5 ways to manage to do lists

Tomorrow i’m going to sit down and clear a backlog of work. Assignments, reports, emails, business… it’s all going to be taken care off.

For the past few weeks things have been creeping out of control on me and it’s now time to start rallying through things. I’ve two tests next week, one websites launch and multiple assignments to do amongst the ‘usual’ stuff which comprises of a blog post here, one on theleavingcert.com, emails back and forth to clients / friends / strangers.

I actually enjoy having lots of things to do, but every now and then i need a clean slate to work with and i have to ‘reset’ things just like formatting a cluttered hard drive or reinstalling an operating system.

Coming back (after less than two days away from a PC) to 54 emails was the straw that broke the camels back this week… most of them were just rubbish / promotions / alerts but there was about a dozen ‘need action’ emails. I also like to read and investigate any alerts i get from google alerts or analytics (to help keep me on top of all of my sites & their online presence), but i had to just ditch them all this week when i came back from London.

Anyway, here’s 5 ways i manage my ‘to do’ lists…

Notepad

photo credit: smemon87

Notepad – It’s old school, it’s ugly, it’s simple but it is probably one of my most used applications. It opens in a flash, strips text of all editing and is idiot proof to use. I use it to write quick to-do lists or to quickly copy and past snippets of information for later viewing. Rarely will i save text files, i usually just leave notepad open and close it when i’m done. So i guess i use it for short term to do lists.

Gmail

photo credit: Risager

It sounds silly – emailing yourself. But believe me, it comes in handy. If you’re too lazy to insert a memory stick and save files to it, what do you do? Well, i email myself with an attachment. It means not only can i view the file from anywhere, i can also call on it a few months or years down the line if i need it.

Dropbox

photo credit: Dekuwa

Syncs files between two PC’s. I’ve blogged about it before. Just download it and use it. It’s that good.

Sticky Notes

photo credit: mliu92

I don’t use pen and paper much but i do use stick notes. I have quite literally dozens of pens on my desk and a bundle of stick notes. I deliberately keep it like that because i hate going in to offices or desks where they have no pens or no paper within reach. At my desk, there’s always a pen and there’s always some sort of paper within arms reach.

Draft Text Messages

photo credit: detritus

I’d send myself text messages only it costs money. So instead, when i’m out and about and don’t have a computer, but need to jot something down, i’ll put it in a text message and save it as a draft. I’ll give you an example. Airport parking. How do you remember what block you’re parked in? Draft text message.