Thank you all for your encouragement. It really means a lot to me, really...

Getting stuff done
Ok! This is it! Brace yourselves! I'm actually going to make good on my promise and tell you about the lists! Everyone has probably had an encounter with the to-do list. It is loosely related to the "checklist" but only in that it is a list on which you place check marks (or cross things of) other than that there aren't many similarities.

To give you a better Idea of what a To-Do list is I'll give you some things that a To-Do list isnt. A to-do list is not:

• A list of goals
• A list of wishes
• A list of suggestions

Have you ever started out on a To-Do list only to fill it with work enough to fill weeks ahead? Have you ever written lofty ambitions such as "Finish reading that book", "Write essay" or "Work on project"? Have you ever succeded in finishing those entries on the list? Did you do anything on that list? I often made that mistake in the past. Giving myself fuzzy "Tasks" to do things I wish I had the discipline to do but didn't really expect to accomplish. Ive also had lists of tasks that I couldn't do for days because of circumstances beyond my control. By the time the circumstances were the right I had forgotten all about the task.

The to-do list is a tool. Not a master. It will not do the job for you (Another hard learned truth) It will not give you magical strength to go and do everything on the list. In the end any choice that is made comes back to one person. You. So the first thing you need to do is to set rules for your list. A rule could be to always carry your list. Another could be that no entertainment can be had until every task on the list has been processed (Done, delegated, defered or dropped) Never leave loose ends on the list. You should be able to throw away your list at the end of the day and write a new one for tomorrow without having to transfer unprocessed tasks to the next day. Leaving unprocessed tasks on the list at the end of the day is a terrible detriment to your self esteem and your resolve.

Ok, I keep talking about this as if you already know my definition for a good to-do list. An entry on a to do list has to meet these criteria or it doesn't belong there:

• It is a task, not a project or a calender item.
• It can be finished in a single sitting
• It can be carried out within 24 hours.
• It isn't dependent on other tasks that aren't on the list.
• If it requires special tools, that is stated.
• It is short, clear and precise.

Remember my little speech on the next logical action? The to-do list should only contain the next logical action of your current projects. If you have future tasks planned of future events as a part of those project they should be written on a project-plan or in a calender. Not on your to do list. The to-do list is not a running record of your future ambitions (Remember, it gets scrapped every night.) Its just a memory aide.

At the end of each day it is time to throw away your hopefully finished list and make a new one for the next day. This should be done by comparing your finished tasks to your running projects and figuring out the logical next steps that can reasonably be carried out during the next day. This is where you bring out the ideas you've written down during the day as well as your calender. When this is done throw away the old list and make sure you carry the new one with you. Personally I carry a small pack of filing cards held together by a binder clip. The top car always has my daily to-do list while the cards behind it contain brief points about my running projects, (Projects aren't just work. Most things in life can be defined as projects. Church callings, looking for a job, preparing for a musical number, gathering a soccer team for FestiNord etc. are all projects.) Whenever I think about solutions or generally have new input or ideas about my project they get written down on those cards. If any of them translate into actions that can be done that day they also end up on the to-do list. At the end of the day I go over my cards and figure out how to turn them into tasks to put on the to-do list.

Well, that was a lot of method and not a whole lot of me:) I can tell you that this is all very nifty but worth absolutely nothing unless you provide the motivation needed to go through with everything. I myself sense that my motivation to do every point on the list is sometimes not the best. I have deferred several points on the list to the next day because I didn't want to do them. Don't let that become a habit! Do you intend to do it? Then why dont you? If you don't intend to do it... then why is it on the list?

I hope this has all been of some help. Until next time:

Cool runnings!