Getting Organized Without A Computer

It’s 7:20pm ET on Monday evening in Toronto and I am sitting in the restaurant at the Novotel Hotel Mississauga writing this Blog. I’ve never heard of Novotel and they provide excellent value and design for the money. With 397 hotels in 58 countries they are on the map.

I had a call with a client today that wasn’t that handy with a computer that needed help with organization and time management.

Without dating myself, I can remember what I used to do prior to getting my first dual 256K disc drive Wang computer which turned out to be a disaster because while it was represented as IBM compatible, it was not.

So here are the steps;

1. Buy a Journal and a one Week At A Glance Style Time Management System.
2. Schedule 2 – 4 hours to empty your head of absolutely everything that you can imagine and once you get going don’t stop, get it all down on paper.
3. Code each item entry in your journal by categories that can include; business – vision, planning, administration, computer and systems, customer service, financial, marketing, office, product development, sales, team, training and web site. personal – auto, clothing, family, financial, friends, hobby, home, intellectual, spiritual, spouse
4. Create a page for each of the above categories in your journal and then copy over the items that you started to list in Step 3.
5. Create individual pages for calls, computer work, delegation, errands, home work and someday/maybe
6. Review each category page and review each of the items to determine action steps that are identified in Step 5.
7. Schedule Time Blocks in your Week At A Glance Style Time Management System to coincide with the items in Steps 3 & 5.
8. Take action

This work follows David Allen’s Getting Things Done and click here to read more on Getting Things Done.