Time Management Tip For Work

Time Management Tip for Work

Information overload. Business planning. To-do lists. Getting things done.

It’s a universal issue so I’ll weigh in. Why not?

Did you read Tim Ferris’ book The 4 Hour Workweek? What did you think?  Me? Well, besides thinking, “That guy doesn’t have kids,” I thought, ” I need to automate!”

And that’s my tip for your time management. Look at your day to day activity and think about Processes.

I know, you’re thinking, “That’s it?” and my answer is Yes.

The devil is in the details, so let’s pull out a semi-automated example for you to chew on!

This one concerns my belief that Follow Up and Follow Through are key to succeeding in most things. Without those two? Chaos baby!

So, how can I make sure that I follow up and follow through? Simple. GoodToDo.com.

I’m a huge fan of Mark Hurst at CreativeGood.com. Website usability and customer experience have always ranked high on my list of success factors, and his thoughts on taming the email beast (in Bit Literacy) are incredibly insightful.

I signed up. I subscribed. I get organized. I forget to renew. I stop. I start again. It’s like WeightWatchers.com for me. It gets me on track and then I wander.

Anyway, it works by helping you clean your inbox. If I’m replying to someone and need to remind myself to follow up next Tuesday, I simply email myself at tuesday@mygootodoaddress.com. Usually at blind copy. That puts a reminder in my Tuesday task list. I move on to the next item.

Sure, those tasks can pile up but here’s what happens. If I have to move it ahead 3 or 4 times, I usually just delete it. Something about the task isn’t right and if it hasn’t bitten me in the ass in the week or so that I keep pushing it ahead, it’s not worth cluttering my little brain with.

That’s it. One simple tool that runs $3 a month probably makes me 1000 times that in freed up brain activity.

Good stuff.