Using Lists to Accomplish More

drivelocity — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:38:54 +0000

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.

Too Many Calendars!

drivelocity — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:44:55 +0000

I just received an email from someone in my office that basically instructs us to update a shared Outlook calendar, which is fine and dandy. But, if we schedule something during the current month, we’re also supposed to pencil it in on the printed version of said calendar. This now makes five calendars I need to remember to update whenever I schedule something during the current month…

Google calendar (personal & important work stuff)
My desk calendar (record time off)
My Outlook calendar (appts & project due dates)
Shared Outlook calendar (appts & vacation)
Printed calendar (appts & vacation)

I guess I need to consolidate some of these, but the only one I can really give up is the desk calendar, but that comes in handy when all I need is the time I’ve taken off, so I can quickly update my time sheet at the end of the month. It would be nice if all of our Outlook calendars were synched, so there would be no need for a shared calendar, in turn eliminating the need for the printed version. Gotta love redundancy. Gotta love redundancy.

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Using Lists to Accomplish More

Too Many Calendars!