I recently skimmed through a post about multitasking on BlueVerse.com. It was a good read and got me thinking that I should share something new… I’ve been trying to avoid the pitfalls that the author, Ryan, and I both seem to experience. Too much multitasking can make us ineffective as far as fully accomplishing the goals we set for ourselves. We may be able to get a little bit of a lot done, but my recent experiment has me getting more full goals met. What do I do? I create lists.

I’ve been big on lists for a long time, but I recently implemented a twist on the list idea. I create a weekly calendar, of sorts, subdivided into my “free time” allotments. For example, for each day of the week, I have a list for what I can do from the office or at lunch. I have a list for what to do after work, while my son is awake. Finally, I have a list to finish the day with items to do once he’s asleep.

This has proven to be a vast improvement over my other lists, which include one for house projects, relatively organized in the shape of our house with tasks for each part of the house and yard. I have another list with everything related to web sites. And I have a general all-encompassing list of miscellaneous things I need to do, purchase, sell, etc.

Of all the lists, the new calendar format seems to be working the best. I can focus entirely on each task and go down the list. If I knock them out early, I can either work on other tasks, freeing up time later in the day/week, or I can relax and enjoy the free time for the remainder of that period. Of course, you can use a physical calendar, an Outlook calendar, or a Google calendar, but I already have too many calendars that I use for calendars. My daily task list is created in Excel, and I’m able to easily drag and drop cells to rearrange tasks, as needed. As I complete a task, I shade the cell. It also helps in tracking my productivity throughout the week.