task calendering

I mentioned previously that the seminar I went to in Indianapolis last week was full of very useful, practical tips and what not for being better able to manage one's work. I also mentioned that I found several of the techniques they suggested to be of particular help not just in organizing a business day, but organizing and accomplishing personal tasks as well. After only a week, I can already tell that the major change implemented from this seminar has been incredibly helpful.

Some background: Ever since I started using a planner sometime during college, I just used it as a to do list. Eventually, during the later years in college when I got more involved and had meetings, I would use the calendar side of the planner on put those meetings and appointments on at their designated time. I continued doing this throughout law school and into my current job...a calendar of appointments, and an attempt a long to do list of everything I needed to do. Eventually what happened, is that I would work on "whatever came up" on a particular day, and forget about the stuff on the to do list. This would happen for stuff at home as well...I would forget about various things I wanted or needed to accomplish until I was going to bed or leaving for work, always at a time when I could do nothing about the task. I was getting things done for sure, but I wasn't nearly as being effective or efficient as I could, and I knew it, and it was annoying and bothersome.

One of the techniques from the seminar is to rid yourself of the to do list, and to calendar your tasks as you would appointments. Thus, today, my calendar shows me working on a particular case from 3 -4, and another from 4-5. Granted, things still come up daily that throw the schedule off a little, which is why there I still leave open slots. But with just a little bit of better planning, maybe 15 - 30 minutes a day, I continue to make progress on everything I need to. It may sound somewhat silly, but looking at my calendar and seeing, "oh, I am supposed to be working on this now," makes a big difference. It also helps in making me get tasks done at home as well as I put that on my evening calendar slots, and thus, for today, I know that I want to install one more channel track in the garage.

An additional technique to use with this calendering of tasks is to write something down as soon as you think of it. As I use google calendar, and am almost always next to a computer, this works great. Late last night and this morning I remembered that Jackie and I wanted to plant a tree in our yard this spring in memory of Toby. I had forgotten about it completely,and the best time for planting is pretty soon and our best chance to have some free time to work to plant the small tree is soon, as in next week when Jackie is on spring break. Normally, I just would have said, remember this. I may have remembered, or I may have forgot for another two weeks...with so much going on, I have to learn not to always trust my memory (which is hard for me to do because I generally have a pretty good memory). So, I write down for next Wednesday, which I was already planning to take off from work, to go the local tree farm nursery, pick up a tree and plant it. So, the item went from a possible "oops, I forgot about that" to something I have planned to do for next week and have already allotted the time for it.

Anyone who knows me well can probably see why this would work well for me...it keeps me on a focused path and leaves out too much randomness in my day; I like to have order to it. Also, to do something like this and not have this much planning annoy one completely, you have to pretty darn neurotic, which thankfully I am. Anyway, I am ultimately just glad that it feels like I will become more efficient in handling tasks and what not as life continues to become busier and busier.