Saturday, January 20, 2007
MY GO LIST
Users often ask us about The MasterList: How Do I Use the Task Tracker button to organize what I do?
Here is a good example of how the Task Tracker can cut across all your categorical projects to bring together a special aspect common to all projects, as if that aspect was a single project. I call it My Go List.
Here's an actual Example from my Home MasterList database. Among my dozens of projects I maintain in The MasterList, I have these 8:
* Cars Project - for car maintenance
* Daughter S Project
* Finances - Business - for maintaining the business side of The MasterList
* House Maintenance Project
* Law Project - for maintaining my law licensing and law practice on the home front
* Personal/Self Project - for my health & personal effects management
* Whiteboard Project - where I track spontaneous ideas and tasks that flash to mind
* Wife J Project
Awhile back it occurred to me that virtually every Saturday morning, I would check through EVERY project in my system (at least 70), not just the above 8, and look for things I had to do on a drive out that morning, like:
* go to the bank
* pick up dry cleaning
* go buy a book on lean management
The problem was that since all these tasks were spread across multiple projects, I had to "manually" search through my project screens to find all the tasks.
With The MasterList, not acceptable! So, here is what I did. I created a special tracking task code called GO, that I apply to any task where I think I will need to leave home and go out into the world to get something done.
Now. Here's the bonus round. For example, this morning, I went to Task Tracker and ran all my GO's from here through next month. I then re-arranged those that I thought I would try to get today into a single list in Task Tracker. So, when I go out to do these things, I call it a "GO RUN". Today, there are 11 tasks in My Go List. Here in a nutshell is the list:
1. Deposit checks for our TML business. From Business Finance project.
2. Deposit check for daughter S for trip to China. From Daughter S project.
3. Go and buy a discounted after-Christmas tree skirt. White Board project.
4. Buy some indoor spotlights. House Maintenance Project.
5. Check mileage on Buick and go to dealer for service if necessary. Cars Project.
6. Ditto on the Cadillac.
7. Get a teapot for the Office. Law Project.
8. Take Dry Cleaning in. Physical/Personal project.
9. Return pants wife bought that are too tight or long. Personal/Self project.
10. Buy an alarm clock for wife J to replace broken one. Wife J project.
So, that is My Go List. It's on my desk right now. PRINTED. I will simply carry it around with me as I get into one of my car's today, on a cold wintry Saturday Morning, with my wife, J, to get all or some of this done. And, when I am done, what is done, will be checked and send to the History Page for each project, or bumped along for another day.
Here's the Beauty of all this. I can manage my business, my law practice, or any business, or professional organization applying the same techniques only found in combination in The MasterList :
1. Create Projects.
2. Add tasks in projects assigning task codes I created.
3. Review all Projects by project.
4. Cut across all Projects for Review by Day. My Day report.
5. With Task Tracker, cut across all Projects by task type. Example: My Go List.
6. Lean screen flow to make all this happen fast.
Have a good day. Let's GO!
Users often ask us about The MasterList: How Do I Use the Task Tracker button to organize what I do?
Here is a good example of how the Task Tracker can cut across all your categorical projects to bring together a special aspect common to all projects, as if that aspect was a single project. I call it My Go List.
Here's an actual Example from my Home MasterList database. Among my dozens of projects I maintain in The MasterList, I have these 8:
* Cars Project - for car maintenance
* Daughter S Project
* Finances - Business - for maintaining the business side of The MasterList
* House Maintenance Project
* Law Project - for maintaining my law licensing and law practice on the home front
* Personal/Self Project - for my health & personal effects management
* Whiteboard Project - where I track spontaneous ideas and tasks that flash to mind
* Wife J Project
Awhile back it occurred to me that virtually every Saturday morning, I would check through EVERY project in my system (at least 70), not just the above 8, and look for things I had to do on a drive out that morning, like:
* go to the bank
* pick up dry cleaning
* go buy a book on lean management
The problem was that since all these tasks were spread across multiple projects, I had to "manually" search through my project screens to find all the tasks.
With The MasterList, not acceptable! So, here is what I did. I created a special tracking task code called GO, that I apply to any task where I think I will need to leave home and go out into the world to get something done.
Now. Here's the bonus round. For example, this morning, I went to Task Tracker and ran all my GO's from here through next month. I then re-arranged those that I thought I would try to get today into a single list in Task Tracker. So, when I go out to do these things, I call it a "GO RUN". Today, there are 11 tasks in My Go List. Here in a nutshell is the list:
1. Deposit checks for our TML business. From Business Finance project.
2. Deposit check for daughter S for trip to China. From Daughter S project.
3. Go and buy a discounted after-Christmas tree skirt. White Board project.
4. Buy some indoor spotlights. House Maintenance Project.
5. Check mileage on Buick and go to dealer for service if necessary. Cars Project.
6. Ditto on the Cadillac.
7. Get a teapot for the Office. Law Project.
8. Take Dry Cleaning in. Physical/Personal project.
9. Return pants wife bought that are too tight or long. Personal/Self project.
10. Buy an alarm clock for wife J to replace broken one. Wife J project.
So, that is My Go List. It's on my desk right now. PRINTED. I will simply carry it around with me as I get into one of my car's today, on a cold wintry Saturday Morning, with my wife, J, to get all or some of this done. And, when I am done, what is done, will be checked and send to the History Page for each project, or bumped along for another day.
Here's the Beauty of all this. I can manage my business, my law practice, or any business, or professional organization applying the same techniques only found in combination in The MasterList :
1. Create Projects.
2. Add tasks in projects assigning task codes I created.
3. Review all Projects by project.
4. Cut across all Projects for Review by Day. My Day report.
5. With Task Tracker, cut across all Projects by task type. Example: My Go List.
6. Lean screen flow to make all this happen fast.
Have a good day. Let's GO!
