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The PCEO is a collection of 5 printable worksheets for goal tracking, task tracking, daily planning, planned versus unplanned tracking, and individual task tracking. (More about each after the jump.)

Shea came up with this amazing set of working because he didn’t have the ability to focus on moving his company forward:

[It] 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! :-)

It’s about that simple to use PCEO: print, fill out, conquer.

Concrete Goals Tracker

The Concrete Goals Tracker worksheet is about “identifying what tangible things you can do that move you toward your goals.”

It was created for freelancers (Seah is a freelancer) to help track progress of goals on a week-by-week basis and ingrain a goal oriented mindset. Many people have adapted the worksheet to work with their specific goals.

On the worksheet’s post on Seah’s website, he lists several variations including a web-based task tracker based on the PCEO system.

Task Progress Tracker

The Task Progress Tracker worksheet is glorified to-do list that helps to motivate you to work on specific projects in an unstructured way.

It tracks tasks in fifteen minute intervals (with a grand total of four hours per task). It gives you a way to see exactly what work you’ve done on a task. It’s pretty glorifying that way.

Personally, I use the Task Progress Tracker for my daily to-do list in addition to my projects. At the end of the day, it feels really good looking at the form and seeing all the check marks and bubbles. My challenge—Shea’s as well—is getting that first bubble marked. After that, it’s a breeze.

Emergent Task Timing

The Emergent Task Timer worksheet is diagnostic timesheet that you write down what you do and track the amount of time you spent on it. In contrast to the Task Progress Tracker, you don’t have to plan out your tasks before you get to work… You just get to work.

Set a timer for 15 minutes and then get to work. Once the timer goes off, write down what you were doing and fill in the appropriate time bubble. Do that every fifteen minutes. Once you change tasks (or begin a significant subtask), write it down.

The worksheet goes on for 8 hours (there’s a 12 hour one for all you workaholics out there) in 15 minute intervals. At the end of the work day, you know exactly where your time has gone.

Shea did an excellent job at explaining how to analyze your Emergent Task Timer worksheet on the original blog post.

Task Order Up!

The Task Order Up worksheet focuses on individual tasks by “maintaining context and continuity.”

In the business world, these can be an invaluable tool for both the employee and the manager. The employee knows exactly when a task is due (and, at a glance, see all due dates) and what the manager expects out of the employee. The manager knows exactly what an employee has done, how long it took to work on it, and if the employee is being over or under worked.

Shea uses an Ex-cell Noteminder Check Rail to hold his Task Order Up worksheets. It’s a really ingenious way of holding these and helps you to get an idea of your (or your employee’s) workload.

Other PCEO Worksheets

This concludes what I refer to when I speak of the Printable CEO. However, there are four other worksheets in the series.

• Network Catch-O-Matic: This worksheet lists the steps to get to know someone. The six stages: being seen, talked with, exchanged information, planned to talk to again, followed up with, and currently collaborating.
• Emergent Task Planner: This worksheet helps you to somewhat structure your day and allocate time for tasks and other nuances (such a the plumber).
• Resource Task Quantizer and Resource Scheduler: This worksheet is somewhat like the Emergent Task Planner in that it allows you to structure your time and allocate time for your task, except this works on a week-by-week basis.
• Day Grid Balancer: This worksheet: This worksheet helps to balance your work week. “It’s really just a glorified to-do list, designed around the idea of noting when you’re doing the kind of things that you’d like to be doing every day.”

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Writing goals

Writing a to-do list is a simple task, and yet complicated. It begins with a goal. It doesn’t even have to be a SMART goal; just a goal. For example, have clean clothes by the end of tomorrow. Write a list of tomorrow’s goals, or future goals which you can and would like to begin working on tomorrow.

Snow flaking

From here, we snow flake the goals into a to-do list.

Goal: Have clean clothes.

First flake: Do laundry

Second flake:

• Organize whites and colors
• Carry laundry to machine
• Start washer
• Empty washer; start dryer; re-fill washer
• Rinse; repeat
• Fold clothes

And done. This sort of to-do list is simple to use, easy to read, and pleasurable to organize. Perfect.

Grouping and Flow

While the perfect to-do list starts with snow flaking, there are other requirements, too. For example, the list must flow well. If I am walking back and forth between rooms and traveling out for errands throughout the day, the list was not well-constructed. Alike tasks, whether geographically or mentally, must be grouped accordingly to get the most productive system going. Never jump between left and right brain and back again all day, or you will be far more exhausted than what is believable.

Interaction

Sometimes, tasks don’t fit well with others or need to be postponed. In this case, it is better to keep two separate lists – even on the same piece of paper – in order to separate the tasks. Jumping between the two can be difficult, though, so keeping a few tasks on both lists will help a lot. For example, if I need a cake cooked and laundry to be done, those are unrelated (although I wouldn’t separate the lists, I will in this example). In this case, I would have “Clean kitchen table” on both lists, because I both fold laundry and mix batter on it.

What are your tips for creating the perfect to-do list? What kind of lists do you keep around? Do calendar fans exist in rabid form? 

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