Summary: You can only feel good about what you are not doing, when you know what you are not doing. — David Allen – Author of Getting Things Done. In this episode I share some of my favorite tools for managing your tasks or to-do list. When you can manage your tasks, you'll know what needs to be done and, just as important, if not more so, know when you are DONE. Do a Brain Dump and Open Up Your Mind to More Creative Thought In Episode #007 of the Mental Mastery Moment, I shared with you the importance of having a "Mind like Water" by doing a brain dump of all the "things" that are clutter your thoughts. That means, taking all of the little things you have to remember do, all the little ideas that might help you at work, or at home and putting them all into an inbox of some sort. Once this is done, you can take those items and put them into a task management system and free up that energy in your head. I want to make sure you know of all of the great free and paid resource which are available to help you do this. But, the truth is, there's no way I'm going to be able to cover every single app out there. If there is one that you love and I didn't cover it, would you let me know? If I hear from enough people, I'll be sure to share it in a future episode. Don't Delay Until You've Achieved Perfection The worst thing you can do, coming out of this episode, is to avoid getting started until you find the perfect app to manage your tasks. Determine your needs and once you find something that fits those needs, put it to use and move forward. Even if it only get's "close enough." I would even encourage you to take those ideas and dump them onto a piece of paper or napkin, so you can be sure of taking that positive action. For years people ran their businesses on pieces of paper and empires were built. I'm not suggesting you stick with a pad of paper, but I am saying it's enough to get you started. My Favorite - Toodledo I've used the Toodledo task manager for about 5 years (maybe more) now and it's been incredibly robust and comprehensive. It does everything I need it to do to manage over 90% of my tasks. It's FREE (there's a paid upgrade if needed) Contexts - Where your tasks will be done Folders - If your task it part of a project Tags - For more detailed sorting (I use it to sort by tools needed) Start Dates / Due Dates Location based reminders (They don't pop up until you're at the place where you need to do the task) Time Estimates of Tasks Saved Searches That last one is one of my favorites. I can do some incredibly complex searches and then save them so they always show me what meets that criteria. For example: Only show me unfinished tasks which over overdue at work and require the use of my computer. I also have a great saved search I use all the time called "Quick Tasks." I only see tasks that can be completed in 5 minutes or less. It wonderful for finding those things I can do quickly each morning to get the momentum rolling. I also use the estimated time required to do a task to help me manage my days. Every task I put in includes an "estimate" of the time it will take to do them. This is often wrong, but at least I'm close. Then I can look at what I have scheduled for tomorrow and, if it looks like it's going to take more time than I have, I can move items over to the next day. It really helps keep my task list from becoming too long and overwhelming me to the point of frustration. Wunderlist - The Favorite on iTunes I noticed this app in the Productivity category in the iTunes App store because of all of the 5-Star ratings it's received. Seriously, the number of people who love this app is off the charts. It, like most of the apps available, has all of the basic features, including most of the ones you'll find in Toodledo. It does look like it's improved on the interface a bit and made it a little more intuitive when it comes to sorting your list.
