When you are talking about making something happen it is often just an idea being expressed, but as soon as you schedule it; this is the begining of a plan!

One of my favourit spare time interrests is reading. Not fiction. Unfortunately I feel that I usually do not have time for fiction with so many other interesting things to learn more about. I read non-fiction. Anything which helps me improve myself really, usually in the areas of personal development, finance or business.

One thing most authors I've read stress is the importance of setting goals. They also talk about setting the time aside to achieve these goals. Today I will not dive deep into goal setting techniques (that is a later topic). Today I'd rather share with you a small habit that I picked up from an author named David Allen. One book he has written has really made an impact on me and the things I do. The book is called "Getting things done".

I am talking about getting into the habit of using a calendar.

Mainly what Mr. Allen suggest is that you should divide tasks into different groups: 2-minute tasks, need-to-do tasks and someday tasks.

2-minute tasks are those tasks you know that you need to do, and you know that actually doing them and getting them out of the way would take only a couple of minutes.. Suggestion here: do them immediately, or at least do them as soon as you get some spare time over. Not doing them immediately, they usually pile up on stacks until there are so many minor task that it looks as if they were big tasks. Save yourself from the bad feelings following by you knowing you should/ought to/need to/must do the tasks soon, sometimes even yesterday, or they'll come and haunt you. Do them now instead!

Then there are the need-to-do tasks which are those which require some more planning, simply because they need more time. Suggestion: schedule them! Take you calendar and if it has to be done on a certain day and time then fine, schedule that day and time in your calendar. If it doesn't need to be done on a certain day, then schedule it anyway. This way you'll make sure to put away some time for it. Schedule and stick to it. If the task is to big for your calendar, such as an ongoing project, then do this: identify what would be the next thing that you need to do in order to get the project going? It may be a phone call, buying some tools or perhaps scheduling a meeting. Once you know the next thing to do; then schedule it!

Someday tasks are any other task that would be nice to do, but perhaps not now. There is no time limit on these, or else you would have scheduled them, right? ;-)

Mr.Allen also tells in his book that you should write down ALL tasks, no matter if they are small or big. No matter if they are about some huge project or just a regular day-to-day task such as shopping bread and butter for your next breakfast. By putting the tasks in writing, you may relax more and think about other things You do not need to stuff your mind with these things to do. You know that you will not forget because they are in your calendar and you now have a habit of looking in it regularly. Even if you do not get into the habit at looking through the calendar at specific times or when at certain places, then you have to open it at least for scheduling new tasks and by this be reminded about the other tasks.

By using an electronic calendar, such as a PDA or an organizer, or as in my case a smartphone, you can even attach an alarm to the tasks and scheduled events. That way you will not even need to remember to look in the calendar, it will do this for you and remind you when due.
(I personally store my calendar also on a separate server through scheduled back ups. This way all is still there even if I lost my precious phone. I would simply retreive the calendar to my new phone and continue with my tasks as if I didn't loose anything. This possibility is not available for paper calendars... At least not yet. ;-) )

One thing that I picked up from my boss at my daytime work, in regards to scheduling, was to set off time in my calendar for myself. It could be time for work, when I do not want to be disturbed or it could be to set aside a day every now and then for education, just to read a book on a topic which in useful in my work or at home.

So don't wait! Do a list of the things that you need to do, big and small, and make sure to schedule it. In my case this has made me more organized, less stressed and given me more time to think about other things. I am still struggling a bit to get into the habit of entering all my minor tasks into the calendar, but from experience I see that it actually works. When I do make the effort to do it, I get more relaxed, less stressed and more effective. :-)