It’s a perfect day and everything is falling right into place and Nozbe it right there organizing your day. You have your projects, next actions and even a priority list for the day. You also have you contexts with follow ups and phone calls you need to make. It’s all perfect – isn’t?
Well maybe you can’t ever have a perfectly organized day but if you follow these steps your days will be a lot more organized.
I think it’s worthwhile to make an effort to have a set routine in order to help you be the best you can be throughout the day. Nozbe for me, is my most prized tool.
In today’s world you can easily get sucked into to someone else’s vacuum. Loose focus on what matters to you and you will be forced to focus on what matter to someone else. Ever have this happen to you? Hey, it’s easy to slip down that slope. What happens when a client calls about an invoice or a design issue and now that big project you were working goes to the back burner.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Sure you need to address your clients problems but maybe it doesn’t have to be right now. Respond to them and process the problem into your system. Then follow up on it.
Processing and follow up is the key to making this happen. And this is where Nozbe can step in for you.
Here’s a quick recap on how I start my day when I step into the office: (Read more here)
- Check my calendar
- Check my priority list in Nozbe.
- Scan my emails – do not process them just scan them for any red flags.
- Tackle one thing on my priority list on Nozbe.
Once that’s done I then can move on to the first step.
- Process – This could be emails or phone messages. Read or listen to them. Decide what needs to done.
Here’s what processing means in Nozbe:
New Project – Is it something with a multiple steps involved – yes – then it’s a project
New Next Action – Do you have to do something on an existing project – yes – then enter it as a next action in Nozbe.
Follow Up – Was this in reply to a follow up you sent out? If so great, was the issue handled or do you need to follow up further? Use Nozbe to remind yourself to follow up on this.
Calendar entry – Was a meeting confirmed in this email or did someone ask to meet with you.
Information – Was it just information for you. Then just archive if you think it may have value later.
You could make this more elaborate but this is what it looks like to me when I boil it down.
Once you’ve processed everything it’s time for the next step.
- Action – I use Nozbe to store my action items. Those are projects/next actions/ follow ups.
Projects – Make your project title clear as to what the desired result is. It should eb your goal. I then assign the client name in front of the project. This way it’s sorts them alphabetically. I then assign them to an area of responsibility – which is a label in Nozbe. I have Personal/ Home/Work areas. I might at point assign the project a color. Most ofthe time I won’t do this but if the project is important or has a hard deadline I might want to highlight it.
Next Action – If it’s a next action item, I find my project and type it in. I then decide what order it needs to go in. Maybe I have to do this next and it gets moved to the top of the list. Also what context does this fall into – Nozbe uses categories for context. I have call/home/office/waiting for. I also include a categories for each person on my team. When I’m meeting with them I filter that category and see everything I need to talk to them about. I find office to be the catch all. I can pretty much do everything at my office desk even make calls. But I like to batch my calls I find it more efficient. The last thing I decide is if this action needs to go onto my priority list. Do I need to get it done today?
Waiting For – A waiting for list is one of the most important lists to have. You want to have a list of what’s out there that you are waiting for. Don’t let this become a black hole for you. Don’t fall victim to what so and so was supposed to get back to you. Know who is supposed to get back to you and follow up on it. I write down notes from my conversations in the notes section in a project. This way I record of my conversations on the project.
- Review – I wrote an entire post on The weekly review. There is no easy shortcut for this you have to review your project lists/next actions/waiting for’s. On a daily basis I’m reviewing my categories and my priority list. I will also scan my projects list throughout the day.
There is no magic bullet but Nozbe helps me to stay organized and productive. The program is simple and intuitive yet offers enough options and features to allow you to do stay ahead of the game.
Let’s talk more about this on Twitter.
