Using Task Manager With Purpose
Our iStratus task manager is so much more than a to do list. It’s more than a place to put the items you wish you could get to. It’s about taking charge of your life. Looking at what you have planned and making a plan to get it done.
But if you are like most people, it doesn’t come naturally. You were not born with an innate sense of organizing your day. Instead you answer messages on your phone before you step out of bed. The items on your to do list are pushed back so you can handle other issues that creep in without you realizing it.
You are not in control of your day and in some cases you aren’t even sure who is. Is it your spouse who left a list of to do’s for you on the fridge this morning, your child who suddenly announced a project that is due tomorrow, your boss who always has a list a mile long before you walk in the door or your subordinate who has an equal number of distracting questions to distract you from the tasks at hand?
Used with purpose a task manager can help you with that. The task manager inside our iStratus DayPlanner populates right in your day, allowing you to schedule your tasks based on what you already have scheduled. If the goal for the day is to finish a major project that will take 8 hours of work, you may want to schedule it for tomorrow when you have no appointments instead of today when you have an office meeting, an interview for a new assistant and little Johnny’s band performance.
How do you use your DayPlanner Task Manager? How do you take control of your life and not feel pulled in a thousand directions? How do you plan your tasks with purpose?
Three Ways To Add Purpose To Your Task Manager
Schedule your tasks with as much care as your do an appointment - When you create a task, consider your schedule. How will this task fit in with your schedule? Tasks that take a few minutes may be grouped and completed before your day becomes busy. Tasks that take longer may mean moving your appointments around, clearing a day to devote to just that task. But keep in mind a task is still a task, not an appointment. If you don’t finish the task today you want the ability for it to roll over into tomorrow or even the next day. Using our task manager inside the Dayplanner gives you the best of both worlds.
Start and end each day with a review - Review your tasks for the day. Do they all need to be accomplished today or can you push them off to another? Do you need to complete the task or just oversee it? Is there a subordinate who is better suited for completing the task? By reviewing the tasks each morning and each night you take control of your tasks. You decide what needs to be done when and you move or assign them accordingly.
Automate your tasks - Some tasks will repeat week in and week out. Some will happen quarterly or even yearly. By using the repeat feature in iStratus DayPlanner you can schedule them to repeat as needed. Whether it is a reminder to pay a bill, a reminder that it’s your turn for carpool, or a reminder to check the analytics for your boss’s pet project, creating it on repeat can save you time and effort.
Task managers are a powerful tool when used with purpose. If you take the time to create tasks in a thoughtful manner and add a date to them as you see fit you can take some of the worry out of each day. You can lead your day instead of being lead by it. By reviewing your day twice daily you can reevaluate the value of a task. Does it really need to happen? And best of all because the task manager is right in your calendar your review can happen in seconds rather than minutes.