Where is your to-do list right now?
Is it in your car? Is it on your desk? Is it in your smartphone?
It’s a good idea to keep a current list of tasks you’d like to get done. Even just compiling such a list has value because it clarifies your thoughts, helps bring your day and week into better focus, and empties the repetitive, worrying contents of your mind into a more organized place.
Whether or not you should keep your list on paper or in digital form, depends primarily on how mobile your are throughout the day.
If you have one desk where you’re at most of the day then paper might make more sense, but if you move around a lot throughout the day then you might want to consider a digitized list.
It’s really just a matter of personal preference — there’s no right or wrong. Me, I use both. I have a paper-and-clipboard system that I use for my quotidian and for my once-a-week lists, but my work-related to-do list and calendar are digital.
How to Track Your Professional Projects and Tasks Online
One of the reasons that I digitally track my professional projects and tasks is because it makes collaboration easier.
Here’s a simple web-based application that I use to get organized and stay on track. It’s called Backpack, by 37signals.
“…once you find a system that works for you,
it really, truly makes a difference in terms of getting things done”
As I mentioned above, some people like to keep their to do lists on pen-and-paper, others digitally, and still others — like me — do both!
In this video below, I show you — briefly and simply — how I use a browser-based application called Backpack to improve my self-efficiency!
As I mention in the video, you can use Backpack not only to put your own personal productivity on steroids, but also to vastly improve how you collaborate with your team — be they colleagues or family. Backpack offers a free modified plan for up to 2 users, and a 30-day free trial for the more premium packages.
“Live with Intention. Create a happy, balanced life. We all want this, right? Dane’s tips and techniques in his checklist book are a great way to reduce stress and be more productive. I’m a list maker, and follow a daily plan. But, sometimes things get in the way of completing my daily list. I really like thinking of my daily list as organic and always improving. If you aren’t a list-maker — he provides simple principles that will make a positive difference”
~ Margie Arnett, University Professor
One thing I didn’t mention in the video, is that sliding tasks up or down in your Backpack to do list, is super, super easy. It’s sounds like a little thing, I know, but, believe me, it makes a huge difference.
Over the last ten years, I’ve tried many other project management and task list applications, but I always returned gratefully to Backpack. If you’re familiar with 37signals, you might already know that as a company they do not believe in gimmicky features that might distract the user and clutter the design. They believe in simplicity …and so do I!
Personal Productivity
Helps You Make the Most of Each Day
Someone who I greatly respect said recently, “the trick to being happy in modern life is: simplicity.” And so it is with personal productivity systems. The best systems are often the most simple. A good checklist system can help you to make the most of each day, and to enjoy each day more as you move steadily toward your goals. If you aren’t currently using an excellent personal productivity system, then I encourage you to ask around and find a great one. Personally, I recommend The Dane Technique. I created this system after years and years of fine-tuning my workflow. It works fantastically well.
The Dane Technique:
How to Get Seriously Organized using Checklists ~ e-Workbook, $4.95
“…The Dane Technique provides concise, easy to understand, specific instructions
for people who want to get organized using checklists.
Beginning with a simple, yet powerful, manifesto
the book quickly walks the reader through a series of exercises
leading the reader to their own checklists.
No specific forms or software are required
leaving the format up to each unique and, soon to be organized, happy person”~ Paul Puckett, Asset Portfolio Manager
This e-Workbook will help you to get better organized. In order to improve your self-care and increase your health protocols, you need a simple productivity system — a good system can help you to find extra time and energy and to create a new schedule and daily routine that works best for your life. Individually, The Dane Technique is $4.95, or you can enjoy the value and benefits of the entire Kit for $14.95.
“…making a list felt like a chore
but after reading Dane’s “How To Get Seriously Organized Using Checklists”
I am now understanding how important lists are. My life is becoming clutter free
and I get more accomplished throughout the day because the lists suggested by Dane
are helping me be more productive in my personal and business life.
Quotidian list is my favorite! Don’t know what that is? Get the book and find out!
Trust me, it will change your life!”
~ Doina Oncel, Solutions Specialist for Non-Profits
By utilizing principles of Success Psychology, the Longevity Lifestyle Kit ensures that your new, positive habits will “stick” (instead of having you start out with good intentions and then falling back into the same old habits). There are 5 key pieces to the Kit:
If you don’t keep a to-do list, or if you’ve tried keeping to do lists in the past but have since fallen off the wagon, I’d like to encourage you to try again. Once you find a system that works for you, it really, truly makes a difference in terms of getting things done.
You can leverage this in two ways:
- be more professionally competitive and get more done in a day than other professionals do, on average.
- by getting more done in less time, it will create more free time that you can then use to spend with your loved ones, or doing good-for-you stuff… like exercising!
I think as long as you make and use a todo list it doesn’t matter where you keep it. Though I do use one on the computer. I use hottnotes which is free and easy.
I once sent up a GTD system for my emails in Outlook then realised that Outlook wouldn’t such inside folders, so I couldn’t find anything – it was a long time ago
Another great article Dane
Clicking a finished task is also very rewarding.
I confess, my favorite part of this article is where I reveal the 2 ways you can leverage your increased productivity!
{ twitter = @danenow }