At the advice of several of my friends, I'm taking two new steps to add a little order to my life: making a to-do list, and using a timer.
The to-do list is, of course, an ancient concept which I have resisted mainly because of my laziness. After all, making a to-do list is a thing that one has to do. So I'm going to put "make tomorrow's to-do list" as the last item on today's to-do list. Let's hope this will elongate, if not perpetuate, the habit.
The timer I purchased is a mid-level kitchen timer. It has buttons for the numbers zero through nine, so that I can input the exact minutes and seconds I wish to time. It counts up as well as counting down. I'll use it to make sure I'm spending a certain amount of time on each form of writing I have to do.
Tools are only as good as the person using them, so please pray for me that I'll use them well!
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3 comboxers:
A management course taught that with your to-do lists you should prioritize with A, B and C. Get all the A's done and then what doesn't get done moves us in priority the next day. My experience is that there are always A's that come up the next day and sometimes what is at the bottom of the list remains at the bottom of the list for several days and occasionally falls through the cracks. I'm still working on this myself so I will definitely join you in prayer in your use of this tool!
that would be "up in priority"
If anyone asks me someday how I managed to so much when the kids were young, I'll say "timers".
The other thing about to do lists is that they take a while to learn how to use. Don't get frustrated if you fall off the wagon quickly. Shoot for 30 days (non-consecutive okay) in a row of checking your to do list daily to create the habit.
The other thing that helped me greatly was adding a context to each "to do". That way the family to do list wasn't bothering me at work. Do a google for "Getting Things Done" that explains contexts, task gathering and then doing tasks. (The author actually doesn't like "to do" lists - in reality I use them as a rough guide for me week. I suspect most people are like me if they are successfully implementing GTD.)
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