I am such a nerd for goal setting, action planning, and progress tracking. Of the countless tools and techniques I’ve tried, here are a few that shine as my go-tos.
Weekly Planning
Every Sunday morning I have a routine I call weekly planning. I review my vision, treasure my successes from the past week, consider any lessons learned, identify my focus for the next week, and schedule everything.
On his site Live Your Legend, Scott Dinsmore provides a Weekly Planning Workbook that I used for awhile, keeping my notes in a Google Doc. (You’ll just need to provide your email address in order to access this and many other free resources.) Though I’ve moved on to other tools, I continue to use his framework. Looking back every week at what I’ve done well has been a game-changer!
This year for fun I moved to a gorgeous physical planner by Danielle LaPorte. She teaches that we should focus on how we want to feel. So in addition to jotting down my top actions for the week, I make note of the week’s core feelings. (atm: present + generous + joyful)
For scheduling, I keep separate personal & work Google calendars that I can view together.
Daily Task Management
Most Important Tasks (MITs) can help you prioritize your day. Identify one MIT related to your goals every day. Then, first thing in the morning, before reading your email, complete your MIT. Boom – success!
Trello is a simple & powerful tool. You can create boards, which are lists of lists. This page is a collection that inspires creative uses of Trello.
Getting Things Done by David Allen provides a great framework. This Lifehacker article shows you how to implement GTD with Trello.