to-do list tuesday

laure is the creative head over at "at home at home." it's a blog that showcases her many talents (writing, photography, culinary delights) mainly, making the home a wonderful place to be. today, she has graciously shared her to-do list in all its glory.

the deets
Working freelance in three different capacities: photographer, writer and stylist, my to-do lists tend to be entirely unrealistic or I give up on them and keep them in my head (bad idea). When I'm good, I review my week on sunday night so that I make sure I know of any appointments that are coming up and then I make a list of all the things I want to get done. I add these to my iCal as I think of them so that I see the week as a whole. On paper, I write out my daily to-do's at the start of each day and I add an A, B, or C for priority, this way I can see quickly which things need to get done first. It might sound confusing, but this system works great for me since I'm easily sucked into perfectionism. This keeps me moving onto things that are important.

Important vs. Urgent
I took a Franklin Covey time management workshop when I worked for a small company years ago and the best thing I learned was discerning between those things that are Important and those things that are Urgent. Especially working freelance it can be too easy to fill my day with busy work: rearranging my desk, organizing my emails, etc. all in the name of efficiency and not get to the important things like refining my website or taking time to reach out to new clients (because I can always do it later) or even the importance of a day off lollygagging with friends in the sun. So before I get bogged down in the minutiae of the day, I try to identify 3 things I can do in the day that will move me forward on what's important to me in my life. Today it's:

1) talking to grace about moving my blog over to wordpress and vamping it up in time for some press I know will be coming out in November.

2) scheduling a day to go to the Westside to take care of returns, seeing my dad (remember Important not Urgent), picking up some plants I have at his place (so that I can use them for a terrarium building party I want to throw) and picking up a slide scanner so I can archive my grandmother's slides. (this is a classic item that I seem to never have time to do even though I am largely the master of my own schedule).

3) make sure that EJ and I talk about summer schedule so that I know what trips we want to do and when we want to do them so that I can plan my work schedule and budget for the next 3 months. As long as this is unfinished, I keep putting a bunch of decisions on the backburner, which drives me nuts.

One minute or Less
I think I got this from Gretchen at the Happiness Project, but if there's ever a task on my list or a task that presents itself throughout the day that would take a minute or less to take care of, I DO IT NOW. I don't put it off. Surprisingly there are a lot of tasks that take almost no time and yet I want to procrastinate: waiting on sending that pitch until it's perfect, not reloading the stapler or the ink cartridges because it seems like a pain, etc., not stopping to drink water or take a step outside to take a break, etc.