Time Management Techniques: To Do List Should be a List of Action

An important time management skill is the ability to take the thoughts cluttering your mind, and turn them into actions. Ideally the objective of your time management skills is simplification of your very busy hectic life. When you try to store information in your head about what you need to do and remember later your complicating things, cluttering your mind, and increasing your level of stress. When you write those thoughts down in more than one place as random thoughts you're also complicating things, cluttering your mind, and increasing your stress level. Using one place to record all these thoughts is a good time management skill. You want something simple, portable, and easy to use so you will use it. A "to do" list can do all these things for you, provided you know how to make a "to do" list. And you know when to make one.

The whole point of improving your time management skills is simplification. A daily "to do" lists involves seven times more work than you need to do. It's easy to create a template for your to do list.

In your template have the standing actions you need to take automatically on your list. When you have outstanding projects put those on your template with space for all the actions yet to do until the project is complete. Once a week print your template and fill in the actions for the upcoming week.

Don't allow your "to do" list to become a list of random and disorganized thoughts. Instead you want your "to do" list to be a list of actions you need to take now and later. Mark off your actions as you complete them. Your "to do" list prevents you from forgetting future actions when the time comes.

Only enter actions on your "to do" list. You may want to include a section for future ideas and plans on you "to do" list too. You can track your progress on your weekly "to do" list when you enter desired outcomes and targets. Another helpful section is a section phone calls with the names and numbers of those to call. A results section helps you to track your weekly outcomes.

If you're a sales person you may want your phone call section next to your results section so as you make calls you can track and record the number of appointments you make and/or the number of sales you make. At the end of the week you already have your numbers, so you can immediately see when you are on target and off target. One little tool to keep everything together in one place so you aren't wasting time trying to store things in your head needlessly or hunting for information you know you have somewhere but you just can't remember exactly where you put it.

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About the author: Cheryl Clausen can help you get where you want to be. To find Time Management Tips get her free ecourse. Improve your Time Management Skills, look here.

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