Setting Up Your Rolling To-Do List
Lesson 6 from: FAST CLASS: Workflow, Time Management and Productivity for CreativesLisa Congdon
Setting Up Your Rolling To-Do List
Lesson 6 from: FAST CLASS: Workflow, Time Management and Productivity for CreativesLisa Congdon
Lesson Info
6. Setting Up Your Rolling To-Do List
Lessons
Class Introduction
08:29 2How to Create an Effective Workflow
04:30 3Organizing A Workflow Document
18:47 45 Tips for Managing Your Workflow
02:03 5Working with a Rolling To-Do List
02:30 6Setting Up Your Rolling To-Do List
09:14 7Time Blocking: What it is and Why it Works
03:45 8How to Use Time-Blocking Effectively
09:28Lesson Info
Setting Up Your Rolling To-Do List
So this is how you set up and use your rolling to do list. So first of all, this is my actual, um, like to do list. Uh, it's not technically a bullet journal, because I don't use a lot of the principles of bullet journaling, but I dio use this actual book. Teoh, make my weekly to do lists. I keep all of my lists and all of my notes for meetings in this central place, and I'll show you more examples from here in a minute. But this is actually something I use. This is actually a scan of a blank spread from this very book. So the first thing you're gonna dio before you make your weekly to do list is your going to jot down all the priorities for your week on a page that proceeds the spread and you will determine your priority list by looking at your workflow and seeing what to dio. Okay, so I actually used my fictitious workflow document that you guys condone load or that we were looking at earlier to set this list of priorities for the week of June 1st. So I, um, picking a number of thing...
s that I pretty sure I can finish in a week and every weeks gonna look different, cause some weeks you have other obligations. A dentist appointment, a doctor's appointment. Your kid's got a soccer game, Whatever, whatever. So some weeks they're gonna look different than others in terms of what you think you can accomplish. But you want to make a list of overall priorities. So sometimes things that I think are going to take me a bit of time or that I want to make sure I don't forget they go in my priority list and then they end up going in my and the next spread. So I'm happy to answer questions about priorities. But before I do that, let's just talk about how toe lay out your, um, to do list. So I recommend using a full spread. Um, I divide my to do list into sixths for an entire week, starting with Monday. If your work week looks different like you like to think of it is Wednesday through Sunday, or you like to work on the weekend. You can divide it up however you want, but if you use if you work inside the traditional week. This is how I recommend doing it. Um, so on the left hand side, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, um, Thursday Friday on the right hand side and then a space for the weekend. Or if you only work if you and and again, if you don't want to have any obligations or be beholden to anything on the weekend, don't put it in there. So every Friday or over the weekend, you're gonna be begin making your list for the week, Okay? Ah, lot time to do that on Friday or over the weekend. You might say, What about Monday morning? And I say, Don't wait until Monday morning unless that's your last resort. And that's because if you wait till Monday morning, it just becomes another tour. You have to dio and it eats into your work time. It's better toe. Wake up on Monday morning, Member. Um, when the class started, I was like, What if you woke up every morning and you knew exactly what you needed to do to start the day? And that can only happen. You can only wake up that way if the day before we're a couple days before you've said you've made a plan for yourself. Okay, Um so don't wait till Monday morning. It's gonna feel better to wake up and just be like, I have a plan. And now I'm gonna go do it. Think of planning your following week as something you do to prepare to jump in first thing on Monday. So the idea with a rolling to do list is that you roll the task you didn't finish down to the next day or day after that way. Things that you didn't complete or start don't get lost. Because how many times have we how did to do list? Right. And it's already laid out and we don't do everything, and then something just it's Friday, and it's like, Oh, crap, I never did that thing on Monday, right? And now I think I'm you know, I'm in trouble because I didn't get it done. Or now I have to work over the weekend. So it's a way of accounting for stuff you don't forget. And things don't get lost. It's often also the little things that get lost, not the work on the big projects. Those are at the forefront of your mind, right, Because stuff you're working on for a client or stuff that's do and things you're getting paid for. It's the little stuff that often gets lost. So every day at the end of the day, you need to spend time rolling the stuff you didn't complete to the next day or the day after, and adding new tasks from your list of priorities. So that list of priorities that came from your workflow document that guides what goes on your to do list every single day did you complete everything in a day and some days you will your golden right like you're Then you just get to go back to your list of priorities and start adding some stuff. All right, you mark things off your list that you've completed and you'll feel in your tests for the next day based on your priorities. So let's look at what that looks like. Now, Um, there's two ways I am a crosser outer, like I love drawing a line through things that I have done. It's like an obsession of mine since I was in college. Um, I wrote little check boxes next to it because, like bullet journaling espouses like there's actually if you're if you're into bullet journaling. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just google it. It's fascinating, but there's like different markers that you give things for, depending on whether you've done them or halfway down them or whatever. Um, I'm like either dinner or you didn't do it. Sometimes you'll give yourself two days to complete something, and you'll finish it the first day. And that's great, cause then you can cross something off twice. Um, then I also started to fill in Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, and you don't necessarily have to go all the way till Friday. But usually by Wednesday, you have a good sense of what you've completed and what you still have to dio. And you can sort of arrange things based on priority over the course of the rest of the days. So I've got to redo the letter, sketch the rough sketch for Letter J, and I'm going to spend some time on Wednesday also writing thank you notes. Looks like Wednesday's a pretty easy day. So Thursday I'm gonna get so the letter K, I'm going back to my priority list, and I know that I still haven't reviewed the feedback for the sketches for the peanut butter packaging. So better do that. I'm gonna finish those. Thank you notes. I'm going to do it at a chunk of admin time, and I'm gonna proof read and send the interview tarty magazine because I did it. I finished it, But I think I should probably look it over. Then Friday, I'm gonna get to the letter l Which is great. I had made it my goal to do h through l. I'm going to begin the artwork for the peanut butter packaging, and I'm going Teoh, meet the plumber at 10:30 a.m. So if you have appointments, you can also stick them in here. Okay? Pro tip. Make a spot in your notebook to write down stuff. You have to add to your work floor to do list before the end of the day. How often have we gotten a quick texture email from someone? That is something that needs to be translated to our either workflow or to do list. But we're like, Oh, I'm gonna do that later, you know, Or I can remember that. And sometimes you have to because you're like driving or whatever, but, um, what I like to do is have a little trying to look for an example in here. Um, I like to have a little you'll notice here. Um, there's like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday weekend, and then you'll see here. I have, like, blocked off this like little space. And if you're watch videos on bullet journaling, there's a lot of this, like just taking space inside of your list toe. Like, um, I don't make my super fancy, but you know, to just create a new list inside of the space and you're making them the most use of the space to and just maybe, um, highlighting it like don't forget or when you have time, add these things to your workflow and then just write them down really quickly, even if it's a word that's going to trigger something for you to remember. Okay, because the whole idea here is that you're just capturing everything you're responsible for, so that you're not walking around later in the evening having an in enjoyable dinner out, and then all of a sudden you have a panic attack because you remember that there's that texture or email you got earlier with that thing that you're supposed to do tomorrow that you forgot to write down. And now you're really nervous You're gonna forget. So just writing things down when they happen is always super helpful.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Michelle
While I'm not a designer, I'm a creative who is responsible for multiple projects, most of which take a week or months. Lisa's use of Google sheets then breaking things down is super helpful. I appreciate the bonus document! Thanks for the Fast Class version! So many of the Creative Live classes are far too long and need to be edited.
mary gabriola
I really enjoyed the class with Lisa. She's a clear and engaging speaker, and the examples she provided really bring the course material to life. She's talking mostly about creative projects, and since I have many writing projects on the go that works for me. I also am using her approach to set up other projects, though -- gardening and renovations and such -- and I think it's going to work really well. Thanks, Lisa!