[NT] For the love of planning

[Lark]

Does anyone else really enjoy planning and project management? I have rediscovered this lately and have really made much, much better use of my time than I had previously as a result, although I wondered about everyone elses experiences of it and if anyone else engages in a rationalisation of their time like I do or scheduling and what sorts of planning tools and scheduling or schedulers you all use.

I use hard copy journals, calenders, weekly and monthly schedulers, I track progress towards goals in specific books to see if I'm approaching what I want to achieve with diet or exercise and to see what progress I've already made.

I dont currently use any online or computer tools or programmes but if anyone knows of any which are good to use or would recommend any to get trained in even I'd be interested in that.

 

[nortia]

Does anyone else really enjoy planning and project management? I have rediscovered this lately and have really made much, much better use of my time than I had previously as a result, although I wondered about everyone elses experiences of it and if anyone else engages in a rationalisation of their time like I do or scheduling and what sorts of planning tools and scheduling or schedulers you all use.

I use hard copy journals, calenders, weekly and monthly schedulers, I track progress towards goals in specific books to see if I'm approaching what I want to achieve with diet or exercise and to see what progress I've already made.

I dont currently use any online or computer tools or programmes but if anyone knows of any which are good to use or would recommend any to get trained in even I'd be interested in that.

THIS. I totally get off on conservation of time and energy, which I achieve through diligent organization and planning of my daily life and long term goals. I track my moods, my foods, and my monthly visits from mother nature (TMI?), along with the usual 5 calendars in my phone for everything from doctors appointments, to exams, to coffee dates. I used to use journals to track this it became a bit of a nightmare trying to keep three journals, so now I mostly use iphone apps. Having a good calendar program like iCal is pretty essential. I don't know what the windows version is though (apple whore, here).

 

[Lark]

There's not a lot written about this and I just now and again happen to discover, totally by accident some great little idea for it in the way of something in a new work diary or something, there are books from away back in the day of debates between plan vs. no plan when it was about government intervention but that's not about planning per se, there are other ones about business planning that I've seen but they are different too, a little bit about judging demand and plotting points to review decisions to see whether success or failure is becoming more or less likely and whether or nto a change is needed.

I use this website:- http://www.43things.com to list and keep track of goals, you can set it to send you e-mails and you can set what sort of message you receive when it does and the frequency in order to motivate.

I dont use an iPhone, I use an android Samsung S2 and I've tried to download some apps people have recommended but they dont appear to work properly or I've got configuration problems, then again I'm not the most technologically saavy despite knowing that it could make life easier once the initial learning and practicing rubicon would be crossed.

 

[nortia]

just signed up for 43things.com, and am looking forward to actually trying to maintain my new years resolutions in 2013 x]

My Samsung friends use Evernote to consolidate their calendars with their school notes on a cloud sever (it works for mac too but we have icloud). that way, if their phone kicks the bucket or someone spills coffee on their laptop, all hope is not lost. they can just log into their account and boom! all of their stuff is still organized and operational. Might be worth giving it a go if you can get your phone to obey, from what I've heard its relatively user friendly.

Here's a note from the developer:

Key Features:
- Works with Evernote Business: Capture, browse, search, and share Business Notes and Business Notebooks from your smartphone or tablet.
- Sync all of your notes across the computers and devices you use
- Create and edit text notes, to-dos and task lists
- Save, sync and share files
- Search for text inside images
- Organize notes by notebooks and tags
- Email notes and save tweets to your Evernote account
- Connect Evernote to other apps and products you use
- Share notes with friends and colleagues via Facebook and Twitter

Here are some ways to use Evernote for your personal and professional life:
- Research smarter: snap photos of whiteboards and books
- Take meeting and class notes, draft agendas and research notes
- Plan a trip: keep track of travel plans, plane tickets and passports
- Organize and save recipes; search by ingredients later
- Create a grocery list or task list and check things off as you go
- View web pages saved in Evernote on your desktop
- Capture ideas and inspiration on the go
- Access files and notes you create on your phone from your desktop
- Keep track of products and prices for comparison shopping purposes
- Keep finances in order: save receipts, bills and contracts
- Reduce paper clutter by taking snapshots of restaurant menus, business cards and labels
- Use Evernote as part of your GTD system to help you stay organized
- To get the most out of your Evernote experience, download it on all of the computers and phones that you use.