How to remember not to forget something
“The average human can’t remember more than seven things at once”.
No matter what you do for a living, you’ve probably got dozens of things to remember, and they’ve all got to be fitted into that ever elusive seven hour day. Perhaps it’s your job – to ‘get those things done’?
At Clear Thought we love ‘getting things done’. And for us, the one thing that really helps us not to forget to do things is the good old fashioned ‘To Do List’. We also love activity plans (or ‘project plans’). In a sense, they’re just a ‘To Do’ list arranged in chronological order with assigned delivery dates.
To Do Lists are powerful because they do a number of things:
- Keep you focused. Help you prioritise.
- Distinguish the ‘urgent’ from the ‘important’.
- Improve personal effectiveness.
- Deliver huge satisfaction when you cross or tick one off.
Some people also find that having more than one list is useful. One for work life, one for personal life. One for things to do ‘THIS WEEK’, ‘NEXT WEEK’, or ‘EVENTUALLY’. And it doesn’t matter how you keep them – by pen & paper or the latest hi-tech computer or hand held devise. Just as long as you keep them (up-to-date).
I once had a client whose American-owned business sent every member of its UK and US set-up on an ‘Advanced Outlook training course’. What they found was that very quickly their team’s productivity increased through correct use of Outlook. People started to keep on top of their tasks and To Dos. They turned up to meetings on time and managed their diaries and Inboxes better. Contacts were shared and kept up-to-date avoiding wasting time and effort asking other people, or looking for numbers and addresses themselves.
This client told me that in a way, a well kept To Do list and Inbox helped him manage his time better and lowered his stress levels. Now you might think we’re stating the blindingly obvious, but it’s the simple tried and tested methods that make businesses like us work. And we like to share our ideas and processes with anyone who thinks they would benefit from them.
At Clear Thought we use an online project management system called Basecamp, with a very effective To Do list function. We offer it free to all our clients as part of our service. You can allocate ‘owners’ of the To Do item, and set a deadline for when it has to be done by. And best of all, it’s totally private, secure and accessible anywhere.
To find out more about how we online To-Do Lists to get more from marketing resources, just ask for a demo. Or, if you’ve got a gigantic To Do list and need some help getting it done (in a ‘marketing capacity type of way’), please do get in touch.
A bit of clear thinking might make that seven hour day more a bit more of a reality.
By Cheryl Crichton | Associate Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | @cherylcrichton | www.clear-thought.co.uk
Clear Thought Consulting works with small businesses, equipping them with the marketing strategies, suppliers, skills and set-up that they need to become bigger businesses. We do this by planning and delivering 12-month marketing transformation programmes – supporting a small business through a step-by-step process to making marketing pay. We firmly believe that when you can’t out-spend your competition, you have to out-think them.
Published on 11 December 2009
