Use of to do lists for planning priorities and accomplishing activities is a best practice of task management. When you begin to follow this practice, your productivity tends to an increase, more time becomes available for you and your family, and there is a growing probability that no priority or deadline in your agenda will be broken. To do list software helps you practice efficient task management. This kind of computer program lets you use the GTD method to prioritize, schedule and do your activities and jobs.
Why Todo List Management is Required for Success
Employees often feel overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to do on a daily basis. Missed deadlines, overstress, and poor organization of workday sometimes make them forget to do something important or urgent. All of these symptoms can be easily removed if workers begin to practice efficient to-do list management. A todo list is a prioritized list of all tasks that must be completed within certain deadlines. Managing todo lists efficiently means being able to list everything you need to carry out and to set right priorities according to your deadlines, so that the most important and urgent tasks will be at the top of the list and the least critical items will be at the bottom.
Paper Todo Lists
Traditionally, a paper sheet and pen are the tools to write and manage todo lists. When you keep all of your tasks written down, you can beat work overload and experience less stress. A paper to-do list helps you prioritize activities intelligently, set realistic due dates for your tasks, and remember about things that require immediate attention.
Avert Time Wasting and Fight Procrastination
You will be surprised to know how your productivity will get increased and you will be more successful after you begin to plan and do your tasks with a simple todo list. When you do use task lists in your daily practice, you avoid time wasting and avert the pitfalls of procrastination (such as laziness and fear of failure). When you don't organize your tasks into actionable lists, you waste much of time on doing something not needed and can't focus your attention and energy on things really needed.
Using To Do List Software
Using paper lists is an easy way to get started with managing your duties, deadlines and priorities. Meanwhile, paper todos are useful only when you have a relatively small number of tasks (perhaps 10 or 20) for completion. You can encounter real trouble and become inefficient when there are a great number of records in your paper task list, or when you need to keep track of multiple steps or projects.
Enjoy Automatic Alerts, Advanced Reporting and Task Sharing
In such cases, software-based approaches to todo management can be more effective and efficient in spite of the learning curve. Automatic reminders, status notifications, building reports, sharing your tasks and records with others are a few advantages you gain when using to do list software in your daily practice. For example, in VIP Task Manager software all of your tasks can be presented in the Task List view. You can set priorities, due dates, and status for your tasks. Groups will help you organize todos hierarchically. Filters will help you focus on prioritized items in your list. You can attach files and docs to your tasks, share your action lists with other users, collaborate on work progress with your supervisor, and gets reminders about upcoming events.
Avoid Multitasking with GTD Software
David Allen has developed the method of Getting Things Done or GTD that is so popular today. This method lets you avoid doing several tasks simultaneously (multitasking) as you set clear priority per task and don't keep all of your todos in mind. The method says that you are free to decide which task goes first in your todo list, what time to allocate per action, and when best to begin your work. However, it warns that no parallel tasks are allowed. You should be very careful when planning your todo list and avoid setting duplicate and simultaneous activities. Notes and records in your list should help you keep your mind free and focused on a particular action.
Complete Jobs on Due Date and Report on Performance
Because the GTD method promotes efficient practices of task management, there are many to do list software solutions that help workers employ the method in their daily practice. VIP Task Manager is among those programs. This program provides a practical GTD solution that helps you prioritize tasks, schedule durations and track progress in your electronic to-do list. Quick filter by "Due Date = Today" will let you focus on immediate tasks, priorities will show you in what sequence you must do the tasks, and % complete will tell you your current progress. When you complete your items, you can build a graph report that visualizes your task performance. At the end of your workday automatic reminders will notify you of upcoming activities for tomorrow.
Templates for Easier Task List Planning
When you begin to plan priorities and todos for your next day, week or month, templates help you make the planning process much easier and quicker. Templates are particularly convenient when you need to plan sample jobs and typical activities which you do regularly.
And you don't have to create the same tasks each time when you create a new plan. For example, In VIP Task Manager you can add sample tasks in a group "Template" and duplicate this group when you need to plan your tasks for tomorrow. Your template tasks and todo lists can be shared with other users, printed out, and also emailed. |
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