In this series, I will be walking through tools, systems, and routines that work for me in various areas of my life.
The challenge with tasks is that we are often times drawn to items that fall within one of these categories:
- Tasks we’re good at
- Tasks that are easy
- Tasks that take little time to complete
- Tasks we enjoy doing
The problem as we all know is that not every task that we have to get done falls into one of these categories. There are plenty of tasks that fall into the categories of “boring,” “takes forever,” “I don’t want to do this,” or “I’m going to suck at this.” But unfortunately these tasks need to get done as well.
So here are a couple of idea I try to use as well as some tools that help me accomplish this…
- Separate the Urgent from the Important – If you’ve read any of Stephen Covey’s material (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People), then you may have heard of this concept. The idea is that we are often drawn to the things that are urgent but not necessarily important. Each day, I look over my task list and try to determine what are the 3 most important items on that list. If I could only get 3 things accomplished today, which 3 would they be? Sometimes they fit the criteria above that make them easy to do but other times, they are lame and dull tasks but yet critically important.
- Ask Yourself Tough Questions – As you’re going throughout your day, ask yourself questions like “Is this really what you should be doing right now?” “What’s the worst thing that could happen if you don’t get this done today?” “Why are you doing this?” Asking yourself these evaluating questions from time to time keeps yourself focused.
- Create A Plan – I talked about this yesterday as it relates to how I set up my calendar, but once I schedule out my day (not minute-by-minute, but just a general idea of the day), I also plan when I will work on certain tasks. The tasks that you work on should match up with when you’re at your best for doing that task.
In order to carry this out, I use a couple of different tools. In addition to using Mail and iCal on Mac, I also have started using a program called Things. This is a super user-friendly program that makes it easy to focus on the most important items and carry out your plan. The program follows a lot of what is taught in the book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen (which I highly recommend as it relates to this subject). Unfortunately, Things is only a Mac program, but prior to my conversion, I used Outlook 2007 and the to do list within that program which worked well. I also use a program called Jott, which I have discussed here. Finally, I always keep a notepad and pen by my computer (and by my bed at night), so I can scribble down notes, thoughts, or to do list items.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk more about money and how we handle our day-to-day finances.
What tips can you share for how you organize your tasks and get things done?
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