|||

PTPL 121 · Getting Focused With a 4-Quadrant Weekly Planning Matrix

Plus an invitation to look back and see how far you’ve come

The way we manage our personal knowledge can and should evolve to fit our changing needs. Here’s the 4-quadrant weekly planning matrix I’m using to plan my life, 7 days at a time.


This time last year I wrote—

How has your personal knowledge management structure changed in the last six months? Are you feeling better or worse about how things are running now, than you were at the beginning of the year? 2023-08-21 PTPL 066 - A Radical Obsidian Vault Shakeup, 6 Months Later

To answer my own question(s), my PKM has changed significantly over the past 12 months, and I’m feeling a whole lot better about it than I was at the beginning of the year. How about you? What changes would you like to see in the next year?

Weekly Planning Matrix

I’m currently reading Carl Pullein’s Your Time, Your Way book. I recommend it.

2 grids side by side. The one on the left is a rectangle divided into 4 quadrants. The one on the right has the same 4 quadrants depicted as a linear list.

A Weekly Planning Matrix now sits at the top of my One Big Text File (OBTF), with the quotes and scriptures I wrote about last month under that. I used to fill in this matrix when planning my week on paper, but it didn’t work so well back then because I hadn’t done the foundational work to really know what needed to be done, and when.

At the end of each week I copy the matrix to the relevant week in my OBTF as a record, an archive, before replacing the original with next week’s tasks.

It’s possible to tag tasks in Reminders and use smart lists to automatically generate the Weekly Planning Matrix in that app, but I much prefer the way it works in my notes app. Projects in the list are written as [[wikilinks]], making it easy to go straight to the relevant project planning page when I’m ready to start work.

And in other news…

I’m working hard on bringing my domain to my new blog home. Once support gets back to me and the DNS / website name issues are resolved, I’ll make the switch.


Follow my RSS feed, or sign up to receive posts in your inbox  

 

My posts cost you nothing to read, but a goodly amount of effort on my part to put together. If you’ve found value here I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it, or to make a contribution to my support jar

Up next PTPL 120 · Quick Add vs Text Expansion in Obsidian PTPL 122 · Aligning Your Task List with Your (Changing) Values
Latest posts PTPL 129 · Live Out of Your Notes the Way Tom Lives Out of His Car Inktober 2024 PTPL 128 · Keep Your Content Separate From the Container in Which It Lives PTPL 127 · On Backing Up Paper, and Static Websites for Tiny Archives Efficient App Agnostic Tasks in a Single Plain Text File (Obsidian Optional) PTPL 126 · What the Dash-Plus System Looks Like in My OBTF and Analog Notes Word Puzzles (that aren’t Wordle) PTPL 125 · Choosing Between Digital and Analog, and a Plain Text Accounting Update How to Keep Your Wheels Turning Smoothly Despite the Automation Paradox PTPL 124 · Saving Safari tabs as Markdown links, and Mono Fonts in Obsidian Looking Through Windows (From the Outside In) PTPL 123 · ‘Analog Office’ Blog and Tomoe River Planner Recommendations Mastodon and the Fediverse — Social Media’s Brighter Future Celebrating Independent Indie Blogs PTPL 122 · Aligning Your Task List with Your (Changing) Values PTPL 121 · Getting Focused With a 4-Quadrant Weekly Planning Matrix PTPL 120 · Quick Add vs Text Expansion in Obsidian Touch Typing For Classic Book Fans Your Name in Landsat Psst — They Don't Know What You're Talking About PTPL 119 · Yes, You Can Be Plain-Text Enlightened and Still Use Apple’s Reminders! PTPL 118 · My Simple, Sensible Plain Text to Proprietary App Workflow PTPL 117 · Oh, You Like Making Notes! Why Not Use… ? PTPL 116 · Plain Text Accounting Level 1, Complete! PTPL 115 · There’s Something New at the Top of My One Big Text File PTPL 114 · Obsidian, Silver Bullet, and Org-Mode—3 Different Approaches to Working With Notes PTPL 113 · Some Free Tools Cost Too Much PTPL 112 · Organise Your Stuff— Alternatives to Bartender and Hazel PTPL 111 · You Only Need 2 Calendar Categories For Effective Time Management PTPL 110 · How to Easily Type  macOS ⌘ Modifier Keys PTPL 109 · Households With Written SOPs Are More Resilient Than Those Without
... ... ... ...