I love my Bullet Journal. I’ve been using it since December 2019 and it’s helped me keep my life on track. I write down my daily tasks every day in my journal and take notes during phone conversations. I also write notes about anything that happens that I don’t want to forget. It’s become an invaluable resource.
Tagged with: bullet journal, routines, task management, time management
After feeling off the rails for a couple of weeks, I crave getting back on track. Getting back to daily routines and keeping a solid task list will be a huge help, I know.
Tagged with: goals, new year, routines, time management
I’ve been using a Bullet Journal since late December 2021. I played around with it for the last couple of weeks of 2021 and then started officially on January 1, 2022. On February 15, I published a pretty robust blog post about how I bullet journal. Six months later, I thought it was time for an update.
Tagged with: bullet journal, ryder carrolll, task management, time management
I find the question of what’s important carries through to every aspect of my life. It’s become a touchstone of sorts for me.
Tagged with: family, priorities, self care, stress, task management, time management
Earlier this week, I blogged about my love for my Bullet Journal. When I decided to start using this method, I did a little research on supplies and how to organize them so they’re handy for daily use. This is what I settled on. It’s working out well!
Tagged with: bullet journal, office supplies, organizing products, organizing solutions, pens, task management, time management
Here’s the concept: The Bullet Journal is a bound notebook in which you hand-write everything. It can be as simple or as complicated as you like. I prefer the minimalist concept that is closer to Ryder Carroll’s original concept (check out his website to see what I mean). If you search on Bullet Journal on YouTube, you’ll see that a lot of people create videos of gorgeous, creative spreads that seem impossible for mere mortals like me to live up to.
Tagged with: bullet journal, ryder carrolll, task management, time management
I made the switch from paper to electronic task management many years ago. As I blogged about last year, I created a Daily Task Management Trello board that was working really for me. But then I started creeping back toward paper and pen
Tagged with: bingo, motivation, productivity, task management, time management, trello
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
I’ve long been a fan of the concept of a Power Hour. I group together a bunch of small tasks and power through the list in a short period of time. It feels great. My daily task management Trello board has supercharged it!
Tagged with: power hour, task management, time management, trello
Tagged with: self care, time management
My Trello Daily Task Management board has revolutionized my productivity. Here’s the nitty gritty of what it entails.
Tagged with: task management, time management, trello
Two weeks ago, I discovered the Daily Task Management Trello template and it has been a game changer for me.
Tagged with: task management, time 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 wrote this post 5.5 years ago when I was dealing with some health challenges for family members. It came to mind recently, because my oldest brother has taken ill and has been hospitalized in southeastern Washington state for the past three weeks. I was trying to maintain my work schedule in St. Louis while checking in on him but decided about two weeks into his illness that I needed to travel to Washington to be there for him and be his advocate. In rereading the post, I felt like it had a great message. Scott is recovering from his bouts with severe pneumonia and I know I’ll keep these strategies in mind as I go back home to St. Louis and try to support him from afar.
Tagged with: kirby, self care, stress, task management, time management, worth repeating
The older I get the less I want to book myself solid with appointments and activities. An uncluttered calendar, where I’m able to pick and choose what I want to do each day, rather than rush from one appointment to another, has become my ideal.
Tagged with: hamilton, passion, relaxation, time management
A couple of months ago, I was interviewed for an article on time management in USA TODAY’s Best Years magazine. Best Years is a newsstand magazine for people over 50. It went on sale on August 22.
Tagged with: press, time management
I originally ran this post in 2016, but I wanted to run it again because just yesterday on our podcast my co-host Shannon Wilkinson and I were talking about setting yourself for success. That’s what this three-year-old blog post is all about! If you’re interested in hearing us talk about that topic, the episode will drop on Thursday, August 15. Go to the Getting to Good Enough website (or wherever you get your podcasts) that day or after to give it a listen.
Tagged with: getting to good enough, productivity, time management, worth repeating
Trello became even easier to use when my friend Shannon Wilkinson clued me into the Send to Trello bookmark shortcut for Safari. I use Safari for most of my browsing and was happy to learn that with this little tool any website I’m visiting can be turned into a Trello card and placed on a board.
Tagged with: task management, time management, trello
I’ve been noodling around with Trello for about a year now. I’m still using Evernote for keeping track of lots and lots of things but I’ve always found its user interface to be something to be tolerated, not embraced. Trello is quite the opposite—it’s lovely and provides tools to make it even lovelier.
Tagged with: task management, time management, trello
One day last week I had a long list of work- and home-related things I needed to get done. I created a list in Trello, using my Time Block board. With this board, I divide the day up into two-hour time blocks and assign tasks to accomplish in each block.
Tagged with: task management, time management, trello
Back in 2010, I wrote a post called Laundry as a time-management tool. I thought of that post yesterday morning, when I realized I needed to fit laundry into my work-at-my-desk day. I ordinarily do laundry on the weekend but I was out of town this past weekend—and I didn’t have enough pairs of underwear to tide me over.
Tagged with: mark forster, time management
Trello consists of boards (you can have many boards) that contain a series of lists, organized in columns. The lists contain notes. That simple format is extremely flexible.
Tagged with: task management, time management, trello
I’ve written before about the benefits of emptying my inbox every day. Inbox Zero feels like an unachievable—or perhaps even undesirable—goal to some. But I know from my experience that when I can empty my inbox each day I am more on top of my work life. And that makes me not only more productive, but happier.
Tagged with: email, habits, inbox zero, task management, time management, todoist
Todoist, which I use primarily on my computer but can also use on a mobile app on my phone or iPad (it syncs automatically), has a simple elegance about it. It allows me to enter tasks and subtasks and assign them projects, effortlessly set deadlines and reminders, and attach notes to the tasks.
Tagged with: task management, time management, todoist
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
I’m a morning person. I know that I’m most productive in the morning. Especially first thing in the morning. My brain is turned on and I can be pretty focused when everyone else in the house is asleep. (And by everyone else, I mean my husband and dog.)
Tagged with: productivity, time management, worth repeating
I’m thrilled to have a two whole days at my desk this week (today and tomorrow) and a light client load next week. It’s after 3 pm and while I have created some order, not a whole lot else has been accomplished. I’m particularly distractible today—I’m finding myself bouncing from small task to small task and website to website. I have a task list, but I’m not exactly plowing through it.
When this happens, I know that it’s time to pull out my secret weapon: My timer. I know from experience that when I set my timer for just a few minutes—as little as five minutes—I get stuff done. I like playing beat the clock, and knowing the clock is ticking in the background tends to keep me focused.
Tagged with: task management, time management, timer
Last week, I took an ICD tele class on Personal Kanban for people with ADHD. I was familiar with personal kanban, having tried it out myself a few times over the last seven years. I was happy to hear Jim Benson, who gave the talk, state that while there are plenty of platforms in which to do kanban digitally, he recommends that people start out with Post-It® Notes and a whiteboard, like I’ve always done.
Tagged with: personal kanban, productivity, time management, worth repeating
I wrote this post in 2014 and I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to make doing genealogy research part of my morning routine so I’ve succeeded in finding time to feed my soul. If there’s something beneficial you’d like to start doing regularly, this post might help you find a way to find time.
I love doing genealogy research. It’s a fairly big part of my life—I blog twice weekly (most weeks) at my genealogy blog, Organize Your Family History, so I actually think about my family research quite a lot.
But I don’t actually research as often as I’d like. And that’s a shame, because researching my family history feeds my soul.
Tagged with: empowerment, genealogy, relaxation, self-care, self care, time management, worth repeating
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
Do you keep a task list? I’m surprised by the number of people I meet who don’t. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my memory isn’t what it used to be, but I think I’d be lost without my task list. And certainly I’d be less productive.
Tagged with: mark forster, productivity, task management, time management, to-do list
I wrote this post in October 2014 and I think it’s worth posting again. Over the couple of years, I’ve really noticed that what I decide to do first in the morning is the thing that actually gets done. I’ll blog, if blogging is a priority. Sometimes I make sure to do family history research first (because sometimes that’s a priority). I’m happy to be posting this at 8 am, so I can move on to a great day!
I don’t know about you, but if my mornings don’t go well, the rest of the day usually follows suit. I’m a morning person and I typically can get a lot done in the morning. But if I don’t, it’s hard to reboot the day and make up for it in the afternoon.
Tagged with: blogging, habits, routines, time management, worth repeating
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
Effective task management is a moving target for me. I’ve come to accept that I need to switch things up in order to keep myself engaged and get stuff done. So I vary my systems according to my need and mood. This post, originally published May 22, 2013, describes a sort of emergency intervention I use when I just can’t get myself to get anything done.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, productivity, rewards, time management, worth repeating
I’m a morning person. I know that I’m most productive in the morning. Especially first thing in the morning. My brain is turned on and I can be pretty focused when everyone else in the house is asleep. (And by everyone else, I mean my husband and dog.)
Tagged with: productivity, time management
This Monday is February 29. I love leap year because we get a whole extra day in the year. What a gift!
Tagged with: leap year, self care, 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
I love creating forms and have been making them for years. I used to use Word, then I moved to Excel. But now I have a much easier way to create forms: Transpose.
Tagged with: forms, productivity, systems, task management, time management, transpose
I wrote this post a couple of years ago, but I really needed it today. I’m once again a bit behind on my Quickbooks data entry and have entered a recurring daily task in my task-manager app to spend 15 minutes working on the backlog. This post is strengthening my resolve to get caught up a little at a time.
Sometimes projects, big or small, feel too overwhelming to even start. Sometimes tasks are ongoing or recurring and we have a tendency to let them build up before starting to tackle them.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, habits, productivity, time management, worth repeating
I just spent a week with my 20-year-old niece and 17-year-old nephew, which was a rare treat. They live in Australia, so I don’t see them often. In fact, the last time was when I visited them in Australia in 2009. They’ve grown up a lot since then.
Tagged with: control, punctuality, time management
Back in 2010, I discovered personal kanban , a system of visual task management that I used for awhile. In a nutshell, I divided a large whiteboard into three sections, Backlog, Doing, and Done. Then I’d use Post-It® notes to write down individual tasks and move them through the process.
Tagged with: habits, personal kanban, productivity, routines, task management, time management
I love doing genealogy research. It’s a fairly big part of my life—I blog twice weekly (most weeks) at my genealogy blog, Organize Your Family History, so I actually think about my family research quite a lot.
Tagged with: empowerment, genealogy, relaxation, self-care, self care, time management
I don’t know about you, but if my mornings don’t go well, the rest of the day usually follows suit. I’m a morning person and I typically can get a lot done in the morning. But if I don’t, it’s hard to reboot the day and make up for it in the afternoon.
So I got to thinking today about optimal ways for me to spend my valuable morning time. And I also thought about strategies for getting right to it in the morning.
Tagged with: blogging, habits, routines, time management
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 love this trick from Mark Forster about tricking your reactive mind into doing things that you have trouble starting. I shared it first in 2008 (!) and thought it was worth repeating today.
Do you ever have items on your to-do list that just loom there? You know you need to do them, you think about doing them, but you just can’t get going on them?
Tagged with: 15 minutes, mark forster, procrastination, productivity, time management, worth repeating
Since my schedule lightened up a couple of years ago, I’ve lived with relatively little stress. I work hard, which is occasionally stressful, but it’s good stress, since I love my clients and my work. Everything else has been on a pretty even keel. I know that I’m very fortunate.
Tagged with: kirby, self care, stress, task management, time management
I’m an Apple fangirl. As I’ve written here many times, I love love love my iPhone. (I currently have a 5S). I’ve been using iCal for my calendar ever since I got my first Mac in 2008.
Tagged with: apps, calendars, iphone, shannon wilkinson, time management
I wrote this post in July of 2012 and it still rings true. When the fun or rewarding parts of life become just aspirations, rather than reality, we miss out. The special project that I referred to at the end of this post was my blog, Organize Your Family History that I debuted that summer. It has provided lots of motivation for me to pursue my genealogy research!
For more than ten years, I’ve been interested in doing family history research. I would dip my toe in the water every now and then, but would get overwhelmed and withdraw it. Mostly, I just didn’t feel I had the time to do it properly. So I didn’t do it at all.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, family history research, organize your family history, time management, worth repeating
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’m always amazed at how powerful it can be to start on a project I’ve been putting off. Even the tiniest bit of effort is like a dam breaking; the resistance vanishes and then I can get going on it.
Tagged with: procrastination, productivity, time management
Over the years, I’ve written 47(!) blog posts that mention Mark Forster, my favorite time-management guy. Mark really enjoys thinking about things like time management and productivity. I’ve been a fan ever since I read his book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management seven years ago.
Tagged with: books, mark forster, productivity, task management, time management
Sometimes projects, big or small, feel too overwhelming to even start. Sometimes tasks are ongoing or recurring and we have a tendency to let them build up before starting to tackle them.
For either of those types of projects, one solution is to do a little. Just do something. Because a little effort on a regular basis will get the job done, eventually.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, habits, productivity, time management
For the last two days, I have had such a difficult staying focused and productive at my desk! My day yesterday was completely unstructured, which is sometimes a recipe for disaster for me. Without an appointment looming, it can be really hard for me to get started.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, productivity, rewards, time management
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’ve accumulated a few books I keep meaning to read and write about here. But even though I had loads of indoor time over the holidays, I still haven’t cracked them. It’s not for lack of interest, I promise.
Tagged with: books, denise may levenick, genealogy, jill farmer, joseph ferrari, procrastination, time management
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
Julie Morgenstern is somewhat of a rock star among professional organizers. She wrote the books, Organizing from the Inside Out
Tagged with: education, julie morgenstern, napo, time management
It’s 4:46 pm and I’m just now writing today’s blog post. I meant to do it earlier in the day, but other things (like lunch with a friend and a haircut) took precedence. I also had promised to get answer reader questions for Rubbermaid by the end of the week and all of a sudden I was staring down that deadline.
Tagged with: productivity, rewards, the glee project, time management
About a month ago, I wrote a blog post called The Value of Saying No. In it, I talked about the freedom and relief I’m feeling now that a variety of volunteer professional commitments are behind me.
Tagged with: commitments, self-care, time management
On her Facebook page my buddy Gerailn Thomas shared the following words of wisdom this past Friday: “It’s Okay to Say No.”
Tagged with: commitments, geralin thomas, self-care, time management
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
For more than ten years, I’ve been interested in doing family history research. I would dip my toe in the water every now and then, but would get overwhelmed and withdraw it. Mostly, I just didn’t feel I had the time to do it properly. So I didn’t do it at all.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, family history research, 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
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’ve been given an amazing gift. The gift of time.
From January 2010 to December 2011, I worked 20 hours a week (two 10-hour days) at the International Institute of St. Louis. I had a great administrative job, one that allowed me to pay off all my business debt. At the same time, I was running my business full time and serving on two boards of directors of professional groups. I felt like I was on a treadmill, under constant time pressure.
Tagged with: time management
I’m just returning from a five-day trip to visit my parents. (I’m blogging from 30,000 feet in the air!) I realized as I was getting into the mindset of getting back to real life that I was afraid to look at (or even open) my to-do list.
Tagged with: mark forster, personal kanban, time management, to-do list
At a meeting at the headquarters of the Institute for Challenging Disorganization the other day, the ICD executive director, Beth Quick-Andrews, paid me a big compliment. She mentioned a blog post I’d written a year and a half ago and how she thinks about its message often. She even told me when I’d posted it.
Tagged with: holidays, icd, self-care, 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
If you live in or near St. Louis, there’s a great opportunity to learn about time management from one of the world’s experts. The St. Louis chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers is bringing renowned time-management expert, Harold L. Taylor to St. Louis to give a public workshop.
Tagged with: harold taylor, napo st. louis, time management, workshops
Twenty years ago, I read Harold L. Taylor’s book, Making Time Work For You
Tagged with: harold taylor, napo st. louis, time management, workshops
I had a client cancellation on Monday and found myself with about six hours of desk time that I hadn’t been expecting. Bliss.
Thanks to Mark Forster’s Superfocus task-management system (of which I’m an unabashed fan), I didn’t have to try to remember all the stuff I needed to do.
Tagged with: mark forster, productivity, superfocus, time management
Mark Forster, my favorite time management guru, introduced a new task management system, SuperFocus, on February 7 of this year. I’ve been using it since that very day and I’m ready to weigh in on it.
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, superfocus, time management
Every now and then I write here that my time management guru, Mark Forster has created a new task-management system and that it’s awesome. In fact, last April I wrote a love letter to DWM, which at the time was his latest system. And then just two months ago, I wrote about a new tweak to Autofocus, which has been my favorite of his systems.
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, productivity, task management, time management
Like much of the country this winter, St. Louis experienced a big snow storm. Over a 24-hour period, it snowed nine inches, which is a lot for us. St. Louis sort of grinds to a halt when snow is falling, and all my obligations for were canceled.
Tagged with: productivity, snow, time management
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
I’ve been keeping sort of a crazy schedule for the last week. Lots of work outside the home, lots of phone time at home, quite a bit of fatigue. The result is that my email inbox, which I usually try very hard to keep under control, has grown and grown.
Tagged with: aby garvey, email, mark forster, time management, time timer
As I blogged last month, I’ve been experimenting with personal kanban for task management. It’s based on a Japanese model of project management, adapted to personal tasks.
Tagged with: personal kanban, productivity, time management
For several years I’ve been using the various task management techniques created by Mark Forster. The most recent has been DWM. But life and work got sort of crazy and I spent a few weeks doing nothing but putting out fires. I ignored my task list in my DWM planner. These task lists are calendar based, so I needed to figure out how best to get back in the saddle.
Tagged with: mark forster, personal kanban, productivity, task management, time management
It’s a long weekend in the U.S. Memorial Day weekend typically marks the beginning of summer. It’s been feeling like summer here in St. Louis for the past week or two, so it feels like it’s about time.
Tagged with: holidays, self-care, time management
If you’ve been reading my blog awhile (or if you’ve heard me speak), you know I’m crazy about Mark Forster and his time-management principles. One thing I love about him (besides that he thinks in unorthodox ways) is that he’s always dreaming up new ways to do things. It’s not that he’s just improving upon systems he’s invented in the past (though he does do that). Sometimes he just comes up with something completely different.
Tagged with: dwm, mark forster, planners, productivity, time management
At the Container Store the other day, I discovered the Cocoa Desktop Writeboard a rewritable surface that sits on your desk, allowing you to jot notes. I was intrigued. I balked at the $24.99 price tag, but went ahead and purchased it. (It helped that I used the 10 percent discount I’m offered as a NAPO member.) I’ve since discovered it’s available via Amazon
Tagged with: container store, organizing products, productivity, time management, to-do list
I admit it. I’ve let the laundry pile up over the last week to ten days. (We have a laundry chute, so the dirty laundry accumulates in a big laundry bin in the basement. Out of sight, out of mind.)
So today, when I had the day free to work at my desk, I knew I had to do laundry. And I was kind of dragging my feet about it, because I didn’t want be distracted by this task.
Tagged with: mark forster, time management
Mark Forster is my time management guru. As I’ve blogged about before, I loved his book, Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management
Tagged with: autofocus, balance, control, desk, empowerment, focus, goals, mark forster, priorities, productivity, task management, time management, to-do list
My standard poodle, Pip, is out of sorts today. She keeps coming up to me to ask for something. I feed her and she doesn’t eat. I let her out and she doesn’t want to come in (which is unusual, since it’s a very blustery day). It appears she wants something, but doesn’t know what. And she’s having a little trouble getting comfortable.
Tagged with: productivity, time management
I finished my novel on Friday, November 27, three days early. I wrote a few hundred words past the 50,000-word goal. And my book had an actual plot that came to a graceful conclusion.
Tagged with: goals, nanowrimo, productivity, time management
I’ve always been open on this blog about how things can get out of control in my house. Even though I have homes for almost all of my things (which isn’t to say there aren’t storage areas that need to be weeded out…I’ll be blogging more about that in coming weeks), I have a hard time putting stuff away. And when things get busy? Forget about it.
Tagged with: clutter, disorder, time management
In the U.S., we gain an hour on Sunday as Daylight Savings Time (finally) ends. I always love this day because I’ve been given the gift of an extra hour. Rather than setting my clock back before bed, I do it after I wake up so I can actually experience gaining an hour.
Tagged with: geralin thomas, time management, twitter
Over the past ten months I’ve written here about my love of the task-management system Autofocus a lot. I do love it. I’ll let you click on the links and learn about it, but, in a nutshell, it involves one long, bound to-do list upon which you dump all your tasks, in no order, and work through it in a particular fashion. There’s no prioritizing, no rewriting the list.
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, productivity, time management, to-do list
I’ve written quite a bit about Autofocus, the task-management system invented by my favorite time-management guru, Mark Forster. The original Autofocus debuted on January 5, 2009. I was an eager beta tester and became an enthusiastic user.
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, productivity, task management, time management
I’ve written in some detail about time-management guru Mark Forster’s new task-management system, called Autofocus. I’m a giant fan.
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, task management, time management, to-do list
A week ago, I blogged about how my aversion to being early (and tendency to be late) almost cost me my life when I started driving down the wrong side of a downtown St. Louis road, thinking I’d turned onto a one-way street.
Tagged with: control, punctuality, time management
No, this isn’t a post about green organizing (though I am doing a free talk on that topic next month…you might consider coming if you live in St. Louis). Today I’m thinking about keeping track of things using a paper planner/notebook versus an electronic device.
Tagged with: autofocus, balance, nick cernis, productivity, simplicty, time management, to-do list, todoodlist
I’m punctuality challenged, as I’ve blogged about in the past. This is not a desirable quality in a professional organizer. Or anybody, really. I always try to do too much before getting myself out the door to the appointment.
Tagged with: control, punctuality, time management
Through the years, I’ve tried many time- and task-management systems. Like many people who are into this sort of thing (the type of people who enjoy walking the aisles of an office-supply store), I was always drawn to new, shiny systems. I’ve used the FranklinCovey® system, Daytimer®, Day Runner®, QuoVadis, the Planner Pad®, even dabbled in GTD. About 18 years ago, I was practically apoplectic with excitement when I purchased a European-style planner called Time/Line. (Does anyone remember that? It was a lower-cost version of Time/Design, which is now apparently called Time/system. It’s possible I’m remembering the name wrong.)
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, time management
If you struggle with getting things done and you live in the St. Louis area, you might want to take advantage of the free talk I’ll be giving on April 22 in Webster Groves.
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, speaking, time management, workshops
It’s so interesting to me how in control I feel when I have (and take) the time to keep my systems going, and to maintain order. And it’s also interesting how quickly those systems can break down.
Tagged with: autofocus, backsliding, balance, clutter, control, disorder, exercise, time management
As part of my plan to present a free organizing-related talk to the public every other month in 2009, I’ve scheduled my April event.
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, speaking, time management, workshops
On Friday I wrote that I was overwhelmed with tasks and clutter and that I really wanted to put my feet up this weekend, but had so much to do that I feared that wouldn’t be prudent. So I decided to create short task lists for each weekend day and relax only after I’d completed all the tasks on them.
Tagged with: clutter, empowerment, priorities, productivity, relaxation, self-care, time management
So far this year, things have been running really smoothly. I’ve been gliding through the days, getting lots done, meeting some terrific people, making some money. Kind of idyllic, in fact.
Tagged with: clutter, empowerment, priorities, relaxation, self-care, time management
Last week was one of those weeks I wasn’t at my desk much and when I was I had to be focused on urgent items. I’m not sure I actually looked at my to-do list all week, except to add to it.
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, procrastination, productivity, task management, time management
We organizers like to talk about breaking big projects down into small steps in order to make them feel less overwhelming. That’s solid advice.
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, productivity, time management
As I blogged about two weeks ago, time management guru Mark Forster of whom I’m an unbashed fan, has developed a new system for time management (it may be limited to task management, I don’t know). On January 5, he’ll start beta testing it.
Tagged with: mark forster, time management
Even though I’m not going anywhere or doing much for Christmas (besides being a dinner guest), I woke up this morning thinking, “Hey it’s Christmas Eve Day. I don’t want to work.” So I decided to take a half day off.
Tagged with: motivation, time management
If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know that I’m a big fan of “Mark Forster”. The principles in his book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management
Tagged with: autofocus, mark forster, time management
I’ve written here before about my love of Mark Forster’s book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management (there’s a link to the book on the right hand column of my blog). For at least a year now, I’ve been working on integrating elements of his system into my life. One of those elements is to create a “will-do” list of tasks that I actually expect to accomplish on a given day. These are individual tasks, as well as daily tasks like responding to yesterday’s email, voicemail and snail mail.
Tagged with: mark forster, motivation, time management
One of the many strategies offered by Mark Forster in his time-management book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management (link at right) is the concept of declaring a backlog. (I wrote about some of his other strategies last June in the blog posts, Getting started and Keeping going.)
Tagged with: backlog, mark forster, productivity, time management
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I’m a fan of Mark Forster. He’s a time management and personal organization guru who wrote the time-management book I most adhere to, Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management (link at right).
Tagged with: blog of the week, blogs, mark forster, time management
I know that new technology is supposed to enhance productivity. That’s usually why I buy it. But if you’ve ever purchased a new computer, you know that setting up and getting used to the new technology can really eat up time.
Tagged with: apple, ipod, productivity, technology, time management
Yesterday I blogged about how I couldn’t get anything done. The basic culprit was fatigue from attending back-to-back conferences and sleep deprivation from a needy poodle. But after a good night’s sleep and a little reflection, I identified another reason for yesterday’s lack of focus: I didn’t have a to-do list.
Tagged with: mark forster, productivity, time management, to-do list
This morning I read this interview with Gina Trapani, the lead editor of Lifehacker on Zen Habits. It’s an interesting interview. In addition to the many posts a day Trapani writes for Lifehacker, she’s the author of a paper version. Her book, which is now in a second edition called Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better is a compendium from the best hacks from Lifehacker.com. I haven’t read it yet, but I do believe I’ll be purchasing it.
Tagged with: email, lifehacker, mark forster, productivity, time management, zen habits
One of my favorite free services, Jott, is now out of beta and is no longer available as is free of charge. Jott allows you to dictate messages via your cell phone that are then emailed to you. I first blogged about it last January and posted a somewhat amusing cautionary note in March.
Tagged with: jott, productivity, time management
Some days I look around my home or office and say to myself, “I really need to xxxxx” and it’s a general task like, “get organized” or “reorganize my closet.” Sometimes it’s just “create some order around here” when things have gotten out of hand.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, order, procrastination, productivity, time management, unclutterer
Being on time to client appointments has been a challenge for me. I blogged about this three months ago, at which time I vowed to make some changes to my morning routine, including implementing some checklists, so that I’d be on time instead of rushing like a mad woman in the morning.
Tagged with: control, punctuality, routines, time management
I’ve devoted an extraordinary amount of time this week to my vision. I spent all day Monday looking for my old glasses before my eye appointment (and I never found them). Between Monday and today, I’ve been to the eyeglass place three times. I got new glasses (progressive trifocals…I’m officially middle aged), as well as new prescription sunglasses. I’m on my second pair of regular glasses. I love Lenscrafters 30-day satisfaction guarantee. I think these will actually work out well. I must say, it’s nice to see well again!!
Tagged with: ikea, time management
Yesterday I blogged about overcoming the reluctance to get started on a task, citing Mark Forster’s tip on fooling your reactive mind. Today, I’d like to share some of Forster’s advice about keeping going on tasks once you’ve started.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, mark forster, productivity, time management
Do you ever have items on your to-do list that just loom there? You know you need to do them, you think about doing them, but you just can’t get going on it?
Sometimes, you just need to get started and once you overcome the resistance and do the task, it turns out that it’s not so bad. This happens to me all the time. I build up tasks in my mind, thinking they’re going to take forever, then they take no time at all.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, mark forster, procrastination, productivity, time management
I love David Pogue, the technology columnist for the New York Times. Sometimes what he writes is over my head, but often I get great nuggets of information. I share his love of the MacBook, so I feel warm and fuzzy toward him.
Tagged with: david pogue, jott, productivity, technology, time management
I’m constantly amazed at what can be accomplished in just 15 minutes. I often advise my clients (and I do this myself) to set a timer for 15 minutes and focus on one task: decluttering, filing, sorting, etc. As long as they keep going until that timer dings, they’ll get a good amount done. It’s astounding what can get done in such a small amount of time. (As an aside, that’s one of the ways I use my beloved Time Timer.)
Tagged with: 15 minutes, big picture, focus, mark forster, productivity, time management, time timer
Are you familiar with the Time Timer? It’s a tool, often recommended for people with ADD, that gives a visual representation of the passage of time.
Tagged with: geralin thomas, productivity, time management, time timer, tools
I’m going through one of those periods again where I completely empathize with my clients. I had a very busy March and April (I was out of town half the month of April) and now that I have a little time to breathe, I look around my house and think, “I need a professional organizer!” There are no shortage of wonderful organizers here in St. Louis I could hire for help, but I’m going to try to economize and do the work myself.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, accountability, backsliding, decluttering, productivity, time management
After a glorious time at the NAPO conference in Reno (best part: interacting with fabulous organizers, worst part: staying in a hotel and casino full of smoke!), I’m home. I arrived home about midnight on Saturday night.
Tagged with: napo, productivity, time management
I’m a punctuality-challenged person. That’s not a great trait for a professional organizer. My clients have a reasonable expectation that I’ll arrive on time. And besides, it’s just good business to be respectful of your clients’ time.
Tagged with: control, joe's goals, mark forster, punctuality, routines, silvercreek glider club, time management
I like sharing new websites and shortcuts for making life a little easier. But there are some older sites that you may not know about that I’d like to share. These are sites I use regularly to make my life easier and more enjoyable. I hope you will too.
Tagged with: knitting, productivity, ravelry, time management, websites
As I’ve written here before, I’m a big fan of Jott.com. It’s a service that allows you to send emails from your telephone while you’re on the go. You register on the Jott site, give them your cell-phone number, input a list of people you’d want to email via Jott (including yourself). Then you program Jott’s phone number into your cell-phone autodial.
Tagged with: jott, productivity, time management
I took the day off yesterday. Completely.
I hadn’t had a day off since March 6 and I was feeling the need to recharge my batteries. Yesterday was the first day I didn’t have a client appointment scheduled in a couple of weeks and I just wanted to hang out. So that’s what I did.
Tagged with: balance, knitting, time management
Time management isn’t about managing time. It’s about managing priorities. We all have the same amount of time in a day to deal with. How we use it is an indication of our priorities.
Tagged with: balance, mark forster, michael neill, priorities, productivity, time management
I love having a blog. The freedom to write whatever I want is wonderful. (Way, way back in the day I had a column in PetLife magazine in which I could write whatever I wanted. It was exhilarating.)
But that freedom is a two-edged sword. With little structure surrounding what to write, and no deadlines, it can be very difficult to (1) take the time to post to my blog and (2) come up with something remotely meaningful to write.
Tagged with: blogs, don't break the chain, michael neill, routines, steven pressfield, time management, writing
As I’ve written here before, I decided on January 1 that 2008 would be the year that I take control of my time-management issues. That day, I selected probably a half dozen time management books from my shelf, each one espousing a different philosophy. I thought I’d make a commitment to a single system and really try to adhere to it for a month or so.
Tagged with: balance, control, desk, empowerment, focus, goals, mark forster, priorities, productivity, time management
This year I’m a quest to save time and be more productive. It’s going well. Thanks to the techniques found in Mark Forster book, Do It Tomorrow (link in the Links section at right) and Don’t Break the Chain I’m more productive than I’ve been in a long time.
Tagged with: don't break the chain, jott, mark forster, productivity, time management
The habit I’ve been trying to instill with the Don’t Break the Chain method that I wrote about in a recent post is clearing my desktop at the end of the workday.
Tagged with: accountability, clean desk, decluttering, desk, don't break the chain, goals, habits, motivation, productivity, time management, workspace
As part of my new emphasis on time management this year, I started off the new year by checking out some productivity blogs. I came across this great post on the wonderful blog Lifehacker that introduced to me a concept that in just a few short days has really had an impact on me.
Tagged with: clean desk, don't break the chain, goals, habits, motivation, time management
But here it is the first day of the year and I find myself wanting to write down goals, figure out systems for making life easier, and (still) cleaning out/cleaning up.
Tagged with: balance, decluttering, new year, ravelry, time management
If you like watching organizing shows on TV, you’re in for a treat. Fine Living Network has a new show called Time Makeover that focuses on time management.
Tagged with: fine living network, geralin thomas, television, time makeover, time management
Isn’t balance always such a struggle? I think in my dream life I’d effortlessly balance work and play, solitude and company, relaxation and housekeeping, client time and desk time. And I’d do it with ease and grace. In my current reality, I’m feeling torn in several directions most of the time.
Tagged with: balance, time management
I swear I could spend entire days weeks months reading knitting blogs and patterns, shopping for yarn, organizing my stash and needles and, oh yes, knitting. When I win the lottery, I might just do that.
Tagged with: interweave knits, knitting blogs, time management
I’ve been spending my days helping my clients create order, which I love doing. Meanwhile, my own house seems to be devolving into chaos. Between the rapidly piling up mail (I can’t seem to get caught up), and the laundry that’s not getting done, my home looks like it could use the help of a professional organizer.
Tagged with: clutter, coaching, perfectionism, time management
Today was the one day this week where I planned to get a lot of stuff done. I have client appointments each day the rest of the week and while they’re just half-day appointments, I find it’s hard to be ultra-productive the second half of the day. I had big plans for getting so much accomplished in the broad expanse of time available today.
Tagged with: mark forster, priorities, time management
I was a writer for many years (mostly magazine articles and books) and I couldn’t work without a deadline. The deadline would dictate when I started working on a story and, to be honest, there was usually a lot of procrastination involved.
Tagged with: deadlines, mark forster, procrastination, time management