Getting present to the need to keep things in existance! I make promises and commitments throughout the day, honor many of them, and then miss some. What I noticed, was that the things that did not complete today, did not complete even tomorrow, go out of existance for me! I use iCal to keep my schedules, but if something is not accomplished for a week, I forget about it.
Of course, the mind has a very limited retention. And I will miss things that I don’t write down. Writing down something keeps it in existance. This is not a new thing, I have been preaching and practicing it for long, but just reached another level in it!
Have been talking to people at office about keeping promises in existance for the last few days. Many have taken up using calendar systems. I think this is a solid step towards delivering on our promises. Good going!
Yes, writing down something keeps it existence and one day I finally end up doing it. For the past few months I have been practicing something called as GTD (Getting Things Done) it something very strongly advocated by a guy called David Allen. There is a lot of dope on this on the Internet. A good site to start with is 43folders.com
just another tip: I not only use the google calendar to keep my schedule but I also travel with a little diary in my pocket where I pen down thoughts and to-dos. Later when I am @ work or home I open up the diary and allocate my notes into its right folder. for example if I fixed a meeting while I was on the road then that goes into my calendar and if I noted to send out an email to a client then I open up Outlook and do the needful. And so on….
Trust me it helps – and there is nothing better than putting it down somewhere so that you don’t force your brain to keep “remembering it”.
Keeping things in existence is problem of everyone. We tend to avoid difficult and the tasks that we don’t like! As you said always – Do Difficult Things First – is only answer of this.
Managing a diary helped me a lot during this year. Applications like Tomboy is also useful to take notes quickly like imp phone no, addresses, todo etc.
GTD is the new thing that’s caught me! I am trying out the principles these days, and even looking at how we can implement it in the organization! Keeping stuff out of your brain and into a trusted system certainly is one big thing!