I was just talking to my mom (hi Mom!) and we started discussing all of the many jobs that I do. She asked me, “How do you keep them all straight? How do you know which jobs you should be doing next? Do you have a spiffy computer program to track it all?”
I told her that my favorite way of keeping track of my workload was to use lists. Just last night, I sat down and wrote out a huge list of things I needed to do – it would take me at least a week to get it all done, and this was just my list for today. 😉
My mom started laughing. Here was her technology-obsessed daughter, sitting and writing out a to-do list on a piece of paper!
“You don’t use the computer?” she asked in disbelief.
In my defense, I have tried using computer programs before. There are many to-do programs that help you keep track of what you need to do and how, and I have given them the old college try. I would type out the list of things that were urgent, and tried to keep the list updated as I went along, but I think that in this one small area, I really just don’t like using the computer. If I had to make a guess as to why, I would say it’s because I am one of those people who love to check things off the list as being done. In fact, I’ve even added things to my to-do list that I have already done, just so I could check them back off. I can’t be the only one who’s done that, right?
Right?
Okay, so I am really weird, but the truth is, checking things off a computer list just isn’t as satisfying as checking them off a piece of paper. And since I have 102 things on my to-do list to be checked off, for all of the work that I need to do, I get lots of chances to check, which is all sorts of fun for me.
Now that I’ve revealed my own organization method (and just how strange I am) I want to know from my readers – how do you keep on top of your workload? Are you one of those using programs like Backpack It? How about a PalmPilot? Maybe the old-fashioned pen and paper? Or do you just rely on your memory to make sure everything gets done?
I will say that I use Google Calendar to remind me when I need to do something (an activity that will be happening in the future) but I don’t use it or anything like it for my every day to-do list. It’s just me and my paper and my pen. And lots and lots of check marks…