Have you tried the all colonies spreadsheet screen?
It shows each colony, if it has at least one ship in orbit, how many total tiles and how many built upon or building and how many empty, what improvement is under construction and also what ship design. Additionally, it shows the mil prod, the build prod, and the res prod, and which one (if any) has been tpggled for focus.
From that screen, one can build an improvement and/or a ship, and designate/change focus.
I always work from that screen once I have ~5 colonies or so.