smcculloch posted on November 02, 2005 03:51
Since moving into my own business, it seems the list of tasks/jobs I have to do has become quite endless. There is quite a lot I want/need to achieve!
These tasks are often lost, forgotten, etc and certain items don't receive the priority they deserve. I spend time worrying about each task, when am I going to do this? I still have this to do, etc.
One of the tools I discovered yesterday to help me solve this problem is the following book called "Getting Things Done", it's quite a simple, common sense methodology to organising your tasks for a particular day and reveiwing your progress at certain times.
The main point is to get each item down on paper/computer/whatever (out of your mind!) and decide what to do with it. You can either:-
- Delegate (send to another person and optionally add a waiting for task for follow up)
- Defer (defer to a later date for processing or actioning)
- Action (create a task for it)
- Someday (create a task for it and put it in a low priority category, e.g. you'll do it someday)
- Snooze (make it go away and appear back in your inbox in x amount of time)
The great thing about it is you can use outlook to do all the above tasks, and the website has a neat little outlook add-in (with 30 day free trial) you can purchase to help automate the above processes.
Definately recommended!