I found that diyplanner.com went a different direction and all of the old content was removed, so I’m salvaging these posts here to show the growth of the Middle-Way Method. Spanning 2006 to 2008, they capture my early experiments with planning systems, feedback from others, and my exploration of Franklin Covey, Getting Things Done (GTD), and the integration of top-down and bottom-up approaches—long before the Middle-Way Method fully formed.

Early 2006: Searching for a Better Planner

Submitted by jordanjm on Wed, 2006-02-01 02:36
Hello, I started out with a Franklin Covey planning system, and while I liked it I migrated to PDA, and computer planning. I then realized that planning was more about playing with the PDA/Computer, so I went looking for a GOOD cheap planner, that was highly customizable. I have almost finished putting together my new DIY planner!!!!

Spring 2006: Exploring GTD and Covey

Submitted by jordanjm on Thu, 2006-04-13 04:08
I have been reading Getting Things Done and The 7 Habits lately, and I was wondering if anyone has found a way to do both forms of planning at once? I have in mind the personal exploration of the Top Down Approach to start, followed by just listing out everything I need to do, and then using each month, week, day, doing an overview of them.

Submitted by shris on Sun, 2006-10-15 01:10
Hi.

It seems to me that the two different planning systems represent different approaches. I am a user of MS Project, which uses the concepts of scheduling based on your start date, or scheduling based on your finish date. It seems to me that GTD is more “Schedule from the start date” and Covey is more “Schedule from the finish date”.

That is to say, GTD is ‘start with now and everything you have to do now’ and Covey is ‘start with where you want to go and when you want to get there’.

I like both approaches for different things. When someone else is directing my work (such as my boss), I like the GTD approach. You take all the stuff he’s given you to do, and you list it all out and go through them one by one. When I direct my own work (such as at home with the housework), I like the Covey approach. I list out all the elements of my plan and decide when they will be done and schedule them appropriately.

The common element would be ‘listing it all out’. :)

I would say that when you have the time to do top-down, you should try it. And when you just get a barrage of stuff to do from someone else (honey-dos, boss-dos, etc.) then you have to have a way to handle the barrage sanely. GTD offers a good standard approach for that.

The part I always find tricky with a paper-based system is the recurring tasks. I hate rewriting the same stuff over and over, so I have to find a way to include rescheduling and recurring without rewriting.

Kristina


Submitted by LindaJeanne on Mon, 2006-10-16 13:17
I’ve found that they work best used together.

When I do my GTD “weekly review,” I also do a Covey-esque plan of my coming week. But of course, my week never works out that way, so I use the GTD system to improvise—I have the plan, but I also look at my context lists and decide whether the plan is still the best path to follow.

Same on a daily basis: at the beginning of the day, I plan out prioritized tasks in a Covey-esque fashion to use as a baseline, but then spend the rest of the day improvising GTD style.

I think that both the “top down” and the “bottom up” are unrealistic on their own. It’s unrealistic for most of us to be able to plan the week (or even the day) out in advance and stick to it, but it’s also unrealistic to assume that a total bottom-up approach will always get the most important things done when they need to.

2008: First Version of Weekly Review

Submitted by jordanjm on Thu, 2008-08-14 19:52

Below is how I am now doing my planning.

Weekly:

  1. Review Mission & Vision Statement
  2. Review Last Week
    • What goals were achieved
    • What were the challenges
  3. Decide Roles to act on for the week
  4. Identify Physical, Mental, Spiritual, & Social areas to improve
  5. Process Inbox
    • Loose papers
    • Notes
    • Head
    • Lists
    • Calendars
    • Next Actions

Daily:

  1. Preview Hardscape
  2. Prioritize Next Actions in each context

Note: Make sure that you include in your “mundane” projects a few related to your Goals, Mission, and Vision.