Effexis & Goals To Action Blog

Achieve Planner supports several ways to create project blocks in your weekly schedule, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Weekly Planning Wizard

The method I use most frequently is the Weekly Planning Wizard, which helps you allocate time to different projects and then select the times when you are going to work on each of those projects during the week using project blocks.

I typically use the wizard as part of my weekly planning routine that I do Monday mornings just after doing a quick scan on my email to identify anything important that may affect how I plan the week.

For now, I’m going to focus on just the weekly planning wizard as a tool you can use to drop project blocks in your schedule.

The Wizard consists of five steps. Steps 1 and 2 deal with reviewing your result areas, goals and dreams, which is something that I typically do separately on Sunday nights.

I’m going to skip these steps for now.

For this tutorial, you’ll want to focus on steps 3, 4 and 5 of the wizard.

Step 3

In this step, you can select your time chart for the week, which will guide you later as you drop project blocks into your schedule.

Step 4

This step is where you decide the amount of time that you want to commit to your various projects this week.

The time commitments you make in this step are used in the next step to determine how many project blocks to create for each project.

Step 5

In the final step, you use drag and drop to create project blocks for each of your big rock projects identified in step 4.

This step helps you put your big rock projects into your schedule first, and allows you to make time for important long-term projects that may not yet be urgent.

This video shows you how to use the Weekly Planning Wizard.

Click Here to View the Tutorial

Other Ways of Creating Project Blocks

While the weekly planning wizard is the best way to create project blocks, it only works at the start of the week.

When things change in the middle of the week, you need to do something else to adjust your schedule.

Some additional ways to create project blocks are:

• Copying existing project blocks
• Setting the project for new appointments
• Scheduling project blocks from the Projects tab or Outline
• Dragging projects from the project’s panel

Working with Project Blocks

This video shows you some other ways to create project blocks in your weekly schedule.

Click Here to View the Tutorial

Moving or Copying Project Blocks

As your schedule changes, you’ll often find it useful to rearrange your project blocks by moving or copying them.

To move project blocks, you can use standard drag & drop:

1. Click on the project block you want to move and, while holding down the left mouse button, move the block to its new location.
2. You should see a floating image of the block as you drag it.
3. Once you’ve moved the block to the place you want, release the left mouse button to complete the drop.

You can also select the project block, use the Edit->Cut menu command, move the selection to the new time for the block, and select the Edit -> Paste command.

To copy project blocks, you can use standard drag & copy drop:

1. Click on the project block you want to copy and, while holding down the left mouse button, move the block to its new location.
2. Press and hold down the CTRL key as you drag the block. You’ll notice that the cursor changes to include a (+) sign indicating a copy of the block will be made, and the original project block is now in its previous location.
3. Move the copy to the date/time you want and release the left mouse button (while still holding down the CTRL key) to complete the copy drop.

Turning Appointments into Project Blocks

You can set or change the project associated with an appointment or project block:

1. Right-click on an appointment or project block in the Weekly Schedule
2. Select Set Project from the context menu.
3. Chose the project from the tree
4. Press ENTER key or press OK button

The appointment is now associated with the project that you selected.

Using the Projects Panel in the Weekly Schedule

You can create project blocks using the Project’s panel in the weekly schedule.

1. You should see the Project’s pane hidden at the right edge of the screen. Hovering the mouse over the pane should display it.

<-  expands to  ->  




Note: If you don’t see the Projects pane, you can display it using the View­->Project Explorer command.

2. Click on one of the Projects in the tree and, while holding down the left mouse button, drag it into the weekly schedule area.
3. As you drag the mouse over the weekly schedule area, you should see a “Project Block” for the project. Drag this block to the desired location on the weekly schedule and release the left mouse button to drop it.

You should now have a project block for the project in the weekly schedule.

Using the Master Outline or Projects Tab

To create one or more project blocks from the Projects tab:

1. Navigate to the Projects tab, or use the Go->Projects command.
2. Select a Project for which you want to create a project block using the row header.
3. Select the Actions->Schedule Block command (or right-click on the project row and select Schedule Block from the context menu.)
4. The Weekly Schedule tab should become active and enter into drop mode. As you move the mouse around the screen, there should be a “project block” attached to your cursor.
5. When you are ready to drop a project block, just click and release the left mouse button. This will drop a block at the current location.
6. The weekly schedule will remain in “drop mode” allowing you to continue dropping more blocks on the weekly schedule.
7. When you are finished dropping blocks, press the ESC key to get out of “drop mode.”

Project blocks work just like appointments, so you can move them, edit them, and copy them just like other appointments.

This video shows you how to use time charts in Achieve Planner.

Click Here to View the Tutorial

Showing a Time Chart in the background, behind active appointments in the Weekly Schedule, can help remind you that you intended to pursue a particular activity at a specific time. If you prefer, you can also display the weekly schedule without a Time Chart.

To create a time chart called Ideal Week follow these steps:

1. Select the Go->Weekly Schedule command (or click the Weekly Schedule tab).
2. Click the New Time Chart button on the time chart bar.



3. In the General tab of the Time Chart Information form, enter the name Ideal Week.



4. Click the Time Charts Areas tab, and select the Work result area from the result area dropdown in the gray bar.



5. Select the time from 7:30 AM – 9:30 AM on Monday on the calendar (using the mouse or keyboard).
6. Select the Actions->New Time Chart Area command to add that time slot (Ctrl+N.) This will create a new time chart area associated with the Work result area.
7. Click on the time chart area with the left mouse button to put it in edit mode, and enter H as the name to represent a 2-hour “High Energy” work area.



You’ll often want to create repeated instances of the same time chart area in your time chart. You can do this using a drag copy operation:

8. Hold down the Ctrl key and drag & drop the time area to Tuesday at 7:30 AM. This will create a copy of the time chart area at the drop location (keep the Ctrl key pressed as you drop the area).
9. Repeat the process to create another copy of this time chart area every day at 7:30 AM.

Keep adding time chart areas as needed until you complete your time chart. You don’t have to associate a Time Chart Area with a Result Area, you can select None from the dropdown and double click the time chart area to edit the label (color) and name of the area.

Click the Save and Close button when you are done.

Note:  To show this time chart in the background of your Weekly Schedule, select the Ideal Week time chart from the Time Chart dropdown on the bar.

This video shows you how to prioritize your tasks using Achieve Planner.

Click Here to View the Tutorial

Priority Colors

Achieve Planner color-codes rows based on the priority value of the row. For example, the default color for A’s is Navy. You can change the colors associated with each priority range using the Tools->Options command (Display tab.)

Prioritization Tools

Achieve Planner provides several tools to help you work with priorities and prioritized lists. The Insert Before/Insert After commands automatically shift priorities of existing records to make room for the new items.

You can reprioritize existing records using Drag & Drop. Simply drag the row from the row selector (small rectangle at the start of the row) and drop it before or after the row you want.

Row Header ->

As you drag the rows up or down, a drop target indicator will show you the target row and position using red arrows.

Depending on the position of the mouse relative to the target row, the drop target indicator is above (drop before), center and slightly to the right (drop as child), or below the target row (drop after.)

Drop Before ->  Drop as Child ->

Drop After ->

The dropped row will assume the appropriate priority based on the target row. AP automatically shifts the priority of all other sibling rows accordingly.

You can also use the Edit->Pickup rows(s) and Edit->Drop at Same Level commands to perform the drop operation using the keyboard. In this case, the drop is always considered to be a drop before the target row.

The Outline->Move Up and Outline->Move Down commands also reprioritize rows when used in a prioritized list.

The Outline->Reprioritize Unique command shifts priority values so that the current row has a unique priority value (only for ranked priorities.) For example, this is a “before and after” shot of the reprioritize unique applied to the first row:

<– becomes –>  

Notice that the priority of the second row (A1) becomes A2, leaving the first row with a unique priority value (A1.) Also, the third row is shifted down so that its priority becomes A3.

The Outline->Remove Priority Gaps command shifts priority values to remove any “gaps” between the ranked values.

Here is a “before and after” shot of the remove priority gaps command applied to a short priority list.

<– becomes –>  

Note that this command applies to ranked items in the current view, including items that are filtered using the column filters or collapsed. Items that are not part of the current view are not processed.

Automatically Remove Priority Gaps when Completing a Project or Task

Achieve Planner supports automatically removing priority gaps when completing a project or task. You can disable this behavior (on by default) from the Tools->Options->General Tab using the “Auto-remove priority gaps on project/task complete” checkbox.

When enabled, Achieve Planner will remove priority gaps of the siblings of a project/task when it is completed via the grid.

About Effort and Effort Left

You may have noticed that Achieve Planner has Effort and Effort Left fields, which help you estimate how much time your different tasks will take.

While you don’t have to use these fields if you don’t want to, it’s usually a good idea to at least think about how much time your different tasks will take.

The difference between the two is that ‘Effort’ represents your initial estimate of how long a task will take to complete from start to finish, while ‘Effort Left’ is your current estimate of how much effort is left for the task right now.

At the start, the two will be the same, but as you work and make progress on the task the effort left will start to go down.

The effort left is not computed automatically because your initial estimate will almost never be 100% accurate, so your effort left will change as you work on the task and figure out how much work you really have left to do.

A benefit of using the effort and effort left fields is that you’ll then be able to take advantage of the advanced automated scheduling functionality included in Achieve Planner later on.

Like I said, you don’t need to use these fields if you don’t find it helpful. They are just there in case you need them.

This video shows you how to prioritize your projects using the Projects tab.

Click Here to View the Tutorial

1. Go to the Projects tab
2. You want to make sure that your projects are ranked correctly. If they are not, you can change the priority using the priority cell of each project.
3. Select the project row by clicking on the row header, move to the priority cell using the right arrow key until it’s highlighted
4. Type a new priority value (like ‘A1’) and press Enter – When you move to a different row, the new priority is committed and the project view should sort so that the highest priority items are at the top.

You can enter priority values directly into the grid (in the Priority column) in text format. Achieve Planner supports both uppercase and lowercase formats and automatically adjusts them to uppercase for display.

As a special shortcut, you can use the value ‘aa’ (without the quotes) to represent A1.

This video shows you how to add tasks to your projects.

Click Here to View the Tutorial

With the projects listed, it is time to add some tasks. There are several ways you can add Tasks to Projects.

First, we’ll use the Outline to add tasks to our first focus project.

1. Go to the Outline tab (click on tab or use Go -> Outline menu item)
2. Select the project where you want to add the tasks by clicking on the row header (Write cat herding ebook)
3. Use the Insert -> Insert as Child menu command and select Task as the child type – You are using Insert as Child because you want the task row to be contained by the Project
4. This will create a new blank Task row under the project, then just type the name of the task (Write summary for ebook)
5. Press the ENTER key to add a new blank row after the current task
6. Type the 2nd task and continue doing this until you’ve entered all the tasks

Adding Tasks Using the Tasks Tab

Let’s add the rest of the tasks using the tasks tab so you can see how that works.

1. Go to the Tasks tab (click on tab or use Go -> Tasks menu)


Note: The Tasks tab only displays tasks and sub-tasks. While projects can be displayed as groups in the Projects filter, if you want to see the entire project/task hierarchy, you should use the Outline tab

To add tasks follow these steps:

2. Select the ‘Develop PPC Campaign’ project by clicking on the Project dropdown in the Tasks tab view bar (which might say “All Projects.”) This will filter the task list to only show Tasks associated with the selected project.



becomes



3. Use Insert -> Insert After menu (or press INSERT key) to add a row for the first task, and enter the name (Research keywords).
4. Press ENTER key for a new row at the same level, and enter the next task (Build first campaign).
5. Continue adding tasks as needed, pressing the ENTER or INSERT key to add a new row after the current one.

Adding Tasks to the Next Project

Now let’s add some tasks to your third focus project.

1. Use the Actions->Switch Project menu item (Ctrl+H). This will bring up the “Select Project” dialog. Select your third project from the list and press ENTER.



While using this dialog, you can just start typing the name of the project (or part of the name) to filter the list and only show matching projects. For example, if you type ‘web’ it will only show projects that contain the phrase ‘web’ in their name. Press OK or ENTER once you’ve selected the project.



NOTE: Using Actions -> Switch Project is equivalent to selecting the project from the Project dropdown tree in the view bar.

2. The Task list should now be filtered to show the selected project’s tasks. Since it doesn’t have any, the list will be empty. Press INSERT to add a new top-level task for this project, and enter the name.

Press ENTER or INSERT key for another row and continue adding tasks until you are done.

This video shows you how to define your three focus projects using Achieve Planner.

Click Here to View Tutorial

We’ll add the first two using the Outline tab and we’ll add the last one using the Projects tab so you can see how that works.

The master outline provides an overview of all result areas, projects, and tasks.

This is what the grid of the master outline looks like when you first create a new data file.

Now let’s add the first two projects using the Outline.

1. Click the Outline tab in the main window. (You can also select the Go -> Outline command in the Go menu)
2. Select the Work result area by clicking on the row header (gray square) at the start of the row.
3. Select Insert->Insert as Child command (or press Ctrl+INSERT keys).
4. Select Project from the “Select Child Type” dialog to indicate that you want to add a child project to the Work result area.



5. This will create a new Project row under the Work result area. We used Insert as Child because we want the new project to be under or contained by the Work result area. Enter the name of the first project (Write cat herding ebook in this example) and press ENTER key to add a new row at the same hierarchical level.

Note:     Pressing ENTER after adding a row creates a new blank row at the same level immediately below it.

6. Enter the next project (Develop PPC campaign) and press ENTER.

Note:     If you pressed ENTER again after the last project, you will have a blank row. You can remove the extra blank row by pressing the ESC key now, which will cancel the insert of the new row.

Adding the Last Project Using the Project Tab

We’ll add the last project using the Projects tab so you can see how that works.

1. Click on the Projects tab in the main window (or use the Go -> Projects menu command)
2. Use the Result Area dropdown to filter the Projects tab to only show projects contained by the Work result area. Click on the ‘All Result Areas’ button and select Work from the tree.



3. Select the 2nd project (Develop PPC Campaign) by clicking on its row header
4. Use Insert -> Insert After menu item (or press Insert key) to add a new blank row after the currently selected one
5. Type the name of the project (e.g., Build cat herding website)

You’ve now defined your 3 focus projects.