get tired of printing things out too :-)
The GTD Wannabe links should be updated:
http://gtdwannabe.com/2007/05/inspired-by-the-printable-ceo-2007-edition/
Thanks for these very useful tools, Dave. I use the Task Progress Tracker and the Emergent Task Planner in my daily work since 2 months now. Keep up the good work!
Hey David,
These templates are great! You rock! I especially like the idea of the people-meeting tracker.
Here’s an idea: Make large-sized printouts to hang on a wall for a whole team to track their progress on some shared task or project.
All the best in 2008!
– Andrew
David,
POWERFUL. This is a wonderful article and a great list of resources and I’m ‘stumbling’ it.
I love tools like this that help you inventory your activities and assess them objectively. It’s high impact for minimal effort…exactly what a CEO should be doing.
Thank you for putting this together.
David, you’re a genius! Thank you for share your works!
David,
I only now discover the PCEO-series, what a pity I didn’t do so earlier.
Two questons and one suggestion.
Why dont you publish the content as a book (on demand)? Fix costs close to nothing.
And if you miss the time, maybe outsource the assembly of the articles (and the forms of course) to a country with low labour costs. To get some additional PR, you try crowdfunding?
Is the content available in other languages? This would be great content to license/localize?
And now the suggestion. I am checklist’ing a lot, and I alwas find the Eisenhower Matrix to be very useful, in distinguishing between urgent (but not neccessarily important tasks), and important but not urgent things. Maybe some PCEO Form on this too?
David
I take it that we are allowed to update the date from 2009 to 2010 with a PDF editor to allow us to continue using the forms in 2010 whilst we await any official updates.
thanks
Hey David,
I’m currently reading “Don’t Shoot The Dog” by Karen Pryor. It’s a book on Positive Reinforcement.
I just came across this paragraph and instantly thought of the PCEO.]
Check this out:
“Academicians have studied the most minute aspects of conditioning. One finding shows, for example, that if you make a chart to keep track of your progress in some self-training program, you will be more likely to maintain new habits if you solidly fill in a little square every day on the chart, rather than just putting a check mark in the square.”
Bubbles, man, bubbles! And fill the whole thing!
Regarding a CC license, I think a CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike) would fit what you need. It makes sure no-one will be able to commercialize it. As far as I know, you still have the ownership of the work, so it would be possible to release it under a commercial (restrictive and non-CC) license later, although this would be somewhat against the spirit of Creative Commons. You could of course dual-license it (as far as I know), using a CC BY-NC-SA for non-commercial application, and a regular restrictive license for commercial applications.
Just wanted to say I’ve been using your time tracking tools for work since 2007. Love ‘em. They’re beautiful. Thank you for helping make my life more organized and productive. You should publish notebooks.
David,
Thanks so much fo sharing! You are brilliant!
The PDF’s are so useful!
Great design and useful forms. Love them, especially after using the Pomodoro Technique for a while.
I blogged about your Emergent Task Planner (amongst others) on my Dutch blog: http://www.outofsite.eu/go/blog/2059FC-17-nov-2010-10-tools-waardoor-ik-efficinter-kan-werken
Not sure if my comment was posted