A plog is a combination of a plan and a log.

It’s not as rigid as a schedule. It’s a way to set priorities and track progress on a student animation project, at a micro level.
The example plog (link as the bottom of article) covers roughly the rest of the 2020-2021 academic calendar, and assumes your Spring semester ends in May.
The plog breaks down the calendar into weeks, days, and blocks.
1 block = 25 mins of focused on attention on a single task.
Each 25-min block counts for 30 mins. Take a 5-min break if you need one.
The daily maximum is set at 4 hours, or 8 blocks. There is no daily minimum.

Let’s get plogging:

STEP 0 Use “File…Make a Copy” to duplicate the Google sheet for your own use.
Delete sample content.

STEP 1 Choose a weekly priority for this week (and maybe the next couple weeks).

STEP 2 Choose a daily priority for today (and maybe the next two or three days).

STEP 3 Plan your next few potential 25-min blocks.

STEP 4 As you finish a block, change the cell background color to green.

STEP 5 When you reach four hours, stop.

STEP 6 Count up your blocks and enter your daily total.

The spreadsheet will calculate your weekly and all-time totals automatically.

The goals of the plog are:

• Making the process of production scheduling, approachable, realistic and flexible.
• Focusing on priorities, and personal choice, rather than “deadlines” (never use this word).
• Encourage priority-setting, if only one week (or one day) at a time.
• Encourage focused effort, in the form of 25-min, bite-size chunks.
• Logging focused effort in a way that celebrates starting rather than finishing (where finishing is merely a byproduct of repeated starting).
• Building satisfaction and momentum. Yeah yeah!

SUGGESTIONS

* Focus on adding at least a little green to the plog, every day.
* Focus on making every week as green as you can.
* Look back at the end of each week and bask in the green light of your logged effort. You did good. Real good.
* Multiple consecutive days or weeks devoid of green beg the question: are you making your film a priority?

Plog v1.20201204 (Google Doc)

Released December 4, 2020

Plog v1.20201129 (Google Doc)

Released December 1, 2020
CC-BY-NC-ND

Questions/Comments/Suggestions?
dave[at]diyanimation[dot]club

Dave MH

DIY Animation Club co-founder Dave Merson Hess taught and developed animation curriculum for Aurora Picture Show’s youth workshops, 2014-2018. He also started Rush Process, a Gulf Coast-based festival celebrating animators who work with physical media, which ran from 2015 to 2018. Dave is currently an MFA candidate in Experimental Animation at Calarts.