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Blog: Technology As An Organizing Tool
 Using Excel to Manage Your Weekly Schedule
No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you! Are you having a hard time believing that after extolling the virtues of Outlook, ACT! and other powerful personal information managers, I'm now suggesting that you use Excel? Well, it's like this...
The trouble I have with electronic scheduling is that something is either an Appointment to take place at a specific time, or it's a Task which, even when it has a deadline assigned to it, is completely separate from my calendar.
Yes, I know that with Outlook 2007 I can go into daily or weekly Calendar view and see assigned tasks at the bottom of each day, and maybe I haven't given it a fair chance, but it doesn't seem to match the way I think, especially since I'm moving away from my Outlook calendar back to a paper system. (Sorry to keep dropping these bombs, but it really opened my eyes when Marcia Francois said "If you're a paper person, embrace it!" in our teleclass on Everything You EVER Wanted to Know about Organizing Your Computer.)
I've found that what works best for me is to break my day into eight one-hour blocks, as recommended by Alex Fayle, and to assign each block to a specific type of activity, as described by Denise Fisher. Actually I only plan activities for six of the eight hours, leaving a 25% cushion for tasks that take longer than expected, unscheduled telephone calls, and other interruptions, as recommended by Stephanie Calahan.
My latest time management system is a simple Excel spreadsheet with the days of the week across the top and six rows representing the six daily blocks of time. I figured out how many of those blocks need to be assigned to billable client work, to administrative tasks, and to business development activities, assigned a colour to each of these three categories, and colour-coded the blocks accordingly. As I plan my week, I type in the specific client name or business activity to go in each block.
At the beginning of each day, I look at what's on tap and can easily prioritize my activities by simply dragging and dropping the blocks as needed. I can also drag and drop boxes from one day to another if my priorities shift during the week.
I like this system because it's as simple as paper, yet it allows me to move things around as needed without having to erase or cross out and rewrite things. If you're having trouble with your current system, maybe you should try this too!
posted on: 7/2/2009 8:30:00 AM by Janet Barclay
category: Business
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Janet Barclay is a Master Virtual Assistant and the founder of Organized Assistant. Specializing in supporting entrepreneurs in the Organizing and Career Services industries, Organized Assistant provides top-notch Internet marketing services to business owners of all shapes and sizes.
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