Two Easy Things to Wrestle Back control of your Time

We have so much coming at us from every direction these days that it's hard to keep track of where our time goes. Sometimes we come in in the morning with a plan to get a few critical items accomplished and leave at the end of the day (usually a very long, late day) wondering where our time went and trying to remember what we set out to do. 

There are a lot of ways to manage your time. It's best to figure out what you personally need (rather than trying to use a pre-configured time management system) so the system works for you instead of adding a lot of activity on what you're already trying to manage, but there are a few things that really need to be part of any time management system for that system to work.

If you do nothing else, have a daily 'things to do' list. Make the list up before you leave at the end of the day (set yourself a reminder if the end of your day is usually a rush to get out and pick up the kids, miss the traffic, etc.). This only takes a minute and it's really worth the effort. Be sure to write the list down somewhere - type it into your phone, write it in a notebook, put it on a whiteboard, whatever. This should be what you want to get done *tomorrow*, not a laundry list of everything you can think of that you need to work on sometime. It's even better if you prioritize the list (A,B,C, 1/2/2, High/Medium/Low, whatever works for you) but having the list is the key thing.

 Besides making up tomorrow's 'things to do' list before you leave for the day, to make this really work you need to look at that list when you come in tomorrow morning. This takes only seconds, but it will remind you of what you accomplish during the day and (because you wrote it down) you can take a look at it during the day. If you move around a lot, carry it with you to help remind you of what you wanted to get done. If you do other things during the day, add them to the list so you remember later where your time went.

You should review the list *before* you do anything else. Don't check email, text, IM, phone messages, or anything else. Just take a quick look at the list. (If you get ambushed on your way in, start looking at it before you're visible - in the car or bus, when you park your bike, before you reach the office on your walk.) If something new and critical comes in, add it to the list so you can remember what you spent your time on.

 Don't make the list too long - it should only have on it what you plan to work on tomorrow. Everything else should be on another list - a backlog. Keep that backlog in priority order (take a look once a week to rearrange) so you can pop things off the top when you have space in your schedule. This will also keep you from going down rabbit holes when someone shows up at your door with something less important than what you already have on your list (you can just add it to the backlog so you don't forget about it).

 These simple things, which take only minutes a day, can help you stay on track (or at least know what you *thought* was important to get done before the day's incoming).