Unmissable

Several outlines on my timeline live on the weekend – the very next weekend up. These are outlines that I like to revisit at intervals. Every Saturday I get the chance to open up one or more of these outlines and reflect. Even if I decide not to look inside any of them, I still have to drag and drop them, either to the next day, or to the next weekend – so there's no way I'm going to miss them. Whether or not I open them, I have to actively move them to a future date on my timeline. And so I get reminded of these outlines once a week. There's nothing I need to urgently see – they are there mostly to rest my mind on, if I so choose.

We looked at the concept of a "forward log" in the last chapter ».

In the above image, you'll also see three book-summary outlines under the "chapters" category. I talk about these in the next chapter. These are outlines I keep close, because the principles in those books were impactful – and there are still several things in there that I'd like to implement.

From dreams to timeline events and activities

I make reference to this chapter in a later chapter on "iterative scheduling" ». This is because reflection is often an essential part of planning the bigger picture of our lives. It helps us to make the changes necessary, and it is a catalyst for making decisions, both big and small. When we spend any amount of time reflecting on dreams, goals, values, etc., these have the ability to shape the decisions we make. When we allow the important, higher-level thoughts to guide our decision making, it changes the shape of our days and weeks. It determines what we do and don't schedule into our weeks.

And so the abstract becomes practical. Reflecting on ideals, hopes and dreams, filters through to the very practical activities, projects and tasks we engage in. Dreams don't remain dreams when we act upon them – when we start to work them into the dough of our lives by giving them a place on our calendar and in our daily-planner time blocks.

Reflecting and remembering

I have a "reflect" outline that I like to open up and look at occasionally. I'm not going to go into detail, except to say that I have a wealth of things I like to review and remember in this general outline. So many motivating and thought-provoking things on the inside, which are very particular to my life. All of us have thoughts and recollections that we could categorize and bundle into similar-such outlines, and keep them close, so that we can reflect on them at any interval we choose. The timeline is a good place. Push these items to a time and a place where you'd next like to see them.

100 dreams

I gave a bit of a show and tell of my "100 dreams" outline in a WorkFlowy webinar on the book "168 hours", by Laura Vanderkam ». That's where I got the idea for this list from. It basically consists of a handful of things that I wanted to work into my life – some of those, things I had always enjoyed doing, but had somehow let fall by the wayside… as well as activities that I'd like to do more of. Notably, I wanted to find a way to do most of these activities with my loved ones, whether it be my two daughters (individually or together), my wife, or others.

I created several categories of items, differing in length of time, resources required, etc.

The above list is a place for me to think through those things that deserve to make it into my timeline and find a place in my days, weeks and months. You'll see I have the "WEEKLY" outline expanded. Within the space of a few weeks, and with a little creative thinking, I was able to tweak, rearrange and adjust my weekly schedule to consistently include several activities which can now repeat for as long as I'd like them to.

Everything you see there is baked into my weekly schedule, except dance class with my wife. That needs more research and planning… and it also requires that my wife's schedule open up a tad bit. Her schedule is not as flexible as mine.

The above outline is something I like to pay a quick visit to weekly. I might add an extra item or two… or I might reflect on the progress I've already made with scheduling these items into my timeline. I might be reminded of adventures yet to be had – which will require some planning and persistence to make happen.

Not too far back, none of the above items had a fixed time and space weekly in my schedule… but now, every week I have an opportunity to do such things as:

1. Go on a date night with my wife every Thursday evening…

2. Every Tuesday I have the opportunity to visit a world-class water park with my two girls for a couple of hours…

3. Every Monday, I get some one-on-one time with my elder daughter, Emma. We visit an urban forest in our city where we can walk some trails and do some birdwatching.

Had I not created a space to think through some possibilities, and be reminded of those possibilities weekly, my week would not have the shape that it does now.

When you build into your week the things that deserve to be there, it upgrades your week. It's a week where more than the regular, routine things happen… a week where you get to create memories. If you build into your week things you can look forward to, it energizes you… and all the productivity stuff seems to flow effortlessly from that energy.

Keeping things on your timeline that will remind you of what is important – what you dream of, what makes you feel alive… will get under your skin until you act upon them… until you schedule them.

Areas of responsibility

The examples above, in an alternate reality, might be stuck in an "areas of responsibility" outline somewhere. They would be nothing more than nice, quaint ideas of how I would like my life to be… of how I would like to spend the quality time with my loved ones that I know is possible… of the husband and the father that I know I can be. And that's as far as it would go. Unscheduled, unrealized items that I might get around to someday… if I could somehow find a way to remember to visit that outline.

I've coached so many people who have beautifully categorized areas of responsibility, nested according to logical hierarchies… but they haven't yet figured out how to make those areas a consistent part of their workflows – and the items therein a part of their lives. Life is bombarding them with so much, that they can barely remember they created these areas of responsibility… and so in the end, their health suffers, quality time with loved ones suffers, and many of life's opportunities pass them by.

Remember: it's more difficult to squeeze a sense of time out of categories than it is to squeeze categories into time. Put your categories on the timeline—at the next logical, reasonable or opportune time—and watch how the timeline helps you parse it out… and actually motivate and mobilize yourself do those things.

Reinforce, Reflect, Remember, Repeat →