Posts Tagged ‘lists’

My Sticky Note List

Yesterday I did a video about the daily priority list – that daily list of the 5 most important things you must, absolutely-must-do-today-no-matter-what. That doesn’t sound like so much fun to me. It probably didn’t to you either. (unless you make sure one of the 5 is fun! I’m glad you did!) I hate to be the one to break the news to you,  but sometimes we have to do things that aren’t fun.

The good news is there are things we get to do that are lots and lots of fun. Even lists. The “category” lists I spoke of yesterday are, well, in that category of things we get to do that are fun. For me at least. Because I love making lists of fun things to do. And typically that is what these lists are about. For example, lists of books you may want to read, music you want to listen to, bands you want to see when they come to town, places you’d like to visit,  what you want to be when you grow up, kinds of dogs you may want to purchase, and…the list goes on.

So much fun to be had, so many lists to be made. Where on earth are we going to house so much information? Evernote.com seems to be the front runner for this category.  You can put in photos you find online, photos you take with your phone, voice recordings, web pages, pdfs, notes….it is like a sticky note on steroids! My love for this program, free program I might add, is in its full bloom. I still have yet to see a wart let a lone a mere blemish. If you are in love with some other such program or system please do tell! Options are good…but we all know how we felt about first love…ahh. I may never leave my Evernote.

You can have your lists with you at all times and who wouldn’t want that? When you are at the bookstore the list in the file at home does you no good. When you are at Home Depot that file of gardening information you’ve been adding to for years is useless.

The smartphones all have list funtionality but to be able to marry a list with a photo or just to throw in a pdf…just makes it so much more likely that you’ll use the thing. I think we get hung up sometimes because the information we receive that we’d like to remember comes in so many formats and medias.  With Evernote you’ll have all of that information with you on your phone, tagged for easy retrieval, no matter where it came from.  See…I told you that making lists would be fun! (at least easy!)

Slowing down

Ok … so let’s pretend we agree that slowing down and focusing in on one task at a time is the right way to go. What if we took it even further and said that no-tasking is the way to go?  What would that look like? I think it would look like you having fun at your job, fun running your business and bottom line  feeling much less overwhelmed.

I’m not so excited by the “shoulds” and the “have tos” as I am by the “get-tos” and the “love-tos.”  I wonder if we would be way  more organized if we stopped trying to get it all done and focused in on the things we love to do.  It may sound impossible (who’s going to pick up the laundry?, etc) but there are services for so many things:

Image by 416style via Flickr

laundry for example, food delivery, dog-walking (we love to do that though).

Outsourcing and delegating are great ways to embark on your no-tasking adventure. If you have to do something you don’t love, back against the wall, wall on fire…there is always the option of going into the fire. Really focusing in on what it is you are doing until you see the fun in it.

The research is in…

best way to get what you want done is focusing in on one thing at a time. It may sound like a crazy suggestion if you have 50 things on your to-do list or task list but you really can only do one thing a time. That is, if you want to avoid crashing into the car in front of you.

Isn't this fun when you focus? Image via Wikipedia

The professional organizer in me says, “make a list of 5 things you have to do today and focus on each one until they are done.” The human being in me knows this is often not going to happen. In light of this reality – whatever you are doing – attempt to give it your full attention as an experiment.

Just for a day.

See for yourself if this works better for you, if you are less stressed, if you are excited about what you are doing.  It is the zen thing – the example being that even brushing your teeth is a fulfilling activity if you do it right, that is, with attention.  I’ll go into this more tomorrow but the best case scenario is to have no tasks – that is – you love what you are doing so much you have a “get to do” list. Ohm.