It’s amazing what a huge role expectations can play in our perceptions of success. In the organizing industry, managing the expectations the clients have for what we can accomplish prevents them from being disappointed.
Tagged with: standolyn robertson, task list, task management, time management
It’s 5:30 pm on a Thursday and for the fourth day in a row, I’ve been disappointed by how few items on my task list I was able to accomplish. The problem isn’t my productivity. The problem is my task list. And it’s also my mindset.
Tagged with: ease, task list, task management, trello
I do have clients who struggle with task management who prefer a paper planner. And, depending on their needs, my go-to recommendation is the Planner Pad® Organizer. It was the last paper planner I used before going electronic. The company’s been around for over 40 years and I started using it so long ago that it came with a cassette tape instructing me how to use it.
Tagged with: planner pad, task list, task management, time management
I don’t know what I’d without a task list. I’d probably go crazy worrying about forgetting to do stuff.
Over the years of honing my own task lists and also working with clients on their task lists, I’ve come to believe in one important truth If you want to create an effective list—and by that I mean a task list that you actually cross items off of—you need to do this:
Tagged with: task list, task management, time management, to-do list
This month, my personal theme is discipline and I’ve been working hard to keep up with the 30-day challenges I set out for myself on June 1. It’s going well. I’m particularly proud of the fact that I’ve done at least 30 minutes of genealogy research daily and that I’ve blogged four times a week (twice on this blog, twice on Organize Your Family History) every week this month.
Tagged with: challenges, habits, productivity, routines, task list, time management
My client schedule is light this week and I had high hopes for getting a lot done. I dusted off my important tasks so they were front and center along the urgent stuff. Yet, the last couple of days got away from me. Part of the problem is my obsession with Hamilton and the distraction of the coming election.
Tagged with: mark forster, productivity, task list, task management
It’s so easy to focus on urgent tasks, rather than important ones, isn’t it? Every day I create a list of tasks I want to accomplish that day. (When I’m on my game, I do it the night before.) I try to keep the list short so I have a fighting chance of actually accomplishing all of them.
Tagged with: productivity, task list, task management, time management
For the last month or so, I’ve been using a template I created on the fabulous form-making making website, Transpose, to manage my daily tasks kanban style.
Tagged with: personal kanban, productivity, task list, task management, time management, transpose
So that’s a long-winded way of saying I’ve done no admin work for almost a month, my email is piling up and who knows how many balls I’ve let drop. Thank goodness I don’t get much snail mail, so I don’t have a daunting pile of mail to deal with.
Tagged with: backlog, habit, planning, routines, self-care, task list
When I was in my twenties, I had a mind like a steel trap. Oh, the things I could keep in there and recall in a nanosecond! It made me a valuable employee; my ability to keep details straight and handle logistics well allowed me to work on some great projects. (For example, I organized—and attended—small conference in Africa with participants from all over the world. I put it together from my office in Washington, D.C., and this was before the internet.)
Now that I’m in my fifties, my memory is a shadow of its former self. But I’m lucky: in the intervening three decades, technology has emerged that helps me compensate. There’s no need to store things in my brain. I can write everything down and access it instantly using the app of my choice. That frees my brain for more important things.
Tagged with: apps, calendars, lifehacker, memory, productivity, task list, task management, technology
Six months ago, I had a great task management system going. I was using Springpad’s Ninja Task Manager notebook to create a running list of tasks and, from that list, selecting three to five priority tasks per day.
Tagged with: springpad, task list, teuxdeux, time management
I was out of town for five days in mid-September. I’ve been back a week and I still don’t have my mojo back.
Tagged with: clean desk, email, habits, routines, self-care, task list, travel
The other day I found myself with a work day with no appointments in it all. Nothing to structure the day into chunks. I had a task list, but I found the lack of structure made it a little hard for me to focus on what I needed to get done.
Tagged with: springpad, task list, task management, time management
I have a fondness for a nice notebook, particularly one with lined paper. I’m somewhat particular, but luckily there are a lot of notebooks that meet my exactly standards. Way back in 2008, I blogged about some notebooks I’ve been enjoying.
Tagged with: at a glance, journal writing, notebooks, organizing products, task list
I do three things almost every weeknight at the end of the work day that help me to stay on top of my business, start the day feeling productive, and reduce the stress in my life. These three habits have a lot to do with my really enjoying being an entrepreneur. They are:
Tagged with: clean desk, email, habit, routines, task list
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.
Tagged with: bingo, mark forster, task list, task management, time management, workflowy, wunderlist
I know that somewhere around here I have a list—actually I think it’s more than one list—of potential blog post subjects. The idea is that if I sit down to blog without knowing what I want to blog about, I consult the list, where I capture ideas as they come to me, and voila a blog post presents itself.
Tagged with: bingo, charlie gilkey, julie morgenstern, mark forster, shannon wilkinson, simpleology, task list, task management, time management, workflowy, wunderlist
I was perusing one of my favorite blogs, Unclutterer and saw my colleague Deb Lee’s recent post about two new-to-me productivity apps, Wonderful Day and iDone This
Tagged with: apps, don't break the chain, productivity, task list, time management
One of the built-in features of my beloved iPhone 4S that I have taken most advantage of is the Reminders app. Since my phone has Siri, all I have to do is activate Siri and dictate a reminder.
Tagged with: app of the week, iphone, task list, time management
Wunderlist is a website app with a free iPhone app that sync together nicely. It allows me to keep simple lists (there’s not much in the way of bells and whistles). It’s easy to add items to lists. It’s easy to add new lists.
Tagged with: app of the week, apps, mark forster, task list, wunderlist
If you’ve been reading my blog awhile, you know that I’m a big fan of Mark Forster, one of the most creative time-management gurus out there.
Tagged with: final version, mark forster, task list, task management, time management
I wrote almost a month ago about how much I love the concept of using a bingo card to motivate me to do tasks that are important to do regularly but don’t have deadlines.
Tagged with: bingo, great day st. louis, task list, television, time management
When I saw Jacquelyn Kittredge’s e-bakery blog post about her social media bingo card I got really excited. I love the idea of turning those “I should” daily tasks (like keeping up with your social media) into a fun game.
Tagged with: bingo, jacquelyn kittredge, maryann devine, motivation, task list
I’ve been a follower of time-management expert Mark Forster for years now. When he develops a new time-management system, I sit up and take notice.
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, task list, task management, time management, to-do list