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Copyright © 2011 by Dr. Brian J. Dixon. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or
108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written
permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate
per-copy fee.
Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the contact
information located at the website brianjdixon.com
Readers should be aware that Internet Web sites offered as citations and/or
sources for further information may have changed or disappeared between the
time this was written and when it is read.
GTD® and Getting Things Done® is a registered trademark of David Allen and
Co.
Though several resources are mentioned in this book, the authors do not
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have
used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or
warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this
for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales
representatives or written sales materials.
The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your
situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the
damages, including but not limited to medical, special, incidental, consequential,
or other damages.

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Thanks for picking up a copy of this Personal Development Journal! H
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While working on my doctoral dissertation research, I discovered D
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to the development of this Personal Development Journal. r
Some of my favorite books that inspired this journal include: S
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The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss c
Body for Life by Bill Phillips
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Getting Things Done by David Allen
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Walden by Henry David Thoreau
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This Personal Development Journal is a place for you to put your ideas
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everyday and have found it to be inspiring, motivating, and rewarding.
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and information boxes. But it is this level of detail that makes it such an
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effective tool.
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Share your own story at brianjdixon.com. i
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-Brian
email: brian@brianjdixon.com

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How to use this Personal Development System
There are two components to effectively using this Personal
Development Journal.
helps you manage input, tasks to do, completion tracking, and weekly
reviews.
Second, the daily information sheets help track and manage key
elements of your life and work each and every day. These two elements
combine to form this complete tool to encourage your own personal
development.
To help manage the innumerable tasks and commitments you face
What follows is a brief overview of this system.
This journal has several features that will assist you in implementing an
in the back assist you in collecting, the context-based action lists help
in processing and executing, and the weekly review section helps you
conduct a regular overview of your system.
When a new item comes into your view, there are four stages to
managing that information and completing resulting tasks.
1. Collect. Start by gathering all incoming information, unprocessed
ideas, and “open loops” in a trusted system. When a new item comes
to mind, write it down. The back of this journal has blank pages for
this reason. All of this information then gets put into your inbox for
processing and assignment to your lists.
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2. Process. 4
next steps to items, and writing these next steps on context-based
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1. Delete. If the item is not necessary, get rid off it. t
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add a reminder to your “@ waiting for” list, so you can follow up to
ensure completion. 1
3. Do it. If the task takes less than two minutes to do, just get it done. T
Do it right away. a
4. Defer. If the task will take more than two minutes, add the next step to r
a context-based action list, or schedule it on your calendar. c
This journal includes 8 different types of context-based @ lists in the 2
front of this journal, to help you accomplish and complete deferred R
tasks. These are: u
1. @ Phone Calls, where you write phone calls you need to make. p
3. @ Home, for next steps that must be completed at home.
4. @ Anywhere, for items that are not location dependent, ie. Internet L
research. y
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and about.
others that you need to follow up on.
7. @ Future Ideas, a place to write ideas for the future or non-vital tasks
if you have time or interest. t
8. Project _________. Some tasks are part of a larger project you
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adding the most critical task to your daily journal, as well as the next two
or three important tasks. Once completed, add the accomplished tasks

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4. Weekly Review. Once a week, conduct a review of your completed
the end of each week for conducting your weekly review. This step by
step process will help you ensure that tasks are being completed and
that nothing important is falling through the cracks. Components of this
weekly review include:
1. Step-by-step review:
This process takes you sequentially through 12 steps to a clear head
and an organized workspace. By working through these steps, you will
o review your lists, capture any missing information, and look ahead to the
coming week.
2. Did you thrive this week?
Review the “surving or thriving” section of the previous 7 days, adding
up the total (1-10) score of each of the six key life areas. The average
personal development over the week.
Like the previous section, this space allows you to total up and average
your progress according to key life goals. This simple tool will give you a
clear picture of the health of the previous week.
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those down as a way to celebrate a great week.
5. Weekly Narrative Summary
recognizing negative patterns, celebrating positive steps, and setting
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Part B. Daily Overview
The following section describes each element of the daily pages, a
explaining the goals of each component in measuring your progress. a
complete?
The success or failure of a day is often measured by the
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one task you must complete that day. What is the one important activity, B
phone call, email, meeting, etc. that has to be completed for this day to s
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location is for you to see the task everytime you open your personal y
development journal and then, with great pleasure, when the task
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Inspirational Reading
Subject
Observation
Application
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Inspirational Reading T
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time in the morning to read a short passage that helps realign my
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priorities has a positive impact on the rest of my day. This may be a
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short passage from a motivational book, a sacred text, or a book of
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quotes. Whatever it happens to be, move beyond “read and forget” to
Subject: Write the Title/ Author/ Page of what you read.
Observation: Summarize what you read, including anything
worthy of noting.

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Application: Describe how the reading inspired you and what you
are going to do as a result of that reading. If applicable, add any new
actions to your context-based action lists.
Important Tasks/ Goals for Today
Important Tasks/ Goals for Today
, Beyond the one task that needs to be accomplished, there will be
several important tasks or goals for the day. Review your action lists,
noting priority tasks. Transfer two or three of these to this section, giving
yourself a little nudge. Of course, this does not take the place of your
sure you have these on your calendar.
Purchases
Item Price Category
Purchases
This gives you a small place to track your spending for the day. There
are six boxes. If you are buying more than six items per day, perhaps
you are buying too much. Item is what you bought, price is the amount
you paid for the item, category should match your budget so that you
can better track your spending.
Bonus Tip:
all of your accounts, comparing your spending habits to your goals.
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Number of email messages:
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Simply write the number of email messages sitting in your email box. in
There is a direct correlation between levels of stress and the number s
of “undealt with” email messages. Check out brianjdixon.com to learn y
your email inbox and adding stress to your life!
Deal with every email once. Never simply “check your email”. Instead, process
your email to completion every time.
2. Check less frequently.
The masters only check email twice a day. I process email at 12, 4, and 8.
If you can, trash the message or get someone else to handle the issue.
4. Process to zero.
The goal is to only deal with each email once. Once you deal with the F
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Nutrition
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Time Notes
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____ glasses of water ____ vitamins s
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Nutrition ju
Inspiration for this section came from several sources including Bill h

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here for meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner with two spaces for snack
in between. Record the time, the meal, and any notes. There is also a
space for the amount of water you drank and whether or not you took
your vitamins that day.
Fitness Record
Cardio/ Notes:
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muscle group muscle group muscle group muscle group muscle group
exercise exercise exercise exercise exercise
weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps
weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps
weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps
Fitness record
and the weight-training workout plan. I try to do a bit of cardio every day,
noting the time, distance, and calories burned. You can also use this
section to keep track of other types of exercise, such as Yoga or TaeBo.
training workout. Boxes include muscle group, exercise, weight, and
number of reps.
Sleep
Bed Time: Wake Time: Total Sleep:
Sleep
Are you getting enough sleep? Tracking the amount of time you are
sleeping will help you determine the relationship between your sleep
and energy level during the day. This section is fairly straightforward,
just record the time you went to bed, the time you woke up, and the total
hours of sleep you had. You may be surprised.
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Thursday / /
Date
Simply enter the day of the week, the numerical date, the month, and L
then the year. For example: Thursday 07/04/13- For Thursday, the fourth S
of July, 2013.
Input (Reading/ Listening) t
Input (Reading/ Listening)
inspirational, and valuable information throughout the day. Pick the top
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to an audio book, read a book, or glanced at a magazine. -
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Output (Writing)
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Output
just feed on information all of the time, but be able to synthesize and t
use that information. Outputs include article writing, posting to your blog, t
twittering, speaking on a topic, or having a conversation about what I n
read.

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Long Term Goals
Long term goals
h Somewhere near the end of each day, I take a 50,000 foot view at my
today, what will this action, if continued daily, lead up to?”
-What inspired you today?
-What challenged you?
-Any new solutions/ inventions/ ideas?
Thank you notes!
Who Why Sent
Thank you notes!
thank you notes each day. In this section, I write the name of who I want
g, to thank, why I am thanking them, and check when I sent the thank you
note. This will help you keep a record of who you want to send a card to,
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Time Wasters
What When
Time wasters
There are several time wasters I try to avoid on a daily basis. These
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This is a place to write down your particular time waster and when you
wasted it. This daily log will help you review the patterns that lead to
these time wasting activities. c
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Once a task is crossed off your contextual-based to do list in the front of
this journal, take a few extra seconds and bask in the accomplishment T
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High
Low
High/ Low
Look back on the day, consider your largest success and greatest
frustration. For me, these are usually personal interactions, an
conversation or unaccomplished task for the low.

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Surving or Thriving
spiritual -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
nutrition -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
intellectual -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
overall -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
Surviving or Thriving
considering a daily journal. I wanted a tangible way to measure my
progress each day. Was the day a success? Am I moving towards my
goals? If not, what can I put in place to improve that area? For example,
There are ten marks, from 1 on the left, to 10 on the right.
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Thank you for taking the time to read through this brief introduction. As
never thought possible. Share your suggestions and success stories at
brianjdixon.com.
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complete?
Inspirational Reading
Subject
Observation
Application
Important Tasks/ Goals for Today
Purchases Nutrition
Item Price Category Time Notes
Number of email messages: ____ glasses of water ____ vitamins
Fitness Record
Cardio/ Notes:
muscle group muscle group muscle group muscle group muscle group
exercise exercise exercise exercise exercise
weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps
weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps
weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps weight reps
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Sleep
Bed Time: Wake Time: Total Sleep: / /
Input (Reading/ Listening) Output (Writing)
Long Term Goals
Thank you notes! Time Wasters
Who Why Sent What When
Surviving or Thriving?
High
spiritual -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
nutrition - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
Low
intellectual - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
overall -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
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Weekly Review for the week of: / to /
done? step-by-step review process
collect loose papers and place into inbox
review your calendar, processing uncaptured action items
look over upcoming calendar, listing next actions
write down any nagging thoughts
review your next action lists
review your waiting for list, send reminders if necessary
review your outstanding projects list
any other lists to process/ review?
review someday/ maybe list, delete or transfer items
browse through all in-progress areas for actions and waiting fors
add any new, thought-provoking, risk-taking ideas to your system
Did you thrive this week?
category S T W Th F S total #days Average
spiritual
nutrition
intellectual
overall

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category S T W Th F S total #days Average
sleep
water
vitamins
email
time wasters
Weekly Narrative Summary
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Collection Page
(random ideas, nagging thoughts, to do items)

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Collection Page
(random ideas, nagging thoughts, to do items)