Planning the Week

So, I'm sitting down to plan out my week, and comparing my three source documents: Google Calendars (for the "where I have to be" stuff), Toodledo (for the "what I have to do" stuff), and my daily planner (an excel - actually open office - spreadsheet formatted like a Covey planner, but includes some of the extra columns he talks about in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, in order to sort out the "what I want to do to reach my goals" and then record "what I actually did" so I can fill out my time card and evaluate my work habits).

Side note, I'm reading 7 Habits for school, it's the text book for my Integrated Projects class. I thought I would hate it, because it would be a lame self-help book that would be trying to brainwash me. Turns out, it's actually a really incredible book to read, in part because it just makes good sense, it ties together information I'm learning in my Human Development & Cognitive Learning class with stuff I pick up in counseling, and my own basic belief structures about how to set goals and take responsbility for reaching them. Using the planner, which lays out the Roles in my life (teacher, student, wife, etc) the Goals I have for each Role, and the Tasks that I need to do this week if I want to work on those Goals is REALLY helping me see where my time could be better used, how to set time aside for myself so I don't burn out, how to look at the different pieces of my life and remember to work on all of them every week if I want to feel complete.

But I digress. So, here I am looking at this week's plans. And, first off, I'm really excited because on Wednesday, Dylan and I hop in the car and drive up to Portland (first time I'll have been north of Wolf Creek - and we moved here 2 years ago). We're going to the NSTA Portland conference, mostly to see the Mythbusters give the keynote speech. I'll also get to go to OMSI, and sit in on some cool lectures for elementary science education. I'm even planning on having a half-hour or so to talk to with a focus group on using technology in the classroom. So that rocks.

And I'm adding two new items to my "self" goal on my planner: playing the piano a bit more (partly just because Christmas is coming, partly because it makes me happy), and taking half an hour every day to do something with my camera. I'm going to do it. It will be scheduled. I expect, like with the "work out on the Wii or go to the gym Every Day" thing, I will fail a lot. But there it will be, half an hour to just play, scheduled every day. Something to help me wind down. Something to spark some creative energy once in awhile. And putting things on the planner really does help. I hate crossing things off and having to say "I didn't have time" or "I didn't use my time well." So seeing it there helps.

And I know some people, who think that Technology is the tool for making things simpler, and I shouldn't need three things to get organized every week. But I tell ya, it's great. My Google calendar emails me every morning: here's where you need to be today. My Toodledo list goes everywhere with me, thanks to the iPhone, and is easy to cross off, flip to "what's due tomorrow" or "I'm at work, what's on my list that's related to Work" or "I have two hours I can work on homework, what's on that list" and therefore stay on-task no matter what. And then the planner gives me a place where I can say, "okay, here's what really happened, here's how I can bill the office for my time, here's where I lost an hour to the tv, what could I have done instead?"