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I am a small business Conversation Consultant and public speaker that uses the power of the internet to leverage your success. Productivity in Context is a web magazine focused on Productivity and tools for organizing. Make this your headquarters for improving your life and work through increased mindfulness, education, and workflow practices.

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This is my current Organizer, as it looks at the end of the two-month beta-test of the custom Calendar Pages -

My strategy behind this design is to create a system for managing the Hard Landscape with a tool that is just as conducive to planning (putting information into the calendar) as it is to implementing (getting information from the calendar). Each section is deliberately placed, as follows:

• The header text on the new version will have the current month at the top left and a meta tag for the appropriate Errata [commenter Chris suggested to me that another word would be more appropriate, so let’s call it an Addenda page] page at the top right.
• “Big Rocks” are listed first, at the top of the left-hand edge of the page. This is where our eyes generally go first, and spend the most time. The goal is that we will look there first while planning, and while executing.
• Just below the Big Rocks is a section for notes, short quick-capture info that can be transferred to a more appropriate spot later.
• Appointments for the day go across the top of both pages, in the daily boxes. This is the second place our eyes will scan, giving us an “automatic” quick-review of what is coming up, and what has been accomplished. There is room in each daily box for the time and the name of the Appointment. Further information or an agenda will be found in the second Tab (Addenda).
• The shaded section of lines in each daily box is for listing those Next Actions that must get done on that day.
• The middle of the left-hand page leads the eye to an area for focusing on open Next Actions in their proper @Project contexts. This acts as a guide for our eyes, again to be able to review which Next Actions are outstanding. There is a field in each box for the Context, and room for some notes. This space is for tasks that need to get done this week, but may not have been assigned to a specific day.
• This field also happens to be 3″ x 4″, which is just the right size for the Post-it mini cards.
• The small calendar in the very bottom left is dated for July in this example, the final PDF version will have a sheet for each month, with the appropriate calendar. I hi-light the current week, and draw a red line through the past weeks. Using the colors gives me a visual cue when I am looking for information like “what day is it?”
• The top half of the right-hand page is for planning Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
• The middle of the right-hand page contains a prompt for Weekly Review notes to be entered. Here is where I capture ideas that I want to think about creatively, information that I want to be sure to review, or a Tag/link to another page in the Organizer for meta-data or addenda.

This calendar is available as a PDF download at the HD Bizblog Shop .

The organizer itself is split into tabbed sections for planning and capture:

• Tab #1 is the calendar itself, with pages printed for this month and next month. There is a single blank page for each month for the rest of the year. This blank page is for capturing notes and appointments.
• Tab #2 - Addenda: this is where I capture information that is related to entries in the hard landscape, such as directions to an event, the agenda for a meeting, etc. This is generally a larger amount of information that will just clutter up the calendar page yet may be useful for quick reference during the week. I made the Addenda page with the DIY Planner widget kit. I printed it on colored paper, and it has grown on me.
  
• Tab #3 - Next Actions: one page for each context, currently @Work, @Computer, @Read/Review, and @Blog Posts. Again, the colored paper is a visual cue as to where I am.
  
• Tab #4 is for the @Waiting for list.
  
• Tab #5 - This tab is now home to blank forms for filling in the other sections, and for blank notes and agenda pages.

This is where the organizer project stands. The final PDF version of the Calendar Pages is available here (2008 version). Please subscribe to the RSS Feed for the updates and visit the GTD System Lens for more information about Getting Things Done. Also visit:

…for more inspiration.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5ul3vg. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

Paul J. Meyer, the founder of Success Motivation International, has compiled a list of barriers that we need to overcome in order to grow and succeed.

1. I’m comfortable - Staying in the comfort zone and living at the present level of success is easier and less stressful than exerting effort to make needed changes.
2. I’m afraid of failure - Fear of making a mistake or risking possible failure discourages trying anything new or different.
3. Disapproval hurts - The desire to avoid disapproval, either by themselves or by others, limits many to behavior that is calculated to please.
4. I don’t want to rock the boat - Anxiety about changing the status quo convinces some that change is negative and not worth the risk.
5. I don’t have what it takes - A poverty mentality, coupled with a false sense of inferiority, causes some people to believe they do not deserve the rewards of using their full potential.
6. Success might not be good for me - An illogical fear of success prevents many from breaking the success barrier. They feel unworthy or they fear they will not know how to handle success, so they subconciously avoid it.
7. God doesn’t want me to succeed - This unfounded belief of God sends many great dreams into a tailspin. Scripture says, “I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 1:2, NKJV).

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/64hrum. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

The purpose of Zen is
to enable people to immediately
transcend the ordinary and the holy,
just getting people to
awaken on their own,
forever cutting off
the root of doubt.

- Fayan

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5f8ssm. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

The crew at b5 Media has purchased the Slacker Manager blog from its author, and I am auditioning for the position. Please take a few minutes to look over the posts that I have written this week, and leave a Comment there if you would like to see more of this type of writing.

There are four posts on Slacker Manager: One, Two, Three, and Four.

I also have a guest post at The Daily Saint, the GTD Cafe featuring your Hard Landscape. Mike St. Pierre has a lot of great articles about productivity and work-life balance. Check it out.

Finally, if any of you Dear Readers have a request for a topic to appear in this space, please let me know.

Thank you for your assistance!

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/54r6s4. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen