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The Printable CEO™ Series

FILED UNDER Productivity • Tools

The Printable CEO™ (PCEO) was born from a desire to focus my time more productively. For me, that means things that make my freelance practice sustainable and fun. The Printable CEO name comes from the idea that a good CEO should focus primarily on those things that move the company forward; since I can't afford to hire my own CEO, being able to print one out seemed like the next best thing! :-)

Here you'll find a series of printable forms that help manage the day-to-day chore of achieving your goals. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Here's some quick links to the 2008 Updates; read further down this page for more variations and background information.

The following will be updated soon:

Additionally, there's a new wiki for posting feedback and variations of your own forms.


The Concrete Goals Tracker (PCEO Part I)

Handy Dandy Form First released on September 23, 2005.

Part I is about identifying what tangible things you can do that move you toward your goals. It's not enough to just "be busy"; you have to be creating tangible assets and lasting impressions on people to make headway. The Concrete Goals Tracker is a form that, in the context of freelancing, helps you focus and track your progress on a week-by-week basis. Many have adapted the form to their own goals; there are editable versions available for your customization.


The Task Progress Tracker (PCEO Part II)

Ta-da! First released on November 11, 2005.

Part I: Concrete Goals Tracking helps identify what is worth working on. But what about when you just need to put your nose to the grindstone and keep focused on getting longer projects done? Well, you don't need your CEO yelling at you; you need a project manager. That's sort of what the Task Progress Tracker does: task tracking.


The Emergent Task Timer (PCEO Part III)

Task Timer First released on April 18, 2006.

The Task Progress Tracker (Part II) is great when you're measuring progress on specific projects. But what about when you don't have something specific to work on? Where does all the time go? The Emergent Task Timer is task tracking flipped around; use the form to find out what you're doing, and take corrective action. If you need a little extra push to get working on the things you should be doing, try this form with an egg timer to set the pace. Grad students: this one is for you :-)


The Task Order Up! (PCEO Part IV)

Task Order Up! First released on May 4, 2006.

So now you've figured out what you need to do and why it's important. You've got all your projects lined up and sorted, and you're ready to rock! The problem is that you're juggling multiple projects simultaneously. How do you maintain a clear picture of what's on deck and what need to be done? Borrowing from the restaurant industry, the Task Order Up is a task ticket that puts all the information you need on one slip of paper. Manage multiple tasks with multiple tickets like a short-order cook.


The Network Catch-o-Matic (PCEO Part V)

Network Catch-o-Matic

All the PCEO tools so far have been about tracking those tasks that are important to you. However, tasks and time are only one aspect of a productivity system. You need people to affirm your actions in most cases; doing a great job is that much sweeter when other people are there to slap you on the back and help you celebrate.

I'm not particularly good at going out and meeting people, so I created the Network Catch-o-Matic to help train the habit. It's a simple counting form that lists a number of steps you need to do to actually get to know someone. Some of you already know how to do this; this form is not for you. But if you're shy like me, this form might help provide a game-like structure within which we can hone our people-meeting skills.


The Menu of the Day (PCEO Part VI)

Menu of the Day

Just in time for the 1-year anniversary of the first Printable CEO™ form, the new Menu of the Day form expands on the original point list to include process. Menu of the Day could probably be described as a CGT with the additional dimension of "operations".

  • The Menu of the Day daily worksheet pulls schedule grids together with tasks.


The Emergent Task Planner (PCEO Part VI.1)

The Emergent Task Planner

The Menu of the Day was too complicated, so the Emergent Task Planner rose from its ashes!


The Resource Task Quantizer and Resource Scheduler (PCEO Part VII)

Resource Task Quantizer and Resource Scheduler

Allocating time for projects in the future, especially when you're juggling several deadlines at once, is a pain in the butt because it's difficult to visualize what time you have available and what will fit. The RTQ and RSS are forms to manage the tasks in a project and allocate time to them on a week-by-week basis.


PCEO Inspired: Blue Flavor's Awesome Time sheets

  • These paper timesheets from Blue Flavor incorporate a PCEO-style Action Item list into a really clever time-tracking worksheet. It's a really well-designed time tracking worksheet that is actually useful for day-to-day hour or task tracking in the studio environment. Very cool!


PCEO Hack: The Printable CEO Integration with 37Signals' Backpack

I have not tried these myself, but they look cool!


Time Tracking with Excel

Not part of the PCEO series, but of possible interest to Excel mavericks who haven't switched to QuickBooks.

  • Doing Time in Excel describes the Excel worksheet system I use for tracking billable time and maintaining project focus. It also has a bit of To Do List methodology built-in. You can download a sample worksheet and customize it; my favorite part is the formula that calculates time in 0.25 hour increments from a single line entry.

  • My Compact Calendar is a printable calendar I use for estimating realistic schedules. It presents calendar time as one continuous block, more compactly than a Gantt chart. It's also an Excel spreadsheet, but mostly it's in this format because I can automatically calculate the dates for a given year by changing just one number.


The Pickle Jar

Not part of the PCEO series, but useful for people with too many cool projects that clamor for attention, when you should be working on something else. I came up with this when I was writing my thesis and not very excited about it.

  • Hold that Thought! --- a description of the Pickle Jar: an actual jar with ideas stored in it. It makes me laugh every time I look at it.


Articles on Productivity and Procrastination

I occassionally write about what I think is behind my motivation to do things. You can find these posts generally in the introspection or productivity categories; here's some posts that you might find interesting:

  • Taking a Look at GTD --- I finally read Getting Things Done, and my general observations.
  • Clarifying the Meaning of Productivity --- In the context of business, we're trained to think of metrics like how many per hour. But when it comes to your personal productivity, it's more about how you feel. It's quantatative versus qualitative thinking again.
  • Optimizing and Procrastination --- How the desire to optimize kills the impulse to act.
  • Building a Niche of One --- Really, your competitive advantage should be you, and it's not as hard to start building yourself up.
  • Separating Work from Passion --- The difference between just "liking something" and "living for it" is action. Are you sure that your "passion" really is one, if you've been putting it off all the time?
  • Menu of the Day --- When the To Do list items become too plentiful, it's time to think in terms of dishes. This is the original MotD article that eventually led to the full form.
  • The productivity category will fish up more blog posts that have not yet been moved to this list.
  • Or subscribe to my Productivity RSS feed.

Why the Trademark (™) symbol?

  • I want to make sure that the DIYers out there can make use of the forms and ideas here, without giving up commercialization rights. The Printable CEO™ is also copyrighted; I want to protect what I'm doing from being ripped-off and commercialized by some third party. Public use of the ™ symbol is the first step to establish protectable commercial use---at least I think it is...IANAL.

    I'm considering Open Source-style licensing, or maybe Creative Commons, but I haven't yet looked into the ramifications of either system. Like which one is more applicable, if at all?

  • It's my goal to create a DIY-friendly system that is accessible to anyone with a printer. I chose the name "Printable CEO" because it sounds accessible; there's nothing stopping anyone from tapping into the ideas behind effective execution. Right now, I'd say it's a combination of insight, inside-information, and the ability to invent ways of measuring progress. This is the basic premise behind countless self-help and business books on the market. Creating a universal toolkit to help the process along would be super cool.

CONTINUE READING ...

:: posted on Saturday, November 12, 2005
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