If you are anything like me
Todoist
My brain is like chrome with 20+ tabs open at any given time. @todoist helps- I add things to it and work on it later.
July 16, 2016
In the post How to build a smarter to-do list Part I Merlin mentions that in David Allen’s Getting Things Done there is an idea of taking a task (or project) and breaking it into smaller more manageable ones. I have been doing that a lot with my school work because it is easier to keep track of what I have to do next. For example if I have a paper to write the project might be called “Write Research Paper” and within that the tasks would be: pick topic, collect research,
Even collect research can be broken down into smaller more specific tasks like if there are 4 different resources i want to look at that way I don’t miss one of them.
One thing I love about Todoist is that I can do a brain dump and go back to it later to organize it. I especially like their drag and drop feature.
Due dates – I always use due dates/times whenever possible to really keep you on track. You can also select bulk tasks if you need to reschedule or post pone them.
You can sync your account to the phone app, web version and the Chrome extension.
I also like that I can add an email reminder to the task so if I’m in my email I get reminder – just in case it is something super important and my phone is out of reach.
I absolutely love this timer website and I’ve been using it for years. Open up your laptop, plug in a number of how long you want and it will set up a timer for you. I usually use it when I’m actually on my laptop doing something (usally writing) so that I can stay on track – especially if there is something extremely important that I have to do later and I don’t want to lose track of time.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is on my laptop and my cell phone and I love that I can sync them from anywhere. You can invite people to events (via their email address) right inside of the event, you can drag and drop/reschedule events in the web version and you can create different calendars (family, personal, business and so on).
Google Calendar offers lots of different customization options and it has always been reliable and there for me when I needed it most. It also has a task option but I don’t use that anymore as I use ToDoIst much more often to keep track of tasks that need to be done.
Written Notes/Planners
I love having a paper planner – always have and always will. I haven’t been using mine as much as I used to since I have went mostly digital, however, I do keep one around and input important events such as appointments and birthdays so I can see my month at a glance.
I also prefer handwritten note taking over digital, however, I will sometimes transfer information between them. For me keeping a notepad is something I have been doing for years so I usually carry one in my purse or even around the house with me at times. I like to take notes of things to do – such as add things to my Todoist tasks and other things as well. I also like that it is easier to do a brain dump which I can eventually organize later.
More articles on staying organized
+ How to build a smarter to-do list Part I: My favorite part from this post was about delegating actively. I have a problem sometimes with delegating partially because I can be impatient and also because I am a control freak and like things done “right” the first time around.
Instead of taking over and trying to do something it is much better to simply make my task to follow-up and check-in rather than take over a project or task myself. This keeps me in charge of my part while still keeping them accountable for theirs. This is something I have been working on personally and professionally for years. I am a work in progress.
+ How I Use Trello, Asana and Evernote to Organize my Blog: Alice shares some great tips on how to organize your blog. I also think this would work well for business as well.
How do you stay organized? Are there some tools and/or apps that are must-haves for you? Let us know in the comments.
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