New time management tools
I’ve recently made a move away from my old time management system of lists and mindmaps to a more fluid and flexible (and at the same time more structured!) system.
I use a piece of software called My Life Organized, coupled with my Outlook calendar.
As usual, the 4 areas of life make up the top-level hierarchy, and are further broken down into goals, projects and tasks. The handy thing about this program is that it synchronises nicely with Outlook and therefore my cell phone too, so I have all my goals and tasks with me wherever I go.
I have also added a category called ‘miscellaneous everyday stuff’ which contains all the small errands that crop up during the day that have to be attended to but don’t really contribute to any long-term goals. My aim is to keep these to a minimum so that most of my productive time is spent working towards what I want.
I won’t say the program is perfect, especially considering the rather idiosyncratic way I organise my life… but it comes pretty darn close.
On the business side of things, I am still keeping some long-term project plans in mindmap form and I have a nifty web-based project management system, but for the everyday, I have returned to the tried-and-tested Moleskine notebook, where my ideas, thoughts and daily to-dos go.
Simple always seems to better. An interesting thought that came to me is that the #1 problem most people have with “time management” is that they don’t work on what they are supposed to be working on. They either procrastinate, or try to work around it, or do other stuff and in the end, just simply fail to get what needs to be done actually DONE. Once you get this out of the way however, it becomes really simple: pick 6 things a day, start at the first… and work your way through the list. If you get through all of them, great! Go celebrate and enjoy the rest of your day off. If you don’t then roll them over to the next day and keep going!
Aaron @ May 5, 2008