30 Days to a More Organized Life, Day 12: Make Lists

Yesterday you dumped your brain onto a bunch of index cards and you also have a pocket notebook busting at the seams with thoughts and ideas and responsibilities. Now what do you do with all this?

You’re going to make lists.

You might prefer a paper system for your lists or you might want to go digital. It doesn’t matter, just so long as you know it’s a system you’ll always have access to. These are the lists that will run your life, so keep them close.

To show you how to make these lists, I’m going to use the piles of index cards from yesterday:

• Electricity bill
• Meeting presentation
• Wedding thank-you notes
• DVD drive on computer broken
• Overdue library books
• Richard and tickets
• Student loan
• Quarterly report for boss
• Weight loss
• Meeting with team
• Emails
• Go back to school

Grab the first card on the top of your own pile of index cards. I’ll use the DVD drive on computer broken as the first example.

The first thing you need to do is define the item more precisely. What is it that you want to do about the problem? It may seem obvious, but it isn’t. Do you want to fix that DVD drive or does the broken drive not matter? Perhaps the computer is too old and needs replacing, not just the drive. You need to make a decision and make that decision clear.

The best way to force yourself to make a clear decision is to state what will be different once you take care of the DVD drive. Write it down in the past tense, as though it has already happened. DVD drive on computer fixed is a clear and exact, past-tense statement about what the outcome is. So is New computer purchased to replace broken old one.

It may seem like a trivial semantic game to write projects in the past tense, but it is of paramount importance. If you fail to define exactly what you want, you’ll never get it. Writing in the past tense is an easy way to get a clear idea of your goal.

Assuming DVD drive on computer fixed is what you want to accomplish, where do you put this information? Anything that will take more than one step to complete will go on a ‘projects’ list:

PROJECTS
DVD drive on computer fixed

The project list is David Allen’s gift to the world. It is a place where you keep track of all your multi-step projects, no matter how big or small. Looking at the projects list should be like looking at an overview of your life.

To decide what needs to be done about fixing that DVD drive, think of what you have to do to move that project forward. You need to get the computer to the repair shop, but before you can do that, you need to call them to see if they can take it. At this point, most people would write call computer shop on their list. That is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Here’s the problem: if I handed you a phone, right now, could you call the shop? Probably not. Most people don’t have the phone number of a computer shop memorized or stored in their phone. Secondly, do you even know which shop you want to call?

The very next thing that you have to do is search for a computer shop, then get their phone number. What’s the best place to do this? On the Internet of course, so make your next list:

ON THE INTERNET
Google for local computer shop and phone #

All of your lists, aside from the project list, should be where you need to be to get something done. This way, you can easily see what you can get done at any time, without having to look at all your tasks at once.

Google for local computer shop and phone # is a can-do item – something that you can do, immediately, once you are in the given location. Connected to the Internet? Then you can google for that computer shop.

The rules for making can-do items are as follows:

• Can-do items must be doable without requiring any earlier steps.
• Can-do items must be independent of each other.

You can’t put a can-do item on your ‘computer’ list if before you can do it you need something on your ‘errands’ list to occur.

With both the project defined and the first can-do item decided, you can rip up the card with DVD drive on computer broken on it.

“But wait,” you cry. “There are so many more steps, what about them? What about dropping off the computer, paying the store, and picking it back up again?” Forget those steps! Don’t write them down. They are the can’t-do items that try and sneak onto your lists. You must fight can’t-do items.

Can’t-do items will clutter up lists and make them gradually more useless. Can’t-do’s need something else to happen before they can be done. Or worse yet, they are unclear items – thoughts that you haven’t really thought through.

If you wanted to make another list, for example, ‘errands’ and you want to put on in drop off computer, could you do that the next time you were out? It wouldn’t be possible until you’ve found a computer shop and made an appointment. You can’t do it until the earlier steps are completed.

The point of lists is to eliminate as much thinking as possible. Your lists must only include your can-do items. This way you can easily see all of the useful things you can do at a glance. It clutters your list and your thoughts to see a bunch of can’t-do items you are helpless to make progress on.

Lets run through a few more examples from our index card pile, starting with wedding thank-you’s. The steps to follow are:

• Define what you want to happen.
• If it’s more than one step, write the outcome in the past-tense on the ‘projects’ list.
• Write down the can-do’s on the appropriate lists.

With wedding thank-you’s what do you want to be different in the world? You want wedding thank-you’s sent to guests. That is a clear, past-tense statement of what you want to accomplish, so add that to your project list.

PROJECTS
DVD drive on computer fixed
Wedding thank-you’s sent to guests

Now think of the next steps that you can do to move the wedding-card project forward. First, if you don’t have any thank-you cards available, you need to get some. That’s best done while out and running errands, so it would go on an ‘errands’ list

ERRANDS
Buy 200 thank-you cards

If you remember the number of thank-you cards, it’s best to include it on your list. You also need something else: the guest list. You don’t have it but your spouse does. Whenever you ask someone for something, make it easy for them to help you. Your spouse has the guest list on their computer, so you should send them an email. This way they have the list handy when they get your message.

ON THE INTERNET
Google for local computer shop and phone #
Email spouse for copy of guest list

The last thing that you can do to move the wedding thank-you project forward is write a draft of the thank-you message. That’s done on the computer, so we need one more list to hold this next can-do item:

ON COMPUTER
Write draft of wedding thank-you’s

You’ve now taken care of the wedding thank-you index card, so rip it up and move on.

The most vague item in the worry pile is Richard and Tickets. So again, the first thing you must do is define precisely what you want. What you really want is to know if the game that the two of you bought tickets for starts at 6:30 or 7:00. So, if you were to write this on the ‘project’ list, you’d put Richard called about start time of Friday’s game.

Assuming Richard is a friend of yours, and his number is already in your phone, then you don’t need to make this into a project. If it’s one step, then all you need do is add it to a ‘phone’ list.

ON THE PHONE
Call Richard re: start time of game

No need to add it to the project list if it is a one-step job.

The final example will be weight loss – a common New Year’s resolution. The first thing you need to do is to clearly define exactly what you want. Take a look at your waist line and make a decision about how much needs to go. Write down a specific and clear description about what should be different when you’ve achieved this goal. A good project item would look like this:

PROJECTS
DVD drive on computer fixed
Wedding thank-you’s sent to guests
Ten pounds lost

With a big project like that, a little research can save a lot of effort, so the best can-do item you could put down would go on the ‘Internet’ list:

ON THE INTERNET
Google for local computer shop and phone #
Email spouse for copy of guest list
Research weight loss plans

Now that you’ve seen how to handle these examples, you can grind through the rest of your index cards and notebook items on your own.

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Header photograph by sunshinecity.