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April 24, 2009 by Bogdan
Filed under Freelance Advice, Time Management
We previously chatted about finding inspiration. Now we shall talk about getting things done. Not the actual book, but about what all of us do in order to move forward in our projects.
I am a mac user, and I use calendar app a lot. I have a couple (7 actually) different calendars, ranging from business tasks, to deadlines and personal plans. This has helped me stay on track with what I do, and make extensive plans up to almost 2 weeks ahead.
However, this didn’t work quite well, and just after this last Easter I ended up on the first working day with about 40 tasks to complete. That was obviously way to much I could handle, even if I had 10 employees. I ended up with those 40 tasks because I usually planned for each day much more than I could do. At the end of each day, all uncompleted tasks were postponed to the next day. In the long term, this technique proved very bad, but I switched it upside down.
Now, I pushed all my tasks to the end of the next week, picked the most important 5 of them, and moved them on the to-do list for today. Having the pressure off my shoulders, it turned out that all those 5 tasks were completed a couple of hours before my “working time” for today was over. I then looked and checked the next important task in the long list that was pushed to the next week. I did that task too, and repeated the process. When I finished work, and started writing this article, I realized I have finished 9 tasks, as opposed to 5 or 6 with my previous technique.
I think I got better results because I didn’t look ahead and try to multi-task. So, how do you do it?
As a mac user you may want to take a look at Things, also available as syncable iPhone app. Things just makes my day, everyday.
What works out for me is I make a To Do list at the beginning of each day, i put about 5-7 specific tasks that have to do with a specific project. The trick about doing it this way is having a time to start, since I’m a freelancer I work at home and it’s so easy to stop working on a project and get distracted by the many things at home. So i set a certain time range, from 10AM-4PM are my hours and in those hours I have to complete all my tasks and do nothing else. It works out pretty well for me.
PS: You must use hand written to do lists, once on your computers are pointless
as joseph says it’s best to use hand written lists . i feel it gives you a touch with real life .
one way to keep things in order is to split your life in 3 parts : work , projects ( personal or otherwise – things you feel like you want to do but that are not as urgent as work ) , and a category for your personal life .
buy 4 notebooks ( 4 different colors ) and make sure they are always on you desk .
use one of them to quickly write down various ideas , thoughts , future projects . everytime you fill up a page make sure you get all your tasks and split them up on the other 3 notebooks ( based on their categories ) .
plan only 2-3-4 days in advance . no more than that .
as for the 3 notebooks … split your tasks in 2 categories : urgent and … oh well .. not urgent – tasks that can wait a day or two or even more .
why a notebook ? because if you were to use x software it would be very easy to quickly add a task . just type some text and click a button . on the other hand … if you use a notebook and handwrite everything then you would no longer feel the urge to add every single thing that comes up in your mind and that seems somewhat interesting .
the other advantage of a notebook is that because it takes a little longer to write you get a little more time to carefully plan you day .
one might say that you waste time by doing this … and that it would be faster to type them in your computer . but if you type them in your computer chances are you won’t have enough time to plan things carefully .
this works for me ..
I am not a MAC user, however, I have been using David Allen’s GETTING THINGS DONE (GTD) (davidco.com) methodology for nearly 5 years now. I think of it as a framework that allows me the flexibility to execute within its ideals in my own way.
I’ve also started using EVERNOTE (evernote.com) for one of my capture tools. Unless Nelson, I think it is better to get it all out of your head even if it is silly or trivial. That way it is not bouncing around using up psychic ram.
I essentially capture everything either into evernote, jr legal size pads of paper or my stack of index cards that I always have in my shirt pocket. Once it is out of my head, I determine the context that I need to be in to address the task or goal. Example: Do I need to be at the computer? Or perhaps when I am out running errands (like Home Depot or the Grocery Store)? That way I see what I need to see in the right place.
I wrote up my simple integration on my website the other day. Let me know if that helps you any.
http://darrencrawford.com/2009/07/18/my-simple-gtd-evernote-combo/
I use paper and a week based approach.
I start with a to-do list, then I think on priorities and deadlines to do things. I define priorities among “categories” (personal vs. job vs hobbies) and inside each “category”
Then a place all inside a week-based calendar.
That’s helps..at least me
My trouble to get other people do things at work. I love to be on time, I hate delays. With my coworkers I use very detailed GANNT diagrams
Hi there,
I use Basecamp HQ to coordinate my tasks, to do’s and projects. I find that it really helps me to focus on the important tasks and to complete them too. I can also track the amount of time being spent on individual tasks and clients.
I would sincerely recommend this to anybody.
Hi there,
This is how it works best for me:
I prefer handwritten lists of tasks. I also draw by my hand the little boxes for check marks. For this I’m using medium size Post Its. Every night I’m writing 7 to 10 To Dos for the next day. If I accomplished all the tasks for that day, well, I write a big DONE! and signing under it. It works best with very specific tasks and, by far, the best results are achieved the very next day. Also, I do collect the Done’s. It’s very helful in keeping you on the right track.
So many times I heard that I could have done more if I have the proper technology. You have to ask first if that technological gadget is not the new toy that a grown-up has to have it.