Another Monday morning arrives, and as you approach your desk to start your day, you see handfuls of sticky note reminders that you wrote the Friday before. Your mind starts to race because you cannot for the life of you remember why you wrote something down, or worse, what you actually wrote down. You turn on your work devices and start to feel frazzled and frantic as the endless wave of overdue or upcoming tasks floods your screens. Before you can even begin to address the constant notification alerts, you are interrupted by an emergency meeting huddle or phone call, claiming your full and undivided attention. When you return to your regularly scheduled workday grind, you realize you forgot what your plan was to knock out your to-do list for the day.
You might think to yourself, “There has to be a better way to manage my tasks and time!”
Managing your project tasks or to-do items should not wreak havoc on your physical or mental health, but for many people it can be incredibly overwhelming and stressful. Luckily, there are several ways to efficiently organize and tackle your daily or weekly to-do list. Before you even begin researching task management tools and options, there are three things you should commit to doing first:
- Pick a preference for task management. Too often people will write down ideas, add reminders to their online calendar, and save future tasks on their mobile devices. Select one primary mode for organizing your task list as this will help consolidate everything in one place.
- Spend the first 15 minutes or last 15 minutes of your workday planning your tasks/to-do list. Make time to think through which tasks are a priority for today or what can be offloaded to tomorrow or later in the week.
- Carve out time in your schedule throughout the day to review your incomplete or overdue tasks. This will help you focus on outstanding items that need your attention right now or prompt you to follow up with team members if the specific task requires input or assistance from them.
So, what are some tools you can utilize to help you organize and manage your tasks and time more efficiently?
- The old-fashioned pen-to-paper. Write it down. A simple notepad or Post-it© notes may do the trick for you, or maybe you invest in a desk calendar that has margins for note taking inside each day of the month.
- Your online calendar. Maybe it’s helpful for you to add tasks to your calendar so you can see your schedule at a glance. Some email platforms like Google Mail and Yahoo Mail have a built-in task list function as a panel inside your calendar, so you can view your calendar and tasks side by side.
- Mobile device apps. There are tons of apps you can download and start using for task management, including Google Tasks, Mindlist, and Microsoft To Do. Some of these apps can integrate and sync with all of your devices (including your smartwatch!), so you never miss a task while you’re out and about. Don’t want the hassle of scrolling to find the right app? Mobile users can take advantage of the Reminders or Notes app already installed on their devices.
Managing your day-to-day task list does not have to be a chore. Choose the best strategy for task management that works for you and “make a plan” to stick with it!
Let Infinity Concepts use our expertise to help you with your marketing and task management needs!
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