Daily Action Map Version 2.0

Back in May, I wrote a post on using Daily Action Maps to help organize your day so you can process work more effectively. Since then, my personal method of GTD has changed significantly (special thanks to Zen Habits and Tim Ferriss) and therefore my tools have changed as well. I am planning on writing a series on my personal GTD system - so more to come on that.

Here is an outline of the updated Daily Action Map. My upcoming series will have in depth explanations for all of the concepts behind it.

Layout:

• Date: Helps put a time line on your productivity
• Mantra: Personal mantra that helps for motivation or focus
• Daily Pebbles: Four most important tasks for the day
• Weekly Stones: Four action steps that move you closer to your mountains (goals)
• Mountains: Four goals that you would like to accomplish in the next 3-6 month period
• Company Milestones: Four weekly goals that will bring your company closer to success
• Notes: Jotting down any thoughts, ideas or references that you need to remember
• Task Catcher: Other tasks (often tasks that can be batched) that need to be completed but not the most important for that day
• Communication: Any emails and phone calls that need to be made
• Watch List: Items that you need to follow up on such as delegated tasks
• Reminders: Personal statements that keep you focused/motivated
• Checklist: Items that are daily habits you are trying to instill

My Daily Action Map is still a work in progress, as I am constantly shaping and changing my habits to improve effectiveness. I’m sure you will see a Version 3.0 as well.

Download and customize your own daily-action-map

GTD with Journals

Over the past two months I have been experimenting with the use of journals to both help me capture my ideas and also record completed tasks/milestones so I can look back for both inspiration and analysis. Although it is probably overdoing it, I have created multiple journals for each main topic that I feel requires some form of capture. Two of the main topics I use journals for are GTD and SEO. I find that recording the various GTD methods and techniques that I use allows me to then check back, evaluate and decide whether it actually helped. I feel this analysis is crucial in developing solid working habits.

Although some people prefer paper or hard-journals (I too have a moleskin that I use to capture some of my ideas), most of the time I enter my thoughts in .LOG files. Check out the .LOG notepad hack on how to turn windows notepad into a journal. These logs allow for quick time-stamped entries that I can easily return to during my weekly reviews.

It might seem like wasted time to enter your thoughts and things you have already done into a journal but you will be amazed at how much it helps in evaluating your ideas and habits.

GTD: Daily Action Map

I, like many others, have fooled around with quite a few GTD tools out there. Some of them include:

GTD Dashboard for Outlook

Todoist

GTD Tiddlywiki

However, each time I venture into using a new digital tool, I always find there is either too much setup time required or it’s simply not accessible enough - having to sign online each time I need to check my todo list, really isn’t productive.

I continually find myself returning back to my legal pad in an effort to organize a solid list of the things I need to do. At times, however, my action items get mixed with my follow ups which get mixed with my notes and so on - the whole thing turns out to be a mess.

So, a solution that I have come up with and that I am continuously developing:

Daily Action Map

Layout:

• Tasks: list of action items with a column to associate a project or context with them
• Communication: list of follow ups with a column to associate a project or context with them
• Notes: space to jot down thoughts
• 15 Minutes: the one task I need to accomplish for each of my projects (see my post on working 15 minutes a day)
• Four Stones: the four major goals I want to accomplish that week
• Reminders: List of thoughts and actions I need to remember to implement throughout the day

I’ve only been using this template for week, but so far I have found it very helpful. Please feel free to download it, give it a shot and let me know your feedback.

Download and customize your own Daily Action Map