free your mind + be efficient

Does your husband (or wife) ask you to take care of the same things more than once because time has gotten away before important tasks were completed?  Do you push some thoughts to the back of your mind so that you can deal with them later?  Do you have a hard time sleeping because your brain is running a mile a minute - and in different directions?  If you answer “yes” to two or more of these questions, it’s time to stop the madness.  There is an efficient and freeing way to manage it all and it is quite simple:  Create to-do lists. 

It helps to get your thoughts down on paper.  If you’re like me, you’ll settle for plugging them into your iPhone.  I know, it sounds elementary but, trust me, it works.  Whether you create one list or one for each functional role you carry -  wife, mom, employee - you will gain efficiency and peace of mind if you document your tasks. 

Learn to roll over items that do not have any urgency and re-prioritize with new tasks added.

Below are a set of simple tips to get you in the habit of draining your brain. 

- Start by jotting down all of the tasks in any order.  Just get them down.
- Break them down by role.  If you have a set of tasks for managing your work, your home and schedules or other areas where you have responsibilities.
- From there, separate the tasks down to their most minute step.  For example, if your task is “Organize my closet,” you can break that item down into several tasks, such as: Sort closet contents (keep, toss, give). Research organizational closet systems.  Install closet system.  Reorganize kept items.
- Assign priorities to every task:  A for most urgent, D for items without urgency.
- Learn to roll over items that do not have any urgency and re-prioritize with new tasks added.
- Complete all tasks.  Without this step, the process is flawed.

There are some great online resources for creating to-do lists.
- iGoogle
- List Planit
- Ta-da Lists
- TODOIST
- Todoodlist

Sweet dreams.