I'm not quite sure when it happened, or what caused it, but I seem to be buried in emails and to do lists nowadays, and I don't seem to be able to get on top of what needs doing somehow. I don't want this to turn into a whine and moan about it, but would instead love your tips and tricks for dealing with email avalanche and to do list mountain. How do you get through all of them? And what's the best way you've found to keep track of to do lists? I can use all the help I can get!
PS This also explains why if you've written an email to me and I haven't replied yet... it's probably lost in my email system somewhere...
When it comes to "to-do lists", I'm a big fan of the MoSCoW approach to getting things done and prioritising. So identify which things are your "Must do's", your "should do's", "could do's" and "Would like to do". Attack the must do's first with all your gusto and make sure you make a significant dent in the list. Then you can move on to the other sections.
Posted by: Farhan Lalji | Wednesday, 04 October 2006 at 06:54 PM
one touch.
Go through the emails and either delete them or put them in some file in your email software.
If there is no file they fit in and you don't want to take the time to make one, trash them.
Once a week force yourself to go through your whole inbox and do the same.
Posted by: Jeff D | Wednesday, 04 October 2006 at 11:50 PM
check out "Getting things done" by David Allen. You'll find the answers to all your time management questions in the book.
http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280/sr=8-1/qid=1160104364/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-4383631-2543959?ie=UTF8&s=books
Posted by: kwong5837 | Friday, 06 October 2006 at 04:14 AM
I am prob the last person to be giving you advice but I will try... my best of doing many things is kinda taking less work & letting go of things I can do without - I have finally realized that I am no God & can't do everything perfectly!
You lose some & win some! I choose to win only a few which is close to my heart... And pratically speaking, the outlook calender helps & my PDA works just great! Call me girl... sometime! :D
Posted by: Simba | Saturday, 07 October 2006 at 06:25 AM
Thanks everyone! I'm continuing to experiment with a combination of desktop, laptop, phone and good old pen and paper...
Posted by: Suzy | Monday, 09 October 2006 at 02:44 PM