For the last several months my productivity system (system is an ugly word right now but we all still need one) has revolved around two simple tools; a notepad and my weekly planner.

The latter has evolved and been simplified to the point where I feel it is ideal for my purposes. With this in mind I thought now would be a great opportunity to make it available to you all. You can download it as a PDF.

What do I put on my weekly planner? Next actions. It’s that simple. Remember, creating the system itself is the easy part because there are only two rules to follow (you have to make it nippy and keep it simple). What really matters is how you use it and that’s a big issue I will be writing more about in the near future. Gone are the days where I would try and track projects and goals, mission statements and performance scores. In practise it was all superfluous to the actual issue of getting (the right) things done. This weekly planner is an enabler. When I need it, it’s there to help me plan my days, my work and keep track of tasks.

You will notice that there are three sections to the planner. The most prominant part at the top is the hard landscape and covers day (and time) specific next actions. Nothing goes here unless it has to be done on that particular day (and at a particular time, where applicable). If the next action isn’t date specific, it can simply go in the basic next actions box. However, if you have a lot of tasks under a particular context (@phone) or role/responsibility (parent) you have the option of grouping them so it’s all more organizied.