Peace of Mind Organizing

Getting a handle on task management

27 February 2013

I’m a bit obsessed with trying to find a great way to stay on top of my tasks. I find that when I’m a task-management groove, life is good. But when a system stops working for me and I get into task-management limbo, I feel out of control and tense.

That happened recently. I found myself drifting through the day, working on urgent items but not being very focused. I tried to use electronic task management tools, like WorkFlowy and Wunderlist. I was drawn to how they could sync with my iPhone, so I’d always have my list with me.

But I’m convinced I’m someone who really likes to use pen and paper for tasks. I’m fine with an electronic calendar (more than fine, actually…I love it), but for tasks, give me the scratch of pen on paper.

So in January I created a “Today” form that’s been working for me well. Each evening at the close of the work day, I write down the top four things I want to get done the next day. Four seems like a reasonable number to actually accomplish, and it’s an easy way for me to prioritize. (I put an asterisk next to the Current Initiative, aka the thing I want to do first.) In addition to the top four tasks, I have a checklist of tasks below that I strive do daily. Things like blogging, social media, entering Quickbooks data. I also try to get a bingo every day.

Here’s a picture of the blank form. I have to say, it’s working for me.

On Sundays, I also create a list of priorities for the week. I write them on an index card and use a note card holder from Levenger that I bought 15 or more years ago to keep them in my face. I’ll often put a daily or project card there as well.

The combination of these two things, plus a social-media checklist form I created, has kept me feeling more in control. And that’s a nice feeling.

Incidentally, yesterday I read an blog post from my favorite time-management guy, Mark Forster, about his simple and effective system for task management. He has you keep a list of three things to do, in the order in which you intend to do them. Once you’ve done two, you cross them off and add two more to the list. It’s that simple. I’m testing it out today, and I’m finding it amazingly effective. But then again I always find Mark’s systems effective on the first day I try them. So I’ll keep experimenting and write a post here in a couple of weeks and let you know how it goes.

Tagged with: bingo, mark forster, task list, task management, time management, workflowy, wunderlist

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