Staying productive and getting things done are very popular questions these days – especially for those who are working at home. There are numerous various methods and practices, but I will put here a little advice, what I found working for me, three types of to-do’s – three steps:
- Write down all tasks that are reoccurring daily/weekly/monthly and add them to your calendar (I recommend to also set reminders for them);
This will define and let you know of your rhythm and routine. For some tasks you will have the exact time (for example weekly call with your client/boss) for other you just set it for your self – for example if you know that you have to send some report to someone every Monday evening, so you can reserve hour or two for this every Monday morning. I even recommend you to add such tasks as “have lunch”, “take a nap”, “exercise time!”, or “watch the news”, “check email”, “read important RSS feeds” etc. - Write down non-reoccurring tasks, group them by areas (personal, work, anything else) or by projects you’re working on and keep them close, prioritize what you can.
The most important part of this is not to forget to look at the to-do list before starting to work on any project/area and to not forget to instantly add new tasks to the to-do lists as soon as you find them. If it’s possible I recommend you to use free slots of the calendar, which left after the first step and use them for working on projects/areas tasks. When calendar informs you about the time to start to work on some project/area – just look into it’s to-do list (and if there isn’t such yet, take time to create one). - Have a Not-to-do list (Yes, I know, it sounds strange :), but “not to-do lists” work!). And I recommend you very much to see this list. Review this and leave the things that fit you and add more.
I highly recommend to set a 15mins monthly task in your calendar for reviewing your not to-do list.
Of course these steps are not for everyone, but hope this will help somebody :) Cheers!
Thats very good to know… thanks