Tc Map Instructions

INSTRUCTIONS FOR

YOUR TOTAL COACH MAP [MONTHLY ACTIVITY (& CONTENT) PLANNER 1.0]

Table of Contents*

WELCOME & PURPOSE........................................................................................3 OVERVIEW..........................................................................................................3 HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TC MAP........................................................5 Using Sheet 1: PRIORITIZING Your TC Calendar!..........................................5 Using Sheet 3: Tracking Your Content Submissions!.....................................7 PERSONALIZING YOUR TC MAP..........................................................................8 How to Personalize Your “1% Tasks”............................................................8 Personalizing Worksheet 2 – Your “Activities Defs”.......................................9 How to Place Motivating Symbols in Calendar Cells.....................................11 How to Change Media Submissions Sheet “Directory Names”......................12 HOW TO CREATE A NEW BOOK FOR NEXT MONTH.............................................13 PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS...............................................................................14 Printing Worksheet 1 – Weekly Calendars...................................................14 Printing Worksheet 3 – Media Submissions.................................................16

* Total Coach HUDDLE – How To Use & Benefit from The Total Coach Planner may be viewed at: HTTP://WWW.INSTANTPRESENTER.COM/TCCLASSROOM/EC53DC8180

WELCOME! Welcome to Your Total Coach Monthly Activity (& Content) Planner – Your TC MAP! This manual describes the purpose behind Your TC MAP; how to best implement all the features of Your TC MAP; and how to personalize those features to make the document most valuable to you and your developing, online, coaching business.

PURPOSE As you have already accomplished your main “start up” activities in Total Coach (V5!), you may be experiencing a bit of overwhelm tracking your content: that is, your blog posts, written articles, newsletters, and all the related “submissions” to various directories (e.g. Scribd, Ezine Articles, You Tube, Blog Talk Radio, etc.). The simple fact is: The more you do to advance your online coaching business, the more “1% Tasks” there are for you to accomplish any given day, week, and month! Daily activities multiply suddenly. Unless we are organized, stress and frustration escalates and overwhelm sets in. To address this reality, the Total Coach Monthly Activity (& Content) Planner – Your TC MAP -- has been developed to simplify and organize all your various tasks (including your created content) into one easily accessible organizing tool. This will help alleviate stacks of notes and mounting frustrations as you advance your business step-by-step into a Total Coach success! As such, Your TC MAP is provided for you to: Ø

Quickly access an overview of your Total Coach, daily and weekly, “To-Do” tasks;

Ø

Quickly access an overview of your Total Coach, daily and weekly, “Content” activities (e.g., articles, audios, newsletters, videos) and submissions.

Ø

Organize and track all your “To-Do” activities and “Content” tasks into one easily accessible resource; and

Ø

Prioritize all your activities for a given day and throughout each week.

Ø

Become adept utilizing spreadsheets as a powerful resource in advancing and tracking your online coaching, business activities.

PLANNER OVERVIEW Your TC MAP has been created as a total system of spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel – accessible on both Mac and Windows platforms. Each Excel document (defined as a “book”) covers one month of activities, broken down into the days & weeks of the month. You may easily view any particular week-at-a-glance by simply opening your TC MAP book in Excel. If you would like to view multiple weeks at a time, click the “View” tab in

the horizontal menu bar (at the top of your calendar), and click on “Zoom”. Set the desired “% Magnification” and click “OK”. You may zoom back out to 100% through the same steps. Within the current month, each book is broken out into 3 separate “sheets” as described below. You may easily move between sheets by clicking one of the gray tabs on the small menu bar at the bottom left of your current view. [See figure below] You will recognize the separate sheets as follows:

➢ Sheet 1 (entitled “TC Calendar”) is the day-to-day and week-to-week activity calendar for the current month (e.g., October, 2009);

1 Cell

Grey menu bar tabs [White box = current page]

➢ Sheet 2 (entitled “Activity Defs”) provides you a list describing all the available tasks or activities you may need to carry out on any given date within a week. How to best utilize the “1% Tasks” listed is described in detail in the following section (HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TC MAP).

➢ Sheet 3 (entitled “Media Submissions”) is a separate spreadsheet in which you may list each of your “content” activities by title, and document the directories to which you have submitted that particular content item. As noted previously, a “content activity” or “content item” is a specific article, audio, newsletter or video. Each can be documented and tracked in the “Media Submissions” sheet as you perform your various submission activities.

[Note: Always remember to “Save” your Excel book immediately after making any additions or alterations to your document sheets!] By definition, each individual “rectangle” within a column and across a row is called a “cell”. You will be making notations each day (as described below) in particular cells. A cell is defined by moving down a column (a day of the week) and across a row (a specific activity). As an example, one possible cell may be defined by “Blog Post” on a “Monday” or by “Twitter” on a “Thursday”.

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TC MAP Remember, upon making any of the calendar alterations described below, save your changes immediately, by clicking “File” on the top, horizontal menu bar & “Save As”.

Using Sheet 1: PRIORITIZING Your TC Calendar! Each monthly book will open onto Sheet 1 (“TC Calendar”). The left-most column (highlighted in green) details the various 1% tasks (activities) available for you to carry out on a given day & over a given week. This column has been pre-populated with various activities (tasks) for your ease of use. An effective way to utilize your MAP is to plan the day (or week) ahead of time – perhaps the prior night (or weekend). Simply go down the list of “1% Tasks”, decide on a given task, and move across to the appropriate “Date” cell: Double-Click on that particular cell. For that activity on the particular day, determine priority as follows:

➢ Give an “ABC-Value” to that item: “A” is for those “must do today” or vital items; “B” is for a “should be done soon” or important tasks; “C” is for those “could be done” items of lesser importance. ➢ Give a “Numerical Value” to each item within each A,B,C category as follows: “1” is the most important “A” activity, & is thus “A1” (the same for B1, C1). “2” is the next most important “A” activity & is thus “A2” (similarly, B2, C2); and so on for each “A”, each “B” & each “C” activity.

➢ Type into the (double-clicked) cell your prioritized value (A1, B3, etc.) to indicate how you will be addressing that specific task on that particular day. In this way, you will have whittled down multiple, disparate activities into clearly prioritized steps (A1, B3, C2 etc.) for each day!

Clearly, you will not be able to complete cells for all the listed “1% Tasks” each day. Simply leave blank any cell you will not be attending to for the date chosen. Keep it simple and prioritize only those tasks you can reasonably expect to accomplish within the time available to you to develop your business on a given day. Remember, this is a marathon, not a race. Since your next day (or week) is prioritized as above, when you first sit down at your computer to begin work today, you will be able to immediately see how your prioritized tasks line up for you today (& for this week, if you plan ahead week-to-week). Then, as you step through your prioritized list of activities today, you can replace the prioritized value with a “V5!” as a way to reward and motivate your remarkable, achieving, active Self! This is a key step in assisting you to be active each day – do take the time to provide that positive feedback to yourself. If you don’t complete a particular task today, simply move it over to the next time you are able to attend to that task AND move it “up” in prioritized value (if applicable). For example, if you do not complete your B2 task today, you may put it as a B1 item on a following date – or perhaps it has now moved into an “A” value & “must be completed” the next date you sit down to address that activity. An added motivating and planning feature of your “TC Calendar” is provided in the evaluative statements positioned at the end of each week. Take the time to complete these simple, but powerful, reflections: They significantly enhance the value of your TC MAP. They again provide written evidence of your good work; and they open you to discovering entirely new directions and focus! The reflections provided are: ➢ The thing I did best this week: . . .

➢ I challenged myself this week: . . .

➢ Next week I would like to include: . . . ➢ I celebrate this week by: . . . ➢ Right now, I am most grateful for: . . . Obviously, your daily prioritized task list is only useful if you apply it day-to-day. A word of caution here, however: The key is to prioritize within reason and be gentle with yourself! This planner is only useful as you actually use it: The less stress you create around implementing your planner, the more you will actually use it, and, therefore, the more effective you will be in advancing your business each day! As Mike has said, maybe ½ of 1% needs to be good enough for today: The key is focused activity, not pressure!

Using Sheet 3: Tracking Your Content Submissions! As noted above, you may get to your “Media Submissions” sheet within this month’s book by clicking on the gray tab (marked as “Media Submissions”) on the small menu bar at the bottom left of your current view. There you will find a very simple, but powerful format for detailing all your content submissions. As you can see, the left-most column indicates the type of content you are currently submitting: Article; Audio, Newsletter, Video. You indicate the type in this leftmost column by simply typing in the “letter” associated with each media type as follows:

➢ “A” = Article ➢ “D” = Audio ➢ “N” = Newsletter ➢ “V” = Video The next column is a large, empty green block in which you may enter your “title” of the completed content you are currently submitting. As before, to type your title into a cell, you must first double-click on that particular cell. Once you enter the title, you move across the columns within that row, double-click on the cell beneath the directory to which you submitted this content, and enter the “current date”. The advantage of tracking (when and to which directories you have submitted particular content) comes in the forms of positive feedback for you and in the future life of that content. You will periodically receive rejections on particular content from certain directories &/or you may decide in the future to make revisions to a particular piece of content. Since you can see where you submitted the original, you may then simply make the necessary changes, “resubmit” the revised content, and now track that revision for only the specific directories receiving the resubmission. You may also note (near the top of the “directory” listings), you will see “Log PW”, “User” and “Notes”. As each directory has different log-in requirements, you may indicate (in the spaces provided under each directory heading) the particular “User ID”, your “Log-In Password” & any brief “Note” for that particular directory (e.g., “needs

photo” or perhaps you need to use a trimmed-down “bio” for a particular directory). Another way to utilize “Notes” is by placing a reference number in the particular cell (by double-clicking that cell); then, at the bottom of the spreadsheet, list the number as a “footnote” with any remarks you need to remember when submitting to a particular directory. Simply use the green title region for these footnote reminders.

PERSONALIZING YOUR TC MAP! A significant advantage of the MS Excel format is your ability to tailor the TC MAP to your personal style and unique priorities. Consider this a “living” document that can change with you as your business grows and your activities change. In addition, experiment with your planner in each of the two modes provided – as a written record that can be printed out and marked-up by hand &/or as a computer application in which you can easily cut/paste/save all your planning and content information.

How to Personalize Your “1% Tasks”

(in the “TC Calendar” sheet)

As described above, “My 1% Tasks” list for Your TC MAP has been pre-populated, providing you with 30 different activities from which you may choose. [The particular activities and how they are defined is the subject of the “Activities Defs” sheet -accessed by clicking on the gray tab (marked as “Activities Defs”) on the small menu bar at the bottom left of your current view.] For your unique purposes, however, you may easily replace any activity on your current TC Calendar sheet &/or add an activity not currently listed on your TC Calendar sheet as follows: As you move down “My 1% Tasks” column of your “TC Calendar” sheet, stop and single-click on a particular activity cell. When you do, you will see a “down arrow” (q) indicating a drop-down menu is available to you. When you click on that arrow, the drop-down menu items come up; and you simply scroll to a particular activity (listed in alphabetical order). When you click on a specific activity (e.g. “Offline Project”) that activity will now be entered into the current activity cell. [Note: Each week, an additional 7 empty task rows are provided for you to make additions without needing to replace any of the pre-populated activities.] Example: As your business grows, you may be speaking with 3 or more Coaching Clients each week-day. Currently, only 1 row each week is devoted to “Coaching Client Contacts”. You would then simply add “Coaching Client Contact” in multiple rows down the left-most column – (& repeat for each week of the month). [Note: As such changes are not automatically carried forward into the following weeks of

your calendar, you do need to repeat the alterations for each subsequent week of the calendar month]. Save the newly altered Excel book. To add additional rows (beyond the 7 blank rows provided) each week in your TC Calendar: Click on a blank cell in the left-most activity column. Click “Insert”. Then click “Row” in the drop-down menu. A new blank row will be added across your planner. It will be formatted automatically to display your dropdown menu (q) when you click on that new activity cell.

Personalizing Worksheet 2 – Your “Activities Defs” You may even modify the pre-populated menu in the “Activity Defs” sheet to include activities not currently provided or change the wording of the activities listed. ➢ To change the wording of the pre-populated activities: Click on the “Activity Defs” sheet to bring up the activity menu. Double-Click the line-item cell you want to replace or reword. Enter the new activity wording you desire, and press “Enter”. Save the newly worded Excel book. ➢ To delete a line-item (from the pre-populated activity menu): In the “Activity Defs” sheet, click on that particular line-item activity cell. Drag the white cross Ê along the row all the way through column B (the definitions) – highlighting both columns (all columns must be highlighted, otherwise only the row in the single highlighted column will be deleted and your definitions will no longer be lined up with the corresponding activity). Click on “Edit” in the top, horizontal menu bar. Click “Delete” in that drop-down menu. Highlight “Shift Cells Up” in the box provided, and click “OK”: The line item will be removed & all activities below will move-up one row. Save the newly worded Excel book.

➢ To insert a new line-item (within the current activity list): Determine the line number where you would like to insert a new activity. For example, imagine you would like to insert “Update Media Submissions Sheet” alphabetically between line 28 (“Update Blog/Website”) and line 29 (“Video Create/Post”).

Click onto the (left-most) cell in the lower row of the two items (between which you want to enter your new activity – in this example, line 29). Click “Insert” on the top horizontal menu bar; then click “Row”. A blank row will now become available for you to type in your new activity & the corresponding definition.

IN ADDITION: You must now redefine your entire (larger) activity menu (as it now has more rows than the original list). Remember, these are the activities listed in the dropdown menu provided in each cell of your TC Calendar sheet. Begin by highlighting the entire column of activities (row 1 through your last item – e.g., row 31). Click “Insert” on the top, horizontal menu bar. Click “Name” from the drop-down menu. Select “Define” and a new “Define Name” box will appear on your screen (as shown in the figure below).

'Activity Defs'!$A$1:$A$30 be come s ='Activity Defs'!$A$1:$A$31

From the list in the large white “Denine Name” box, select “TC_Activities” (so it shows up in the box under “Names in Workbook”). In the “Refers To” box at the bottom of the “Define Name” box, change the last number to include the new row length of your activity list (e.g., the name defined by ='Activity Defs'!$A$1:$A$30 becomes ='Activity Defs'!$A$1:$A$31 – automatically increasing the row number into the definition – as shown above]. Click “Add” & your new TC Activity definition will show up in the Names in Workbook box. Click “OK”. [Your redefined menu now becomes the active drop-down menu for “My 1% Tasks” in the TC Calendar sheet.] Save the newly worded Excel book. Phew! Give yourself a V5! [Note: You do not need to redefine the menu after simply replacing or deleting a line item – Since you are not modifying the total number of rows in the menu’s current definition, the menu will display whatever words are listed in the preformatted number of rows.]

How to Place Motivating Symbols in Calendar Cells [to indicate you have completed a given task on a given date (i.e., use a symbol in place of “V5!”)]

Since each cell is pre-formatted in “Verdana” type, you will need to reformat your cells to “Wingdings” type in order to place a J or “Wingdings 2” to place a ü into a cell. To reformat, click on a cell and drag the Ê symbol across and down to include all the cells you wish to reformat – then choose the new “font” (e.g. “Wingdings”).

You may now insert your symbol of choice. [Note: a J in “Wingdings” = “Shift J”. A ü in “Wingdings 2” = “Shift P”] Now, play with your motivators J ; & Save your modified Excel Book

How to Change Media Submissions Sheet “Directory Names” ➢ To replace a “Directory Name”: Click on the gray tab (marked as “Media Submissions”) on the small menu bar at the bottom left of your current view. Double-Click the cell containing the directory name you would like to modify (e.g., “Radio”).

Simply type in your new directory title (e.g., “BTR” for Blog Talk Radio), and hit “Enter” Save the newly modified Excel book. ➢ To insert an entire column for an additional directory: Click on the gray tab (marked as “Media Submissions”) on the small menu bar at the bottom left of your current view. Highlight the current column immediately to the left of where you would like to insert a new column. Click "Insert" on the top, horizontal menu. Click "Columns" in the drop-down menu -- a new column will appear immediately to the right of the column you highlighted. And, yes, Save your newly modified Excel book.

HOW TO CREATE A NEW BOOK FOR Next MONTH Creating next month's TC MAP is very easy and straightforward. First, double-click the name of the month in the white cell at the top of your TC Calendar. Type in the name of the month to which you are updating. Repeat the process (if needed) to update the “year” cell immediately below. Then, double-click the yellow cell for the Monday of the 1st week in the new month (immediately below the word “Monday”), and type in the appropriate date for that Monday of the first week of the next month [in the same format (month/day/year)], and press “Enter”. Again single-click on that same first date cell – a white frame will outline the cell. On the white frame, move the cursor in the lower, right corner of the frame until a  appears (as shown below). Drag this “corner ” through to the last day of the week in the same row. Upon releasing your mouse, the new dates for the week will appear automatically in the date cells. Then, repeat the same process above for each subsequent week of the new month. [Note: In the Monday date cell for each subsequent week, you need to type in the correct, corresponding date, single click, & drag the corner to the end of the week.] Once each week is updated, you can Save your new TC MAP for the corresponding month/year.

 Drag the 

across thru Sunday of this week

PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS Printing Worksheet 1 – Weekly Calendars The following instructions are to assist you in printing your planner worksheets. You may print any given week of your Excel weekly planner in two primary steps:

1. Set-Up “Page Breaks” 2. Format “Page Setup” Instructions for each step are detailed below:

Step 1 – Set-Up “Page Breaks” With your TC Calendar (worksheet 1) open

➢ On the View menu (on top, horizontal menu bar), click “Page Break Preview”

dashed, blue vertical guideline



In the Welcome To Page Break Preview box, click “OK”

➢ Place your cursor over the dashed, blue vertical line (an

 icon will appear).

, drag the dashed, blue vertical line to the right border that demarcates the “Sunday” column.

➢ With

➢ Release your cursor. The right border “page break” has been set To set the horizontal page breaks in the current planner format, you will need to let the title rows (rows 1 through 6) be defined as “PAGE 1” [See diagram below] When you print later, you will ignore “page 1” and will be printing weekly pages 2, 3, 4, etc.

Rows 1 thru 6 = “PAGE 1” (by definition)



➢ Place your cursor on the first dashed, blue horizontal guideline ( icon will appear).

➢ With the , drag the first dashed, blue horizontal line to the top border of the “days of the week” on the first weekly calendar (immediately below “2009”) ➢ Release your cursor.

➢ With the next lower, dashed, blue horizontal line, drag the line to the top border of the next calendar “days of the week”, and release your cursor. ➢ Repeat Steps “a through d” above for each subsequent weekly calendar. Your page breaks have been set.

Step 2 -- Format “Page Setup” With your TC Calendar worksheet open:

➢ On the File Menu (on top, horizontal menu bar), click “Page Setup”; ➢ On the Page Setup menu, click the “Page” tab ➢ Under Orientation, click “Landscape” ➢ Under Scaling, click “Adjust to” In the “% Normal Size” box, type in “90” in place of “100” – (i.e., one weekly calendar fits to one printed page @ 90% of normal size)

➢ Click “OK” [See figure below]

➢ Next, set your print margins: On the File Menu (on top, horizontal menu bar), click “Page Setup” Click on the “Margins” tab Set each margin (“Top”. “Left”, “Right” & “Bottom”) at 0.5 inches Click “OK” To PREVIEW the pages before you print:

➢ On the File menu, click “Print Preview” ➢ Scroll down to page 2 (& your first weekly calendar will come up). [As noted above, you will print your weekly calendars starting with page 2.]

Printing Worksheet 3 – Media Submissions You will carry out the same steps as above, but with the following variations (in RED)

Step 1 – Set-Up “Page Breaks” With Media Submissions (worksheet 3) open:

➢ On the View menu (on top, horizontal menu bar), click “Page Break Preview” In the Welcome To Page Break Preview box, click “OK”

➢ Place your cursor over the RIGHT-MOST dashed, blue vertical line (an  icon will appear).

➢ With , drag the dashed, blue vertical line to the right border that demarcates the right border of the LAST “Directory” Column.

➢ Repeat Steps “c” & “d” with each remaining blue vertical line until your sheet shows only “PAGE 1” ➢ Release your cursor. The right border has been set. To set the horizontal page breaks

➢ Place your cursor on the first dashed, blue horizontal guideline ( will appear). ➢ With the , drag the first dashed, blue horizontal line to the last row you desire to print (30, 40, etc.) ➢ Release your cursor.

Step 2 -- Format “Page Setup” ➢ With your Media Submissions worksheet open: ➢ On the File Menu (on top, horizontal menu bar), click “Page Setup”; On the Page Setup menu, click the “Page” tab

➢ Under Orientation, click “Landscape” ➢ Under Scaling, click “Adjust to” In the “% Normal Size” box, type in “47%” in place of “100” – (i.e., the way this planner is currently formatted, the Media Submissions sheet fits to one printed page @ 47% of normal size – the rows will be quite narrow) ➢ Click “OK” & print out form.

Again, do play with your TC MAP! As you follow the instructions above, you will become quite adept at working with Excel. In addition, you will have a new and powerful software resource at your disposal to adapt as you grow your online Coaching business! We would love to hear your feedback on Your TC MAP! We are happy to make needed changes on the fly as you help us determine what is most useful to your work. Please direct your valuable feedback to Total Coach Support. V5! to you and your good work! ©2009 by Total Coach Your TC MAP was created through the combined efforts of Total Coach staff and TC Coaches Susan Wagers, Kim Richardson, & Malcolm Dayton