New Forms: Be Motivated and Feel Accomplished
These forms are designed to work together to motivate you and help you feel accomplished. Through better visual organization and some video game theory, doing the things that need to get done is a little more fun.
Here are the two forms, which replace the Weekly Overview Form. When you close out a set of tasks (one full bar), you mark you accomplishment by shooting down an invader.
The Master List
I have been keeping a master list of my tasks in a 3-ring binder. While it was useful to have a centralized list, there were are few problems that are addressed by the new form:
- Search Time: When my list started getting long, it became increasingly difficult to scan the page and find what still needed to be done. To address this problem, I divided each column into four sub-sections, so I only had to scan through a sub-section, rather than the whole column. The colored bar also makes it much easier to spot when something still needs to get done.
- Motivation: A giant list was demotivating due to the thought of a big mess that I needed to deal with. Splitting the columns into sub-sections increases motivation because it allows me to gain closure in manageable chunks, rather than having an unending list.
You may notice that I put an “x” through some of the items, rather than completely filling in the bubble. These are items that I either didn’t have to do anymore, moved to my someday/maybe list, or just decided not to do. When you keep on staring at an item that you aren’t going to do anytime soon, you get demotivated. Just cross them out. It’s ok.
- Accomplishment: In the past, when I finished everything on the list, I would just throw away the list, along with any tangible evidence of accomplishment. Another option is to save the lists, but it adds to clutter. The solution was to use trophies in my next form.
The Trophy Room
When you close out a set of tasks, you get to shoot down an invader (by filling in the bubble and signing the date) and take it as your trophy. I thought of fighter pilots that put a stamp on the nose of their plane whenever they shot down an enemy. Trophies are physical markers that allow you to feel good about things you did in the past.
This trophy showcase is a visually easy way to be reminded of your accomplishments, without the clutter of keeping all your old lists. This form makes me want to close out a task set, so I can collect another invader. It makes me feel good and is a pleasant thing to view.
Download and Try It!
These forms are free for you to download and try out. They are in a 300ppi PNG format:
Download the Trophy Forms (PNG)
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WhiteHatBlackBox is about sharing my experiences on what works in improving life: getting things done, staying focused, increasing consciousness, and hacking behaviors. My passion is figuring things out and sharing how they can help us.
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Those trophy forms look like a lot of fun!
Haha, your forms are ingenious, or incredibly inspiring at very least. I’ll print these out when the color printer in our office is fixed.
I made my own mockup of your Daily Plan sheets and mady my own “Miscellaneous Tasks” where I can assign myself smaller tasks (or delegate them to someone else, I can record who I assigned the task to on this form as well); and I must say, I’ve probably increased my productivity tenfold.
I feel like I’m back in school, but I’m kicking ass and taking names!
Awesome. I’d be interested in seeing what you came up with. I feel like my daily plan sheets are still a little clunky, but I really like my master list and refocus forms.
Brilliant idea, and wonderfully executed! I love this. I think I will modify it to print the invaders on a set of stickers to stick up somewhere when I or a member of my team completes a task. Game rules combined with kindergarten motivation!
Note: You spelled “close” as “cloase” in shoot-em-down.png.
Dean
Thanks for the heads up. It’s fixed now. Hit me up with a link or some pictures when you’re done!
thanks for these
terrific idea and execution!
http://www.business-commando.com/process/
I do some process form
If you want to see
Love your ideas. I teach engineering design in high school your Daily Plan and Rewards sheets will be great tools. But I am having trouble getting them to print correctly on our HP Laserjet 3600n. When I try to print 4 – 3.5 x 5 the margins are off about .25 all sides on all 4 images, and the same is true for the 8.5 x 11 “Shoot-em-down” sheet. Can I simply resize the SED sheet in Adobe Fireworks? As far as the other, it prints with a fax wizard and gives me no opportunity to resize or change margins.
Thanks.
Mark
Sorry to hear that you’re having trouble printing. I’m pretty sure you can resize the images in Fireworks. If you have Photoshop, that would be better, because that’s what I used to design the form.
If you’re using the fax preview on Windows XP, there should be an option to scale to the size of the paper, which is good for the Shoot-Em-Down, but bad for the 3×5 forms. If you don’t have Photoshop, you could also try downloading GIMP, which is free and can get the job done. I hope this helps.
Hey, just wanted to say yr designs & website look good. I’m nowhere near being able to get anything organized though, I dont even know what the hell im doing here
Don’t worry about it too much. The reason I make and write about stuff here is that I very easily get disorganized too. I use these things to help me keep my life in order.
Hi,
I love the motivational concept, and I LOVE Space Invaders, so this is a great tool for me. I was able to successfully print the Master List page, but the Shoot-Em-Down file would not open. Microsoft Photo Editor said that the “Image is too large (too many bytes).” Unfortunately, right-clicking on the file does not give me the option to open the file with a different program….
Does anyone have any tips or workarounds?
Thanks,
Kate
I can send you a smaller resolution version if you want.