All I Need to Know, I Haven’t Learned Yet – Part Two

 

By Deb Weidenhamer

 

In my January column I talked about how time was speeding up and that we would explore in the next two columns how to plan and control our scheduling and slow the clock down.  What is extremely ironic is that I actually had to skip last month’s column because my time was so out of control that I just didn’t have enough time to write my column.  Generally no matter what -- I make time to get out the thoughts I have been working on in my head for a month and share some of my ideas with you.  So I am sorry that I am a little late but it does prove the point that I write this column as advice for me more than anyone else.

 

I do know that the best way to control your time is to absolutely be diligent about writing everything down what you need to get done.  There are many systems on the market that help you with this task and for the most part I think they do a very poor job of getting someone organized.  As great as palm pilots are they don’t replace the quick need to jot a note without powering up and getting the task into the right digital list.  And daily planners just have a place for you to keep track of your “to do” list with very little other organization other than the calendar.

 

If you are the master of any of these systems than by all means, stick with them.  However, I find that with a daily planner and a palm I always felt I was missing something, that I could forget to do something or that I wouldn’t meet a deadline.  So I have learned the art of the “great brain dump.”  That means I take a couple of blank sheets of paper and I go through my notes, post-its, emails, letters, bills, files and past daily pages and I write down everything that I need to get done.  After I get everything down on paper I begin to organize my brain dump into categories.

 

I still use a daily planner, but I have a notebook behind my planner that is divided into categories including projects/auctions, phone calls, at the computer, goals, nice to do’s, errands, at home, follow-up, checklists, agendas and actions.  These are the categories that work for me and my lifestyle.  So I begin to categorize everything from my brain dump into the categorized notebook.  If someone calls that I would like to talk with soon but not today I will put them in my “calls” section of my categories.  If I know I have something I want to mention in a senior staff meeting, I write it in my “agendas” section so I can refer to it in the meeting.  My “at the computer” list has emails I want to send, Internet research I want to do and maybe correspondence I want to type. 

 

All of these tasks will get put into the master notebook and then once a week I sit down and plan out the week.  That is where the daily planner comes back into play.  The items that made it in the notebook go onto the daily task list so that deadlines are met and projects are timely.  Although this system at first sounds time consuming (I assure you I was taught the system by one of the greatest business minds I have known) it is actually the most effective way to control time. 

 

Next month we will actually go through the steps of how to use the system to get better organized.  And I hope you will find that this system creates a peace of mind that you aren’t missing anything.  There is no feeling more wonderful than to know you are on top of your time. So I will see you next month and don’t worry I have you categorized writing my next column into the notebook.