Vision of the Future: Reflective Journal Entry #1
Feeling overwhelmed by your Vision of the Future project? I've got a secret to share with you: I'm a bit of a train wreck in the organization department. Check out my bookshelves and internet search history and you'll find works by the gamut of motivation, time management and organization gurus. One of my absolute favourites is Sarah Ward. I love her executive functioning workshops for students in that "smart but scattered" category (and secretly use the strategies to organize myself).
Here's one of her famous planners: the Get Ready, Do, Done template. I always start with "What does Done look like?" Then I think about the components that I'll need (Get Ready) and the work I'll have to do (Do). Suddenly, a project that seemed like a mountain to climb has an eminently do-able look about it! Here's my Get Ready-Do-Done for the Vision of the Future project:
Another Sarah Ward favourite is the task calendar with visuals. Ward suggests students draw a picture of their completed project, cut the pieces apart and stick each piece on the calendar date when it should be completed. She uses re-stickable glue so that pieces can be moved if deadlines have to be adjusted. (Sounds good in theory, but in reality re-stickable glue becomes permanent after a while, so stick with sticky notes if you think you're going to have to adjust your deadlines.)
Here's my Vision of the Future Assignment sketch:
And here are the pieces on my calendar:
If you're having trouble estimating deadlines for each chunk, Ward has a solution for that, too. She calls it calculating a window of time. To complete my calculations, I referred to our assignment criteria, which you can unearth here. I could see 5 distinct criteria for a total of 1000 words, so I estimated each part at 200 words. Here's a sample calculation for the first two parts:
For 200 words per part at a difficulty rating of 2 (1 is easiest, 3 is hardest) I estimate that each section will require 3 hours, 40 minutes to complete. That's not counting formatting my Visme presentation or writing my blogs. There, now I can plug each of the 5 parts into an evening along with the other elements of my project as listed under Done.
There are so many other great Sarah Ward strategies, like using a Working Clock and combatting Time Robbers. Check out one of her workshops if you get the chance and, in the meantime, happy planning!
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