Knitting and Sewing
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The Seven Ds - Daring To Discover the Dreamy Details of Designing Your To Do List
   
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Starting Your Own Scrapbook Club
Before I discovered the world of scrapbooking, I was inexplicably drawn to my local office supply store. I loved to stand in an .....
Before I discovered the world of scrapbooking, I was inexplicably drawn to my local office supply store. I loved to stand in an .....
As the days begin to shorten after the summer solstice, many of
us start to experience an unusual seasonal phenomenon: As
quickly as the days grow shorter, our To Do Lists grow longer.
They get filled with more and more stuff: winterizing stuff,
work stuff, home stuff, holiday stuff, travel stuff, year-end
stuff. Soon we feel as if we are drowning in stuff that just has
to be done right now. By the time the holidays roll around, we
are stressed, tired, exhausted, and cranky. It's hardly the way
to welcome in the holiday season.
There's only one solution for it - in addition to chocolate, of
course - and I'm sorry, but it doesn't involve running away to a
tropical island until the madness dies down. That's what the
Kranks try to do in Christmas with the Kranks, a wonderful movie
based on John Grisham's Skipping Christmas. It doesn't work for
them either. No, what we have to do is take back control of our
lists and our lives. We have to cut that list down to manageable
size.
"How?" you say? I'm so glad you asked. Because that's what this
Musing is all about. To start with, before you can trim your
list, you have to make one. Start by choosing someplace where
you can write down all the chores you have to do. (I keep my
list in a spiral notebook. A client of mine uses a computer
spreadsheet. Another uses her PDA. Figure out what will work
best for you.) Don't sort it out by categories like "home,"
"family," "work," "school," etc. Just let it be jumbled
together. And don't include appointments over which you have
little or no control.
Here's an excerpt from my list (The real list is much, much
longer): - put snow tires on - send gift list to parents - send
gift list to brother - finish Change One Habit e-book - plan
March trip - develop future teleclasses - clean out linen closet
- balance business check book - bring in furniture from balcony
- find out when family is coming for holidays (call Mom) -
replace buttons on black shirt - bug brother about gift lists
for kids (call) - buy holiday cards - re-write website copy -
develop product survey - write copy for new, First Muse Bank
website - write family holiday newsletter - defrost freezer -
paint laundry room - write 4 D's essay
There are a couple of advantages to having everything written
down. First, it relieves you of that nagging feeling that you
are going to forget something important. Then the sheer physical
presence of that list (and its length) will remind you to stop
and think before you take something else on. Do you really have
the time and energy to handle another project right now? Your
list is a great reality check. Finally, you will experience
sheer joy when you can actually cross something off that list.
(Which is why I like to write it down in a notebook; then I get
the satisfaction of crossing it off. Just deleting it off a
spreadsheet doesn't quite do it for me).
When you've finished the list and shaken the writer's cramp out
of your hand (chocolate may help), you're ready to start cutting
it down to size. That's the challenging part. To make it easier,
apply the first Four D's: DELAY, DELEGATE, DO LESS, DELETE.
Here's how.
For each item on your list, decide if you can:
- put it off until after the holidays (or longer) (DELAY), -
have someone else do it or hire it out (DELEGATE), - make the
task shorter or easier, or combine it with another task (DO
LESS), - strike it from your list completely (DELETE). Your goal
Caring For Quilts
Caring for Quilts By: Joyce Moseley Pierce
For many years my mother worked in sales and lived out of a
suitcase as she traveled the country, but that didn't stop her
from doing some of .....
is to cut your list in half - at least.Caring for Quilts By: Joyce Moseley Pierce
For many years my mother worked in sales and lived out of a
suitcase as she traveled the country, but that didn't stop her
from doing some of .....
To help you decide which D to apply, here are a few questions:
DELAYING. Ask yourself: - Does this really have to be done now?
- Is this my deadline, or somebody else's? - What would it cost
me if I put this off for a week, a month, six months, or a year?
Can I live with that?
If you decide that you can delay that task, write a date beside
it so you'll be sure to get back to it then.
On my list, I decided that I would put off defrosting the
freezer, planning the March trip, and cleaning out the linen
closet at least until after the holidays.
DELEGATING. Ask yourself:
- Can someone else do this job as well as or better than I can?
- If someone else can do this job, but not as well, or not the
same way I do it, can I live with that? - How much will it save
me in time, energy, or money to delegate this task or to hire
it out? How much will it cost me?
Are you going to delegate that task? Great! Write down the name
of the person you're delegating to beside the task.
I assigned sewing buttons, putting on snow tires, planning the
March trip (that one got DELAYED and DELEGATED!) and bringing in
the balcony furniture to others. I also decided to turn much of
the web site copywriting over to a professional copywriter.
While that eliminated a couple of items from the list, it added
one: find a professional copywriter. That I could mostly
delegate as well to Dawn, my Virtual Assistant.
DOING LESS. Ask yourself:
- Can I combine this chore or errand with another to save time?
- Can I get by with doing less of this chore? - How much of this
really needs to be done right now?
Are you going to do less of that chore? Note where you are going
to draw the line.
I combined sending our gift lists to my brother and parents with
calling them, which saved me a couple of e-mails. I pared my
list of future teleclasses from 12 to 5. I also culled my
holiday card list, which saves me time and money.
DELETING. This is your most powerful option, since it gets tasks
completely off that list. Ask yourself:
- Will this activity, project, or task be important to me next
year? How about in five years? Ten? - Is this activity, project,
or task something I will enjoy, learn from, or be positively
challenged by? - What is the most likely outcome of this
activity, project, or task? Is that something I really want?
If you decide to delete a chore completely from your list, draw
a line through it. Remember, you can always add it back later
when things have settled down.
I decided to delete repainting the laundry room. It doesn't look
that bad, guests rarely go in there, and it would be a huge
chore.
Finally, we get to the fifth D: the actual DO list. By this
point, everything left on your list should be a pretty
significant DO. In my example, the number of tasks dropped from
20 to 8. And we're about to pare it down even more. (By the way,
if you didn't cut your list by at least half, run though it
again, applying the four D's. This time, be really stringent.)
Go through your new, shorter DO list and note every chore on
that list that you can do in 15 minutes or less, and DO them! On
my list, those quick tasks included calling my brother (calling
my mother always takes at least an hour) and balancing my
business check book. I'm now down to 6 items.
The sixth D is DEADLINE. Go through what remains on your list,
and put a target completion date for each task. Then write those
deadlines on the calendar, and pencil in when you are going to
work on each specific chore. Calling my mother, for example, is
best done in the early evening, but not on Thursdays when she
plays Bunco. Finishing my e-book gets Monday mornings when I'm
at my freshest. And so on.
And now you're done! You've just applied the 6 D's to your to do
list. Congratulations! You can welcome in the holidays in
brighter spirits because you don't have as much STUFF weighing
you down.
Oh, and the seventh D? DARK CHOCOLATE, of course!
NOTE: You are welcome to use this article online in electronic
newsletters and e-zines as long as it remains complete and
unaltered (including the "about the author" info). If use of
this article is desired in print, you must first contact Lynn
Cutts at Lynn@ManageYourMuse.com.
Copyright 2005 Lynn Cutts
About the author:
Chocolate-loving Life Coach Lynn Cutts mission is to change the
world for the better, one person at a time. At
www.ManageYourMuse.com, she shares free tips, articles, games
and newsletters to help you realize your dreams. Lynn offers
one-on-one coaching, group coaching and self-guided programs to
help you create your own boundless life. Lynn is certified by
the Coaches Training Institute, and is a member of the
International Coaches Federation.