Section 7.4. Schedule the Steps

7.4. Schedule the Steps

Now that you know what you want to achieve and the steps that will bring you there, you can sprinkle your next steps throughout your calendar as to do items.

Due to business patterns or family responsibilities, you might have more free time during a certain time of the month or year. Pick the time that you think will most likely assure success. (If you are off by a day, don't worry. The Cycle System will move the steps to the next day.)

Look at the steps you've recorded and consider what the best order should be. Write the first one or two items from each list on the appropriate day's to do list. Let's use "Learn more about Linux internals" as an example. If today is Monday, I write the "Ask for recommendations" step on today's to do list. I should have recommendations by Wednesday, so turn to Wednesday's to do list and write, "Purchase a book based on sage-members recommendations." I'm too cheap to pay for overnight shipping from Amazon, so on the following Monday's to do list, write, "One hour of reading Linux kernel internals book." I write that same item on Tuesday's through Friday's lists, or if I'm using a PDA, I use the "repeating to do item" feature. I don't know how long it will take to read the entire book, but I can set a goal of having done the last item in that list (write a nontrivial program using what I've learned) a week later. If I don't add these items to my to do list, they will never get done.

The 24-hour goal of doing laundry was a joke; it is more of a task than a goal. However, it is a good example of how to link goals to a to do list. I put the first three steps on the place reserved for "after work to do items." I put the last item (fold and put away) on the to do list for the next day.

If you have a lot of goals, this process may seem intimidating. However, this just means that you need to spread your goals out more or downgrade some of the priorities.

It's easy with a PDA to schedule to do items far in advance. However, I find it better to not schedule any single item too far in advance; otherwise, it gets lost. Or I read the item and don't remember what it means. Instead, I schedule the next one, possibly two, steps for each goal. When the step is done, I have a better idea of how much time to allocate for the following steps.

A PAA only has a certain amount of room in it, so you generally only keep the next month of page-per-day sheets in your binder. Therefore, you can't plan your next steps too far in advance. What you can do is mark your next steps in your calendar as you would an appointment. Three months from now, you can "make an appointment" to start a particular step. For example, three months from now you might mark in your calendar, "Research long-term care facilities."

A benefit of this technique is that you don't feel so rushed, but you are still slowly moving toward reaching your various goals.

Take a moment to enter at least one step from each goal into your PDA or organizer.