How do I organize my week/day?

[AAlaN2K]

Hello everyone,

I've been thinking and researching a lot about the best methods to dissipate and eliminate stress through organization.

As I take on more commitments or tasks, it becomes challenging to stay on top of everything. There are times when I forget things I need to do or I find myself rushing a lot.

What has been helping me is writing in a notebook, dedicating one page per day, and jotting down tasks/commitments for each day and week.

Do you have any advice that could help me? Maybe an app or a way to organize the notebook, calendar, etc.

Thank you.

 

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[Kevin88660]

Hello everyone,

I've been thinking and researching a lot about the best methods to dissipate and eliminate stress through organization.

As I take on more commitments or tasks, it becomes challenging to stay on top of everything. There are times when I forget things I need to do or I find myself rushing a lot.

What has been helping me is writing in a notebook, dedicating one page per day, and jotting down tasks/commitments for each day and week.

Do you have any advice that could help me? Maybe an app or a way to organize the notebook, calendar, etc.

Thank you.

Besides an essential calendar, you can organise your tasks to do using no more than a pen and pieces of white papers.

I would divide the paper into two column. On the right side I dump everything I need to do. Basically the to do list for the next 2-3 days.

On the left hand side it is where you kill the task one by one today specifying exact time frame.

For instance “calling the list of leads purchased from xyz” has to be done from 1-2pm today.

It’s like running long distance you got to keep track and pace yourself how much time you are using.

Water and washroom break 2-2.20pm for instance.

It’s to create sense of urgency when you are falling behind.

 

[Devilery]

I use ClickUp.

I have must-do tasks (marked red). Those make money once I complete them and are mostly client tasks.

I have in-progress tasks. Self explanatory.

I have to do tasks. Those are more like "should do". They won't make money once I complete them, those are mostly personal tasks that will help me in the long run but won't have an immediate impact.

I then have complete but unverified, and complete.

I add deadlines and turn on all notifications on both laptop and mobile, works so much better than the pen and paper I used for years before.

 

[realbillperry]

I'm using Simpleology right now. It's been years and since I'm getting back into a productivity push, I had them reset me back to day 0 with the white belt training.

If you can find a copy of "The Developer's Code: What Real Programmers Do", there's a cool and simple low-tech productivity "system" he uses. Which involves basically putting what needs done during the week, and moving the more important things from the week to today.

I used to use Trello with that system, and it worked great. Would even work with 3x5 index cards if one wants to go ultra-low-tech.

 

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[Choate]

Weekly calendar, plain pen and paper, MJ's own GoalSumo.com, Trello, Jira, FocusMate.. there are infinite solutions to this problem.

Much like anything else, you need to take repeated action which will help you get better organized and more focused. You won't magically solve this issue with one big planning session and idea dump. It needs to be repeated, concerted effort, something you do every morning or night (or both). At its core, planning is really simple. It requires a little bit of discipline and focus. If I were you, I'd set a goal to test out a few methods each day this week, then settle on one and have this resolved by next Monday with a small system for yourself. There's no reason for something like this to stretch out over weeks or months.

 

[Kevin88660]

I recommend you reading the original classic of “get things done” by David Allen.

Every famous productivity guru was editing based on his framework, including Calvin Newport.

Nothing really changed much after 20 years when he first wrote the concepts.

50 percent of his value is basically one simple approach of don’t park too much things in your brain and write down as much as you can, before dealing with them.