WorkshopGet Organized in 7 Days

- We often aim for too much at the same time, and achieve nothing in the end.
- We are constantly under fire: new tasks, callbacks, e-mail, social media, and on top the employee survey.
- become more conscious and aware of your available time,
- get a full overview of what you are trying to achieve,
- manage your time with explicit priorities, so that you will achieve anything that is important to you.

How it works
homework.
Let's go!
Day 1: Arrive
We take stock of the things you have to do.
- Write down any topics that are important in your life right now.Think of private or professional topics, for example work projects, your next vacation plans, upcoming changes, etc. Your list doesn't have to be sorted or well-expressed. Just write it down somewhere where you will find it again during this week.
- Also write down how you feel when you think about the things you have to do.Are you stressed or relaxed? Overburdened or bored? Do you look forward to tackling upcoming tasks or do they scare you?
- Bookmark this page and the YouTube playlist.
Day 2: Awaken
We start collecting all tasks in one place.
Start your day
Open the free version Footloose of todoListo.
During your day
Collect your tasks in todoLiso.
answer A.'s e-mail.
Finish your day
Clean up your to-do list.
Day 3: Move
Today we move tasks, thereby creating more structure. And we add notes and infos.
Start your day
- Open todoListo and get an overview of what you need to do today.
- Move tasksMove important tasks to the top. Indent tasks as subtasks to create more structure.
- Add notes to your tasksFor example, you may write down where to find more information about the task. Or you may list work steps that you consider as too detailed to deserve being treated as a task in themselves.
During your day
Continue managing your tasks in todoListo.
Finish your day
- Clean up your tasks.Check all tasks you have achieved and delete the finished ones. Move tasks, merge tasks, etc. Are there things still buzzing around your head? For example other tasks, ideas of how you want to tackle a certain task tomorrow or information from a conversation? Write all of this down, either as a task or as notes on a task.
- Use the Info property.Probably your list contains tasks that are particularly important or need to be repeated or are appointments. Assign them a predefined info property (or define your own, if you like).
- Save your data. (optional)If you are working with the Footloose version, your data is saved in your browser. Technically, we cannot influence how long your browser saves the data. Therefore we recommend that you save your data now and then into a file. In this way, you can also move your data to another device. In the Connected version this is not necessary as the data is stored securely on our server and you can access them from anywhere.
Day 4: Shape
Today we structure tasks by time and make tasks disappear.
Start your day
- Open todoListo and get an overview of what you need to do today.
- Define sections.Start to create a section for the current day, other days of this week, and the current week as a wrapper. Then define more sections, for example the next weeks or months. Don't spend too much time considering which sections you need, you can always add more, change or delete them.
- Assign sections to tasks.Remember that you can lock tasks to assign the same section to several tasks at once. Don't forget to unlock the tasks when you're done.
- Group your tasks by sections.Close all boxes except for the ones of the current week and today. In this way, you can focus without distraction on what you want to get done today.
During your day
Experiment how you prefer to add new tasks today. For example, you can put them all into today's section and move them into other sections at the end of the day. Or you assign them directly to the time when you think you want to work on them. Or you create a section new tasks
, distributing the tasks into other sections when finishing the day.
Finish your day
- Clean up your tasks.Check all tasks you have done and delete the finished tasks. Which tasks remain from today? Maybe you give them more structure with subtasks or you merge tasks. Then consider when you want to get back to those tasks. Look at the task count on the boxes of sections and open boxes to see where the tasks fit by topic. You can also ungroup your tasks and work in the flat list. You can also unassign the section from a task and thus collect those tasks in the box at the bottom of the list
- Look forward to tomorrow.Group again by tasks, if you have worked in the flat list. Open the box for tomorrow and close all others. Compare the task count in the menu bar with the number of tasks you have on your list for tomorrow. You see: with this structure, you can guide your attention to what is important without having to give up other topics.
Day 5: Connect
We get to know another structuring mechanism to better manage our priorities.
Start your day
- Get out your list of topics that you wrote down on Day 1.Compare the topics on your list with the tasks that you have now in todoListo. Do the tasks fit the topics? Maybe you cannot tell at first glance. That is ok, then do the next steps first.
- Define Categories.Switch to the Properties screen and create categories for the topics on your list. If you can now think of other topics or other dimensions for structuring your tasks (such as collaborators), add those as well. As always, it doesn't have to be complete or perfect, you can always change, delete or add categories. Structure your categories by moving and indenting them and using the same color for similar categories.
- Assign categories to tasks.You can assign several categories to one task. If you find a task that doesn't fit any category, consider
- whether the task would fit a category that you haven't created yet. If so, create it now.
- whether the task doesn't fit to any topic that is important to you. Then ask yourself if that task really deserves your attention and maybe delete it.
- Or maybe it just doesn't need a category. That is totally fine as well.
- Sort your tasks by categories.Depending on how many tasks you have on your list, you can sort tasks automatically within a section or you ungroup your tasks and get the full list sorted. Now tasks that fit by topic will be listed close to another and you should try to work them off together.
During your day
Today experiment how you want to work with the structures you know now. Do you group your tasks by sections or by categories? You can always switch between those perspectives. You can also display all tasks of a category or a section in the sidebar of the Properties screen.
Finish your day
- Clean up your tasks.As the days before: structure your tasks, add notes, sections, categories and infos.
- Think about your priorities.Switch to the Properties tab and have a closer look at your categories. How many categories do you have? Are you running out of colors? Then you probably have too much to do or your categories are very detailed. How many tasks and subcategories do they have? Are these numbers in line with the importance of the category? Don't overrate those numbers. Tasks do not all have the same size. But the numbers give you a rough orientation of whether your to-do list fits to your priorities.
Day 6: Play
Now that you know all the techniques for self organization, we add some detail and additional tricks.
- Open todoListo and start your day.The following steps help you to gain a more long-term overview of your tasks. Decide for yourself, whether you want to do them now or rather work on your tasks for today and do the planning at the end of the day.
- Add notes to Properties.You can add notes not only to tasks, but also to Properties (i.e. Sections, Categories and Infos). In addition, for Properties you can add a comment, for example to set a topic for your week (e.g.
Finish Project X
orWork off odds and ends
). In this way you can plan your tasks even better and finalize long-term topics. - Finetune properties.Do you have tasks with more than 3 categories assigned? That is ok, but sometimes you gain more clarity if you define an info instead of a category. Remember how on Day 3 you assigned predefined Infos. You can also define your own Infos, e.g. to represent priorities or work steps (such as
research
,documentation
). You can even use Sections for another layer of organization by topics. Remember that none of this is for eternity. You should regularly check whether your structure still fits your priorities. - Accept reality.How many tasks do you have on your list? Does the number feel right or do you feel overwhelmed? If you have too many:
- Especially for tasks that you have planned long into the future or that have no section attached: Will you ever find the time to do them? If not, delete them. Or if that hurts too much, keep them as a note on a category.
- Can you delegate tasks? Or can you move deadlines?
- Can you put a topic on hold and come back to it when another one has lost importance?
Day 7: Celebrate
Today you can celebrate yourself! Use the techniques from this course and constantly improve your time management.
- Look where you stand.Look at your task list. Would you have thought at the beginning of the week that it would be this number? Does the number of tasks in your categories match your priorities that you have defined at the beginning of the week? Maybe you feel even more stressed than before, seeing the pile of work clearly in front of you. But this is only way to realize when you are trying too much.
- Go on!You can continue to use the Footloose version of todoListo without any restriction. Make it a habit to open todoListo first thing in the morning. This video shows how to always have todoListo at hand. If you would like to work on different devices, like on your laptop and your phone, you can buy the Connected version. In this case, save your data to a file and re-load this file into todoListo after your registration.
- Continue learning!We will offer a continuation of this course at some point in the future for more tips on how to deal with too much work. If you don't want to miss that, register for our newsletter. Until the time comes, get more tips and tricks on our YouTube channel:
- If there is too much work on your list, don't try to be a work hero by working at night or doing weekend shifts. A day only has 24 hours and that is true for all of us. Our video Enjoy your Limits gives tips on how to deal with this fundamental issue.
- In general we advice you to write down anything. But there are exceptions such as things that you are doing anyway or fixed habits. And you can place reminders in your environment, where you might see them more in context than on a to-do list. Learn more in How to use Reminders: Phone vs. Shoe.
- Your list is not really overfull, but you don't feel like tackling any of the tasks on it? Our video Turn Work into Dancing shows you how to find more joy in any kind of work.