Tip: Work Planning Template
Keep non-teaching tasks active through the magic of color-coded planning.
I have written before about time management, saying yes and no to different opportunities, avoiding multitasking for more effective focus, ways to reduce the amount of time we spend grading, and how we structure our teaching-related tasks.
For many, if not most, of us, teaching-related tasks are only part of the tangle. Our scholarly activities can be challenging to plan because they run on a different timeline than our semester-bound teaching, and all too often, research and writing are shifted to the back burner when teaching. To keep moving forward, we can’t let these activities spend too much time lying fallow.
For the past several months, I’ve been tinkering with ways to see both the very big-picture view of all the different non-teaching projects and to keep track of all the small deadlines within these projects. I experimented with different task tracking and project management software/apps, and none of them really were a good fit for what I wanted to do. So, I created a spreadsheet - color coded, because who doesn’t love a color-coded spreadsheet - that helps me see the big picture of all the projects I am working on at a given time.
Click here to make a copy of the spreadsheet for yourself.
Project Tab
To use the spreadsheet, start with the “projects” tab:
You can edit any of the cells on this tab, including the labels, but definitely give each project a name. This will carry over, with the magic of formulas, to the other tabs in the spreadsheet. I use this as the very big-picture overview of all the projects I am working on, so I include the link to the in-progress draft, a link to the CFP, etc. The “current status” column helps me track which projects are nearly complete and which are in the beginning stages.
Monthly Tasks Tab
The next view is of the monthly tasks. The project names (top row) carry over from the projects tab, so all you have to do is put the main goal for each month. As you fill it in, you’ll see that conditional formatting helpfully colors the cells based on certain keywords: draft = green, coding or data analysis = yellow, revise = aqua, etc. I love this view because I can see at once if I have a month full of writing (green cells) or data analysis (yellow).
Once the monthly view is populated, turn to the weekly tasks.
Weekly Tasks Tab
For each month, there is an overview cell, which is whatever you entered into the monthly tasks tab. Then there are spaces each week to fill in your weekly tasks. Only enter data into the white cells, and leave the shaded cells alone.
For me, this is the level of planning I need for most projects. I do include a final tab, a daily tasks checklist, that can be helpful for weeks when you do have multiple tasks in one project to keep track of. I use this only sporadically, but you might find it more helpful.
How do you manage your scholarly work and your teaching?
Happy planning!
