Challenge Title: The 7 RULES of Master Listing

Challenge Description

I have so MUCH to DO

•	This is the most common concern I hear from almost all of my clients.
•	This technique is the process of keeping track of all the things that have to get done, large and small, immediate and far sighted

Benefit of Changing Course

The lesson has to do with maintaining the upper hand over the amount of paper information that is constantly coming our way. The benefit of this maintenance is:

1.	You don’t have to set reminders because you will have a trusted source to find what you need to do
2.	Take your memory out of the To Do process
3.	allows you to stop thinking about outstanding to dos Know at any given moment you have captured everything that you have outstanding
4.	Know that you can look in ONE place to track your To dos
5.	NOW you can prioritize your items
6.	Park items for updating your manager, get information to your team, or discuss a particular item with a team member

Organizing by Degrees™: Step by Step Implementation

No matter what the sources of input, you only have three choices File, Act, Trash

•	Create a Master List. A Master List is a continuous running list of everything you have to do in one trusted location.
•	All To DO are in one location, giving you a short cut to review in lieu of looking at a growing list of emails in your inbox, a pile of paper or a series of electronic reminders which you continually dismiss.
•	It gives you the opportunity to STOP thinking about outstanding To Do
•	NOW you can prioritize. One of the most common complaints my client challenge me with in Writing Everything Down is that the will have a Master List with 100 items on it. My response, “You have a 100 items anyway, you just don’t know it.” It is only when you can clearly see all that you have outstanding that you can prioritize your work. Otherwise you are simply reacting to the squeakiest wheel, the most pressing problems, or the easiest to finish

Exercise: By When

Set aside some time to DEPILE the paper in your office

RULE ONE: Choose a tool that will be easy to add items to, easy to check, and fits the way you receive work most of the time

ELECTRONIC TASK LIST:

•	If most of your work comes to you via email, the Outlook or Lotus notes task list is most likely an excellent tool for Master listing.
•	Moving an email to the task list processes the email. It doesn’t get it done, but it parks the email in a list in relation to the other things you have to do.
•	This relieves you of the drudgery of having to reopen an email left in your inbox only to close it back up while saying, "oh yea, I need to do that."
•	It is excessively easy to move an email from inbox to Tasks (see Outlook tips on Free Resource page)
•	Electronic tasks can be sorted by due date, by action, by category. Reminders can be set (although not my first choose). I find electronic reminders are like any other crutch, they “pop” up at times when I am no more prepared to complete the task than if it were an email. Most people dismiss them when the pop up. But they can be useful when making the change to this tool
•	Electronic task can be mark private if they are of a personal nature

HARD COPY TASK LIST:

•	Find a journal or note book that can easily fit in your pocketbook or briefcase, look for features that you find appealing, the shape the color the texture, The more you like it the more likely you are to have it with you.
•	Hard copy Task List are easy to access
•	They are usually inexpensive.
•	Some people find the act of writing the task helps to “cement” it in their minds.
•	Hard copy tools lend themselves easily to “sectioning off” for personal items as well as work related items

Keep it with you

•	If you choose and Electronic tool this can be a challenge when away form your desk. Access via a high tech solution by such as a PDA, Goodlink, Blackberry
•	Or, when a high tech solution is unavailable, utilize a low tech solution. Print your task list with your calendar or separately to have with you through the day. Add to it while in meetings etc. then transfer all outstanding handwritten items to your Electronic task list at days end.

Start each task with a verb. This puts you one nanostep closer to getting it done, by simply making the decision about it. It can then be sorted by action, if you are going to make one phone call, you can make three…

Only record the next doable step on this list. Not the whole project.

Check your master list when you first get to work

Add to it through out the day

Check it before leaving; record any outstanding items from meeting notes, emails, phone calls

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