Inspired by the Printable CEO, Part deux
September 27th, 2006 | by GTD Wannabe |26 Jul 07 12:37 Update: You can get to the 2007 version of the forms here.
I recently posted about my version of David Seah’s Emergent Task Timer/Task Planner. I’ve had a request to post the pdf of my form, and Dave’s given his go-head. In fact, he’s linking to my “mod”:
I’ve been thinking of adding a timeblock line to the Emergent Task Time itself, but I like this solution better. Sweet!
With that kind of praise, how can I resist? So, here goes.
First, a nice image of what the blank form would look like:
I’ve got two pdf versions, one with the times filled in (0800 – 2100 hrs), and one with just blank times. Astute readers will notice that there’s actually two rows of dots before the 0800 start time – that’s because I like to give myself the possibility of starting work as early as 7:30, like that’s going to happen often ;)
GTD Wannabe’s Time Tracker
- 2006-09-27 #5 (with hours) (pdf)
- 2006-09-27 #5 (no hours) (pdf)
Enjoy :)
12 Responses to “Inspired by the Printable CEO, Part deux”
By on Sep 27, 2006 | Reply
Awesome. Just printed a batch for the next few weeks (sorry David, the last few of yours went in the circular file.) I need to keep track of distractions as well as plan my day, and this is just the ticket.
Keep us posted as you tweak!
By on Sep 27, 2006 | Reply
One minor suggestion…your form (lines and bubbles) prints out very faintly on a laser printer. I think David had a tweak for that. Otherwise, coolacious!
By on Sep 27, 2006 | Reply
Very Cool! I, too think David is Uber cool. ‘grin’ Perhaps it would be even better – taking a look at your sample – if you assigned 1, 2, 3 and A, B, C to the vertical rows of bubbles? Or perhaps I’m not getting it…I have been up for 22 hours (doh!) Great work – and I found another cool GTD blog to keep an eye on.
By on Sep 27, 2006 | Reply
@tumbleweed: Glad you like it! I’ll definitely post as I tweak.
As for the faded lines, hmmmm. Maybe I can get Dave to share his tweak – I don’t have a laser at home, so it’s hard for me to test :)
@cheryl: I see what you mean about numbering the columns; I did it for one of the earlier versions, but I found it too limiting actually. First, I would nead 9 columns for real work (only have 6 right now), plus keep a few separate columns for non-work stuff. But I really didn’t want too many columns. And, I don’t tend to do two things at once, so it works for me to have a few columns that I just use over and over again during the day. I just annotate the set of dots with a number/letter (see my original post with an example). Works for me :)
By on Sep 28, 2006 | Reply
Very nice. Between you and Dave I’ll have no excuse for neglecting any of my projects…
By on Sep 29, 2006 | Reply
I really like how this is progressing. Here is my feedback.
1) The sheet really prints too faintly. I tried on the black & white laser printer we have at work, and the bubbles are just barely visible. Everything is a little too faint. This has been mentioned by others, but I can confirm it is an issue.
2) After reading Cheryls comment, I was thinking, if the bubbles were made just a touch larger, instead of bubbling them in, you could write in the task letter in the bubbles where you work in the task. That would eliminate the need for column headers, and limit the need to draw little lines to label what you are working on at particular points.
That’s all I have for now. More as I use it. Thanks for making this available.
By on Sep 29, 2006 | Reply
The tweak for laserprinters is to make everything black, not grey, for critical lines! However, to keep things from turning into a big black mess, you need to vary the line thickness. Use hairlines for things that need to be more faint, and thicker lines for heavier outlines. I find that using dotted lines is also helpful.
Laserprinters don’t print grayscales very well, because they can only draw solid dots well, whereas inkjets do a better job of it with their multiple inks and optimization for photographic printing.
By on Sep 29, 2006 | Reply
Hello all. Thanks for the feedback, and for the hack for laser printers. I’m on my way out of town for a week, but I’ll see if I can play with it while I’m away. I will not be near any printers though, so I won’t be able to test anything.
I’ll try to get a new version out as soon as possible, at least with the laser hack, when I get back. So don’t fear, I’ll be back…
By on Oct 2, 2006 | Reply
Thanks, these look great. Can you possibly also post the Visio format of these documents?
By on Oct 4, 2006 | Reply
Hello all. I’m out of the country right now, and although I thought I would have sufficient down tim to play with the time tracker, I can’t seem to get around to it. So, no playing with the line colour to make it better for laser printers. But, I can post the visio, as requested. Here it is. Have fun, and if anyone makes any interesting changes (and/or if you get it to look pretty on a laser), please let us know :)
By on Aug 6, 2007 | Reply
Thank you! Putting the “Emergent Task Timer” into the “Emergent Task Planner” helps a lot. With your form only one sheet can be used to plan and track tasks.