At last a time management tool that actually works - goodbye "To Do" lists!

I'm a convert to Mark Forsters great book on Time Management "Do It Tomorrow".

Four days into it and I am instantly feeling the benefits and know that my work delivery has already improved.

What's the quick five about it?

• Key thing is to ensure your days have a beginning and an end - the best way to do this is to map out your day, the day before. Not rocket science so far...
• Anything that turns up on the day, unless its going to cause major problems - gets done tomorrow. Everything... Be strong... Everything!
• Turn off your email notifications because you'll look at todays emails - tomorrow [and I guarantee that going through a day's worth of emails in one hit in the morning, will take about one tenth of the time it usually takes you during the day]
• Focus on getting the list you put together yesterday, done today. Don't let anything else come between you and your goal.
• So you have got something that needs doing and you've put it in your diary to do in 3 days time - no sweat. You're 99% confident that you'll actually get it done on that day because you'll be working off a closed (not openended) list. People will actually cope with a 3 day leadtime because it will mean a 3 (not 4 or 5) day leadtime.

OK I could go on, but I have found it very liberating after just four days. Half the things that I thought were urgent and I only got to the next day - I didn't have people chasing me for after all. Actually the fact that I got to them the next day and completed them, meant that the turnaround was probably better than had they been added to an openended "to do" list!

Today being the end of the month, my monthly report was due. I actually got it in today! I've got to say that my boss is so used to chasing these the following week from myself and my peers - that mine turning up today would have caught him quite off guard.

One other big thing was, whe you start, take all your backlog and sling it in a folder where you don't have to look at it. Then everyday when you start the day - the first thing you do is spend some time working on your "Current Initiative", in this case the backlog. Open the file and spend a few minutes clearing it and then get on with the rest of your day and complete everything you set yourself - avoiding creating more backlog. In four days I cleared a months worth of unactioned email. The next thing will be to find something else to make my current initiative and start dealing with those ideas and aspirations that I always meant to get around to tackling one day.

I can't say much more than buy the book and give it a go yourself.