GetOrganised: tackling a to do list

GetOrganised

For March 2013, each Sunday I'll be helping you to GetOrganised. I'll share tips and tricks aimed at making organisation work for you...noting of course how you could possibly tweek everything to suit your needs.

After figuring out what exactly you need to organise, the next thing to do is to make sense of it all.

You have a to do list with probably 100 things and it probably seems really overwhelming....but there are five methods I've used to make sense of my to do lists while making note of the 'asap task' versus the 'soon task' and the 'eventually task.'

NB: It would be a good idea to have at least three different coloured pens for this exercise

1. Use a coloured pen/marker to note the tasks that can be done in 5 minutes or less. These quick tasks are your 'asap tasks' and would include simple things like making a phone call, checking or sending off email, or even rearranging something to make it more accessible later.

2. Use another coloured pen/marker to mark the tasks you need to finish within 7 days. These are clearly the 'soon tasks' and may be tasks like finishing a report, completing the notes for a meeting or purchasing an item. Feel free to also jot down which day of the week the task needs to be completed by. This will help you prioritise the tasks based on due date.

3. It could be assumed that the remaining tasks are 'eventually tasks.' Be sure to look at them twice to see if any of these tasks are linked to tasks in the other categories. You may notice that some of them are very much related and can either be done together, or that the start of one task will be dependent on the completion of another. Maybe you want to prepare a presentation, but that presentation will need the responses from an email and a face-to-face meeting in order to be completed. The email is your 'asap task', the meeting is your 'soon task' and then the presentation your 'eventually task'....all correlated.

4. Delegate what can be delegated and note areas where help will be needed. While all the things you need to do may not be school or work related and would be best done by you, don't feel that asking for a little help is out of the question. If a friend offers to help, confirm that they will be able to assist and complete a task within a set time frame; then note that the task has been delegated. As it relates to getting help, try finding more experienced persons to help with tasks you can't really manage alone. This may give you the chance to learn something new, and may quite likely get the task done quicker and more efficiently.

5. Make changes when necessary. The reality is that as you complete some tasks, others come up whether planned or not. Be ready to make changes to your list (or make a new list each week) as new things to do pop up and as you make progress with various tasks. Sometimes tasks that starts off as 'eventually' become 'asap' for whatever reason. So just be ready to adjust.


So yes, the 'asap tasks' and the 'soon tasks' are sometimes the ones that determine whether or not 'eventually tasks' get done at all. This of course is why it's a good idea to break the list into categories and work smarter to get things done.

Now you're probably also thinking about a location that your list can be kept while you get busy with getting things done....or make note of things to be added. I use a small notebook. It not only reminds me of the things I need to get done, but also gives me the space to jot down other things I need to add to my list for the week ahead. On a Sunday afternoon I sit and figure out the week ahead, making use of the notes I've made throughout the week and using the lists from the week before to see which tasks need to be carried over.