Should you ever see my desk – it’s filled with yellow, pink or blue post-its each with a note, a comment or an idea on it. I get an idea, a phone call or something similar and I need to do something later on, remember an important thing etc. How do I do this? With post-its, that’s my thing. 

Now, a post-it may not be your thing, it may be a notebook or something completely different, doesn’t really matter. The point is to ensure you’ve got all your “things I need to do” listed somewhere you can see them and somewhere you can see them sooner rather than later.

What else? Keep a list in front of you of things you must do on daily basis. Have them listed in the order you’re supposed to do them and most importantly, schedule time for them! It’s usually not the things you forget, but the time that you need for them. How often you’ve noted that you still have loads to do, but no time for it? Too often I’m guessing.

How you make time for it? You schedule for it. I schedule for everything and I do it into my calendar. If I know that certain activity will take 2 hours of my time, I schedule 2 hours for it. If there’s a list of things I estimate will take 0.5 hours, I schedule for it. This way I can see how my day will look like and when exactly I have time for specific things I need to do. Trust me on this; it will make your life a lot easier. Knowing when you’ve got time prepared for something will ensure you’re able to almost forget all about until the time arrives. Without scheduling I know I will have it in the back of my head pounding and leaving me wondering when exactly will I have the time and how long will it take etc. Order of actions to take should be like this:

(1)      Think how long will it take of your time.

(2)     Look up all other obligations and when will you realistically have time for it. Do consider the due date and possible involvement of others as well.

(3)     Schedule the time in your calendar.

(4)     Deal with other things in the mean time.

My life went a lot easier when I discovered this method. I know that there are people who think I’m crazy and overthinking etc., but truth of the matter is that those people are always doing more working hours and have a lot messier projects than they could. This applies to your everyday life just as well when you’ve got to share your time between too many things. You’ve got to schedule time for things in your life or the time will pass by so fast and you’re still left with things that are not done.