List it!

It occurred to me today how many lists I make! As I sit in my office there are two running concurrently beside me on REAL paper notepads, two books (one for work and one for the house) add the ones on my iPad, iPhone and outlook; I have a mountain of things to do.

There has been many articles written about being organised but personally I find the issue of getting your head in order first to be the most important. If your head seems to go in a number of directions at one time before you start to do anything most likely either you won’t start anything or everything will be half done.

forget the scraps of paper and post it notes!

If you make one huge ‘to do’ list that suddenly becomes daunting and you never get to the bottom so I find a number of lists works well for me.

I have shopping lists on my phone that way I never forget anything – my phone is always with me. I also use the notes section as a reference. If you see a web site on TV or a company you want to look up when you get home it gives you somewhere to put the information and you won’t lose it. If your thinking of new curtains or the like, note the measurements so if you see something you like or on sale you will know if it fits or not without making two trips (or trying to tell someone else what and where to measure not to mention where the tape measure is!)

iPad lists are easy

I make inspirational lists in a special book. These are more like goals than the normal ‘pay the phone bill’ type notes which do appear in list form. I find if you set a day and time to do certain jobs like pay the bills it takes much less time (even if they are paid a little early they are off the list) these types of jobs will be constant and never ending so why not allocate the time in advance.

I also find ‘time blocks’ helpful. Break your day into say 2hour increments. This works wether you are at work or home. There are always the people that seem to find this difficult but we all need to get to work on time, deliver and pick up kids on time etc. so we already have this ability ingrained in us. The biggest mistake I seem to make is trying to fit 3 hours of work into two which then sends the day into disarray so I try not to do this. If you have the kitchen to clean and it usually takes you half an hour make sure you allocate that time don’t think you will get the whole house done in 2 hours. When we are at work there is always the demands of emails and phone calls that can interrupt what we are trying to achieve, I haven’t found a way around that one apart from working till I’m finished and to prioritise! (This is probably why I always have the hard copy filing to be done).

I have another notepad next to me to write things I need to take away with me at the end of the week (there is nothing worse than arriving at your destination with the camera and no way of charging it).

I am one of those people whose head is always busy so by making lists and checking things off it actually helps me sleep which in turn helps with the motivation to get things done. We all have those times where we are just plain tired or sick and just can’t seem to pick ourselves up as much as usual this is where the prioritisation is important. Make phone reminders for everything and if you can’t do it then and there reset the reminder don’t ignore it.

We have so much technology in our lives so we need to make the most of it. Use your Outlook if you have Microsoft office as the day can be set out for 24hours (it doesn’t just have to be for work). I even have exercise time allocated on mine so when it pops up and I have to dismiss it without doing it, it actually makes me feel guilty.

Use colour on outlook to categorise

When you fall behind (we all do) for whatever reason don’t become overwhelmed as this will only make the situation worse just re organise, prioritise and smile.

OK, sometimes post-it-notes are good x