I’ve studied the Take Back Your Life system, and used parts of it, for over a year. The use of Tasks has had mixed results. I never quite got the hang of connecting strategic next actions to projects to meaningful objectives. There are many principles that I found tremendously useful and my own system is influenced by it.
Carve out time to be organized – I carve out some time (usually 30 minutes) every day to keep my email under control and to mentally prepare for the rest of the day. This is when I make sure I have travel time, a plan for eating (including 2nd breakfast), and idea for when I’ll be going home. It’s my way of beginning with the end in mind.
I also have a less rigorous, but still frequent habit of looking ahead at the same things. Will I have time to prepare for important meetings the day prior, or do I need to plan ahead? I have a calendar item for this review as well, which acts primarily as a reminder.
Keep the crap moving: when work can be completed (or at least moved on) in two minutes or less, I do it immediately. I trash what can be trashed, and shuffle the archival stuff into the appropriate reference folder.
Folder organization: I primarily organize my archival folders by project, secondarily by person. Inactive projects have their own folder. I do this to keep the clutter down.
The Physical Part
In lieu of notebooks and calendars, I carry a 1 ¼ inch three ring binder. The front pocket is labeled ‘soon.’ It’s for assorted packets and handouts that I wind up with. Things don’t stay there long, and it’s often empty. The rear pocket is for longer term work related reference sheets.
The first page is my ‘where I need to be and when’ page. Sometimes I’ll hand-write my appointments, sometimes I’ll print out a week’s worth and update it with any changes daily. I often jot down time sensitive ‘to do’s’ here.
The next section is my free form notes space. I use the backs of headed-for-recycling pages, turned over and hole punched. Not only is this environmentally friendly, it’s simple and flexible.
As the pages get filled and become less time sensitive, they go to a section near the back. Eventually those are purged as the notes on the pages become clearly outdated.
Outlook Tasks
I have found tasks useful for tracking big, umbrella issues over time. For example, I have an ongoing task for Greycat’s health, my own personal health (which includes training plan, what races are coming up, etc…), different D&D campaigns that need preparation and/or scheduling. Most of these have a title that is tied to my (somewhat) Meaningful Objectives. There is some value in clearly labeling how a group of tasks is associated with Something Important. In order to do that, those Important Somethings need to be explicit and documented.
I think I’ll focus on using my task list for medium to long term work. It’s a nice way of keeping my eye on the ball, but doesn’t work that well for daily minutiae. Since I already have a weekly rhythm, I’ll start by focusing on the task list on Friday afternoons (briefly) and Monday mornings (with more reflection).
