Sometimes, Two Really is Better than One By Bob Sadowski, APR, Public Relations & Social Media Manager, ACCO Brands As the saying goes, two is better than one—this applies to task lists as well. But wouldn’t that be counterintuitive, you ask? Two task lists competing for the same allotted time, running the risk of duplicating—or completely eliminating—certain to-do items. What happened to shrinking your single list and making it concise and more targeted? Those practices aren’t out the door by any means. However, this idea of using two lists is nothing new. In fact, if you follow our planning and organizing tips and tricks regularly, you’ll realize that you’re already doing it. Here’s the deal… At the start of every day, we recommend you spend several minutes going over your schedule, prior task list and current to-do items in order to create a new task list. This is your Master List, so be sure to include everything of which you can think, be it from home, work or personal life. The next step is prioritizing your list. Find the top items that must be done that day, have the highest level of criticality, and could prohibit you from accomplishing other tasks if left uncompleted. These are the action items you focus on for that day—THIS is your second task list! The creation and use of this second list of actionable and priority tasks is vital in ensuring maximum productivity. Be sure to create an Action List every day in order to stay on task and limit it to a reasonable and achievable number of duties. Plus, update your Master List at least once a week. This will help to keep your priorities in order and prevent any tasks from falling through the cracks. A two task list system is nothing new to planning and organizing—you just may have never called it that before or realized you were using it. Bottom line: However you refer to this planning system, it is one that makes certain responsibilities are accounted for and productivity is maximized. So, meet your “bottom line” and create your two lists today! About Day Runner At Day Runner, our mission is to assist people in “designing their day” with a touch of fashion and function. Many products can be configured for individual planning needs. Our loose-leaf day planners allow users the flexibility to easily select the page formats and style that they like and put them where they need those most. Our products are available from many office product retailers and dealers nationwide and can also be found in office supply catalogs. For more information or to order your planning and organizing tools, visit www.dayrunner.com . Photo by jayneandd (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayneandd/ )

Day Runner: Sometimes, Two Really is Better than One

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Sometimes, Two Really is Better than One

By Bob Sadowski, APR, Public Relations & Social Media Manager, ACCO Brands

As the saying goes, two is better than one—this applies to task lists as well. But wouldn’t that be counterintuitive, you ask? Two task lists competing for the same allotted time, running the risk of duplicating—or completely eliminating—certain to-do items. What happened to shrinking your single list and making it concise and more targeted? Those practices aren’t out the door by any means. However, this idea of using two lists is nothing new. In fact, if you follow our planning and organizing tips and tricks regularly, you’ll realize that you’re already doing it. Here’s the deal…

At the start of every day, we recommend you spend several minutes going over your schedule, prior task list and current to-do items in order to create a new task list. This is your Master List, so be sure to include everything of which you can think, be it from home, work or personal life. The next step is prioritizing your list. Find the top items that must be done that day, have the highest level of criticality, and could prohibit you from accomplishing other tasks if left uncompleted. These are the action items you focus on for that day—THIS is your second task list! The creation and use of this second list of actionable and priority tasks is vital in ensuring maximum productivity. Be sure to create an Action List every day in order to stay on task and limit it to a reasonable and achievable number of duties. Plus, update your Master List at least once a week. This will help to keep your priorities in order and prevent any tasks from falling through the cracks. A two task list system is nothing new to planning and organizing—you just may have never called it that before or realized you were using it. Bottom line: However you refer to this planning system, it is one that makes certain responsibilities are accounted for and productivity is maximized. So, meet your “bottom line” and create your two lists today! About Day Runner At Day Runner, our mission is to assist people in “designing their day” with a touch of fashion and function. Many products can be configured for individual planning needs. Our loose-leaf day planners allow users the flexibility to easily select the page formats and style that they like and put them where they need those most. Our products are available from many office product retailers and dealers nationwide and can also be found in office supply catalogs. For more information or to order your planning and organizing tools, visit www.dayrunner.com. Photo by jayneandd (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayneandd/)