Last week, we talked about follow-up and follow-through when it’s them…when they drop the ball and techniques you can use to catch that glass ball before it shatters on the floor. Today, we look at the opposite. Today is the other side of that coin. This week, the problem is you. You start things but never finish. There’s just too much going on. But if asked what you have on your plate, you really can’t even name that much. You don’t know what it is, you just know it’s a lot. Let’s jump in and see if we can solve this one. The most basic and important organizational practice is to write thi ..read more

Why do other people keep dropping the ball? What can you do about it? Do these situations sound familiar? You leave a message for someone to call you, but they don’t. You send an important email, but you get no response. You’re in the Zoom room, but the other person isn’t. Something fell through the cracks. She borrowed a few books from you but it’s been months. Will you ever see them again? He promised to get that report to you, but it hasn’t happened. It’s enough to drive you bananas. The problem is clearly them. Most people don’t have systems that match the level of complexity in their ..read more

If you’re using Evernote tasks, here’s some strategy to help you organize them. The market is full of task managers. Evernote’s use of tasks makes it unique. Tasks are integrated as part of the notes from which they were created. The Principle The principle behind this concept is important. It’s one I adopted over twenty after reading the classic work Time Power written by the late Dr. Charles Hobbs. It’s a principle involved in documentation or notetaking, which I’ve used for a long time. I got the idea from a book by Dr. Charles Hobbs called Time Power. As we take notes, “to-dos” emerge f ..read more

You can turn your handwriting into text with a tool you may already have. Yes, we live in a digital world. The majority of what comes to us arrives in a digital format via email, text message, and the Web. But, we also live in a world of print media and some handwriting. You’ve probably read articles that favor college student handwriting their notes in class rather than taking them digitally. But when it comes to search capabilities and the ease of storage, nothing beats digital. In this post, you learn an easy way to digitize print media, even cursive writing, with a tool you may already ..read more

This is a story of college guys who knew the value of communication. College dormitories were much less luxurious when I moved into one 40+ years ago. I was happy just to have air-conditioning. There were no private bathrooms. Each end of the hall sported a communal bathroom with open showers. One interesting feature of the plumbing was that when someone flushed a toilet, all the cold water was diverted to it. Anyone enjoying a warm shower suddenly found the experience painful. Nothing but hot water poured from the shower heads. As students, we didn’t wait for the university to “do somethin ..read more

Whether they are internal or external, interruptions crush focus. That’s a major takeaway from the interview with Dave Buck. In this interview, Dave and discuss: Beginning of “time-optimized strategies” Internal focus v. external focus Procrastination Defined goals Interruptions Teaching others “how to do it” Examples for the school principal Focus Interruptions continued Interruptions and distractions When did you realize things had to change? The beginnings of my own time management system Visit Infinity Lifestyle Design The shorter way to do many things is to only do one thing at a t ..read more

TaskClone harvests the tasks and calendar events from your digital notes. It automatically puts them in your digital task manager and calendar. It’s magic! Let’s start with the principle and move to the tool. Our lives involve taking notes: During a phone call During meetings During one-on-one conference During workshop sessions While reading book The notetaking tool could be paper. The notetaking tool could be digital. The concept is the same. In either case, new to-dos are likely to arise. New calendar events may be created. The principle is simple Write the to-dos and appointments in t ..read more

Go behind the scenes with Troy Christmas as he shares the story of TaskClone and its creation. Explore entrepreneurship and innovation. In this interview, Troy and I talk about… The problem TaskClone solves The original principle upon which TaskClone is built How TaskClone works The difference between TaskClone and TaskClone 2.0 TaskClone and the calendar What makes TaskClone unique Using TaskClone with a team The cost How much is your time worth? Get started with TaskClone Life is too short and time too precious to waste one more day. If you are someone who stumbled upon this site for t ..read more

The theme of each episode I’m bringing you this month has to do with the tools I use. Today, we talk about how to get started with digital notes. This month, we’re talking about the tools that help us Get Organized. Today, the topic is digital notes. Here’s a question posed on a Facebook group dedicated to school administrators: “I see a need to have a good system of note-taking as an aspiring administrator. I’m leaning towards digital rather than paper note-taking. What device would you recommend, or can you convince me that paper is better?” So here’s my response: The word “system” jumps ..read more

What are the tools I use and how can they really make a difference? That’s the theme of the posts for this month. A school administrator taking an online course with me wrote: “I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve been learning so far in the book study and applying some of the things I’ve learned. The information you’ve shared with us about using a digital task list definitely increases productivity. I am a person that has a strong dependency on putting my tasks on paper but I want to transition to using the digital task list more. Do you have any advice or tips you can share with me to transi ..read more