Danielle Guerin

Posts Tagged ‘to-do lists’

We are trained early on to think that lists must be linear – one item after another, with cute little check boxes next to each. But what if your brain isn’t the linear type? Many people, especially creatives, have trouble thinking in a linear fashion. Forcing themselves to create To-Do lists in a traditional manner makes them feel stifled and bored, precisely the wrong mindset in which to do your best thinking.

Fortunately, you’re not graded on your To-Do list. There is no one “right” way. In fact, some of the most productive people don’t use traditional To-Do lists at all. They use mindmaps. Mindmapping is a visual way to get information out of your brain and onto a page, which also can create fully functional action “lists.”

The basics for mindmapping are simple. There are computer programs that can assist you (google “mindmap software” for suggestions) and many people prefer those, but really all you need is a large sheet of blank paper and a pen.

Start with a main idea in the center of the page, and brainstorm all the possible related topics around the edges of the page, with lines connecting each thought to the center. Chains of thoughts will link one idea to the next, and indicate patterns and possible links. The idea is that you’re not forcing your thoughts into a pre-set format; you’re allowing yourself to get all the information out of your brain before trying to group and organize it.

Mindmaps are also useful for figuring out project timelines. Here’s how it would work…

1. Start with the goal in the center
   (For instance, “Send new customers the latest autoresponder series.”).
2. Ask yourself, “What would have to happen before I reached that result?”
   (“I’d need to load the series into my email system”)
3. Keep asking that same question, over and over.
   (“Before that, I’d need to write the series.”).
4. Keep going until you get to the first thing you need to do TODAY to get moving towards completion.
   (“I’d need to create a new list in my email system and load the new contacts into it.”).
5. Then add that item to today’s list of activities.

Where people fall down when using mindmaps is they never finish. They create the map and think they’re done. But you have to actually take that information and add it to a strategy that includes tasks and deadlines. Otherwise, it’s like pulling everything out of your closet and spreading it across your bedroom. Your closet is not clean and organized until you create a plan for the space and put everything according to that plan.

Mindmapping can be a fun and effective way to create sophisticated strategies and project plans. The key is to allow yourself free rein to get everything down on paper, and then go back and instill logical structure around those ideas.

Personally, I prefer Dropmind. I love that it’s easy to use and I like the look of my maps.

If the basics of reading and writing are learning your ABCs, the basics of work-at-home success is setting your priorities. If you don’t have a set of priorities by which to guide your business, your day, and your week, you are at the mercy of circumstance. Happenstance is for people who play the lottery; not for entrepreneurs.

You sit down at the computer to begin work on your to-do list, and the emails start coming in. Instead of having a way to rate the importance and urgency of each request and item on your list, you just respond to whatever is front and center – which is usually whatever email or phone call has come in most recently. Then the end of the day comes, and you still have as many items on your to-do list as you started with. The stress starts to mount as your business goals recede farther and farther into the distance.

So what’s the solution? Setting priorities. When you have a list of goals and priorities, you have a map for your future.

My advice is to set one or two business objectives for each quarter of the year. You may choose to launch a new product the first quarter of the year, revamp your website during the second quarter, create marketing materials for the third quarter, and develop an outsourcing strategy for the fourth quarter.

The following is my favorite process for breaking down a large objective into daily, weekly, and monthly priorities:

• Start with your quarterly objective.
• Ask yourself, what would have to happen this month to achieve this objective?
• What would have to happen this week?
• What would have to happen today?

Once you have defined what needs to happen each day, week, month, and quarter, put those items on your calendar and to-do list with a big star next to them. Now you know what has to be completed every day before you start answering phone calls or emails. No matter what the rest of the day brings, you know you have completed the things that will most move your business forward.

This small routine will help reduce your stress because you’ll no longer lie in bed, wondering what the heck you accomplished that day. Instead, you will have taken concrete steps towards achieving your most important goals. (P.S. This works great with personal goals, too!).

Now that you have your priorities set for each day, week, month, and quarter, how will you know if all that work will fit into your schedule? In our next post, we’ll take a look at how you can manage those fleeting 24 hours we all have to work within.