How do I maintain my list in Life Balance? What is weekly planning like?
Problem:
How do I maintain my list in Life Balance? What is weekly planning like?Solution:
Life Balance is not so much about static weekly planning, but more about continuous dynamic planning.Here's something to think about. I have a different set of steps that I do for review, that take far less time to acccomplish than the traditional weekly planning session. One Life Balance customer recently told us that he was able to trim back his daily planning session from one hour each day to just a few minutes. What could you do with an extra hour each day?
What you get done now today dynamically affects what Life Balance suggests that you do next in the future tomorrow. One problem with most to do lists is that they are perpetually out of date from the time that you make them. You are affecting the "system" in which you are working, and your list needs to reflect that to truly represent what you are doing and where you are going!
Overall, it is our observation that people who are first starting to use Life Balance tend to try to do quite a bit of extra manual work to maintain a traditional style of static weekly system that they are familiar with. Carrying tasks forward from day to day, putting everything into buckets for particular days, making artificial appointments with themselves, etc. Often that is work that they don't necessarily have to do.
What I generally do for a review is more like the following, and it is the process that I personally recommend for use with the Life Balance software product line:
1) Subdivide and Conquer. Look over the list for any existing project headings that have popped up, or things which look too big to tackle and that need to be broken down some more. Things like "Update the web site" which is not something that I can just do in one sitting since it involves fishing around for the next essay or review idea and then following through with the posting to the web site. So I add in tasks under that for what the specific next steps might be. I won't necessarily do all of these tasks, but I can capture them for now.
2) Top Down thinking. Are there long term projects that are not on the list at all that I want to think about, reasearch or do? Happy with my top level tasks? Usually this means looking at the second level and saying WHAT ELSE could I possibly do for that long range goal which would make that top level goal happen and be wonderful!?
3) Bottom up thinking. Are there tasks that I AM already doing that I need to add to the list? For instance, I may get a phone call from someone with a project that needs follow up. Customer support is frequently in this catagory. We recently had a customer support case that involved quite a bit of back and forth interaction with our contacts at PalmOne. That was a project that sprouted up overnight, and when it was done, we even had a new beta tester!
4) Adjustments. What has changed? I look at the list with "Include Closed Places" and "All Places." Does the order reflect the current state of things? If not, I select a task that seems like it is too high or too low and travel up the hierarchy until I find the HIGHEST project that needs adjustment in importance. This will then take care of all the related tasks that also need adjustment.
5) Weeding. Are there any things on the list that I should just delete as being dead ends?
6) Balancing. Switch to the Balance section. Is the Actual pie chart reflecting where I want to put my effort in the coming week? If I caught the flu, then I might cut back temporarily on work. If I'm preparing for a trade show, then I might increase that slice to the max and let the laundry take care of itself until it is time to pack the suitcase.
Not all steps need to be done each time, and I tend to do this quickly whenever I feel the need, but that is more or less the list that I go through for what the equivalent of a "Weekly" planning regimen would be.
--Catherine E. White, President
