Beginning, organizing, completing a successful day

[jaludwick]

So how does everyone do it? todo lists? wing it? what works for you?
everyone is writing down challenges - that's the easy part.

Talk is cheap - what's your system that's successful?

do you take a specific time out of your day for accountability?

how do you fit in projects that you don't have time for.

Disciplne plan - do you have one?

The bottom line - what seriously works for YOU?

What help you grow?

Tough questions need honest answers.

Let's all step up to the plate and give some feedback so we all can benefit.

Be well,

jaludwick

[Shamou]

jaludwick!

Personally, I conduct my professional life as if it was a large conglomerate of which I am the "Director/Manager…" using a “Personal Planner” which are the company’s book… that “company" being me…

In it, I have all the specifics such as, monthly and yearly objectives, plans to achieve those objectives, important personal contacts, daily things to do, personal development projects etc…

Once this is set up… all that is needed is about ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes at the end of the day to keep it going… and it has done wonders for me… I would be completely lost without it…

The secret is to conduct one's professional life as if it was a business... which in fact it actually is...

.

[Doku]

First off, I have to agree with Shamou on this one. Treat life like a business. My reasonings are differnet, however. My reasoning is that most people put much more effort into their jobs than they do their personal life. For most people, business is their job and life is an afterthought. Your life should be your "business", and your job should simply be a task that you accomplish during the day.

I start with life goals.
Then what I want to accomplish in the next three years to reach those goals.
Then the next year. Then in the next three months. Then the minutae.

I generally review it every morning for about 5-10 minutes (as Shamou does). I don't do an evening review, other than to go over the stuff that my wife has added to it during the day.

I don't fit in projects that I don't have time for. If I don't have the time, then I don't. If it's something that I _need_ to do, then something else gets bumped. If i have free time, then I do something on my "nice to have/want" todo list. Other than that, I work from the "must do" list.

I keep track of things in my moleskein. My wife transcribes new entries onto the computer (she's a stay at home housewife... no kids yet). And she adds new entries to the moleskein that she came up with during the day. (scheduled friends for a picnic, scheduled going to her parents for the weekend, etc.)

She gets up much later than I do (I get up at 4:30, she gets up at 9:30), so she goes to bed much later. Her "daily planning" involves printing me out a page of my next day's activities before she goes to bed. When I get up, I look at that calendar which has times/locations/phone numbers for meetings, etc. as well as reminders to pick up whatever on the way home, etc. I add things that I would _like_ to do that day as well, then I finish getting ready, and am off to work. During the day, as new things come up, I add them to my moleskein master list. As I finish things, I cross them off the calendar page. (which is font reduced, etc. I fold it in half and it fits inside the moleskein)

When I get home, I had her my moleskein, and the calendar page with whatever crossed off, and she takes care of it after I go to bed. This system has been working well for the past three years. She doesn't have to ask me what I accomplished, doesn't have to scream at me "but we discussed that last week!" etc. Everything runs smoothly (except for the occasion where she scheduled something, and then looked at my moleskein entries for the day and noticed that i scheduled something for the same time)

[finandom]

Basically, there are 2 sections for my day. First is my online business and second is my offline business.

For my online business, I usually plan my week on Sunday morning. This is because my time is tight and I don't want to waste time on planning everyday. So I will plan ahead. Should I have any ideas within the weeks? I will write down and implement it on my next plan. No matter what happen, I will stick to my current weekly plan. At the end of the week, usually Saturday night, I will review how far I hit for my online business on that week.

For my offline business, I'm running a computer service business. So my daily job will be helping my customers to solve their computer problems. Because of this, I can hardly fix my time for it. So I will plan it in my mind or in my notebook in the daily morning. I will draft out a schedule first and try my best to follow it. I will review and change the schedule accordingly if anything happens emergency. I will try my best to respond fast, act fast and solve my customers' problems fast. So far I found that a fix schedule is hard for me to follow. Of course I try my best to improve on my time management and build system on it. Eventually I will hire someone to help me in my business by following my system.

Just share what I do daily, hope that helps!

Harrison