Adopting a new system for organizing ourselves can be daunting. We can do it with ease, though, if we follow two principles, watch out for three traps, and adopt seven habits, one at a time. And we can get going immediately with a quick-and-dirty start-up method.
Two driving principles
- Record every task that you could/might/should do in such a way that you can, at any moment, pick out the one next best thing to do/work on/complete.
- Feel good. Then act. (See related posts here and here.)
Three related traps
…that will kill any organization system:
- Keeping things (tasks, ideas, reference material) in your head,
- Getting things out of your head but writing them down in multiple, random places, or
- Writing things down in one or a controlled few places but in an unwieldy, jumbled mess.
Habits
And these are the seven habits to build. Start with any of them and build up over time. To build these or any habits, try this.
Quick-and-Dirty Start-Up
A quick-and-dirty way to get started includes building one giant list and one, daily small list. From here your organization system can grow to contain these lists over time.
In your corner,
Mike
PS: You can find more effectiveness and organization ideas and tools in other Daily Notes here.