Instant Action

Planning and organising is important.  But it shouldn't become an end in itself.   Over the last six months or so I have been working a system whereby I use my Google calendar as my To Do list as well as a calendar.  The theory was that I would allocate time on my calendar and colour code it so I would know where my time was going and adjust it to make sure I was using my time in the most productive way.   It actually worked pretty well for a while.  But eventually the amount of stuff I was trying to keep track of became so large that it became a job in itself to keep on top of it.


I might go back to the basic idea again some time, but for now I have gone back to a simpler approach using just lists of tasks.  The trouble with time management is it is so easy to turn it into an end in itself rather than a tool to achieve a desired outcome.  The desired outcome is a simple one - make sure you are doing the things you need to do efficiently enough to free up time for the things you want to do.  When my system failed to do that I had to change it.

I think the most important thing is that you should know when you get up what you plan to get done that day.  The tool I have chosen is Google Tasks.  My choice was driven largely by the fact that I wanted something simple that integrated well with Google Calendar, which remains my primary planning tool.  I think it is lacking in some features I would appreciate, but I will work around them for now.

So I now have a set of lists.  I have learnt my lesson and made sure each of the lists is relatively short.  I will pick a couple of items from each list to make up a daily action list for the following day.  That way when I wake up I know exactly what I am going to do and can start it straight away.

You will be pleased to know that today is the first day of it, and I haven't actually got my list together.  I plan to be organised, but I can't help being human.

Photo credit: massimo ankor via photopin cc