A to-do list is a fundamental tool for getting things done: it helps you plan your day, see what you’ve accomplished, and what you should work on next. But a badly-written to-do list can actually sabotage your productivity instead of boost it.

The best part of using a to-do list is crossing items off of it as done, finished, complete. Some tasks are easier to tick off as done than others, so you want to make your to-do list as doable as possible. A common mistake is assigning ourselves impossible tasks that never get done because we didn’t think them through. If you put in some thought up front, you can pare down your to-do list to the tasks you’re most likely to check off the list.

First, know the difference between a project, goal, and a task. A project is a big undertaking that involves several tasks. A goal is something you want to achieve through both tasks and repetitive actions. "Clean out the garage," "Save $5,000," "Learn how to speak French"–these are projects and goals, and they don’t belong on your to-do list. They’d just sit there and haunt you, because it wouldn’t be clear where to start. Reserve your to-do list for the next steps that move a project along. Your goal to "Save $5,000" is going to start with a simple task, like setting up a monthly savings transfer.

Second, break down your to-do’s into small, manageable bites. Don’t put "Write 50 page report" on your to-do list. Try something smaller, like "Jot down 5 main ideas for the report." Use specific action verbs. Instead of writing "Ask Susan about her French class," opt for "Email Susan" or "Call Susan." That makes it easier for you to see what tasks you can do in certain situations. If you’re at your computer, you can quickly send an email; if you’re in the waiting room at the dentist, you can make a call on your cell phone. Give yourself enough information to get the task done wherever you are.

Finally, purge your list of the stuff that’s not moving. Your to-do list should be a fluid document, changing every single day. Still, we all have items that have stuck around on our lists for weeks, months, or even years. Every once in a while, audit the oldest stuff on your list, and think about why you’ve put it off so long. Can you break it down into a smaller, less procrastination-worthy tasks? Is it something you need to do at all? Try to recognize your block around the task and clear it away.

The most popular tool for keeping track of your to-do list is plain old pen and paper, but some computer-based tools are fantastic, too. RememberTheMilk.com is a Web-based to-do list you can access from work, home, or from your smartphone. Things is an iPhone app that lets you work with your to-do’s on the go. If most of your tasks come in through email, try Gmail or Outlook’s built-in Task lists.

Whatever to-do list tool you do decide to use, remember to keep the tasks you put on it small, manageable, and specific to increase their chances of getting done.

Gina Trapani is the author of Upgrade Your Life and founding editor of Lifehacker.com. Work Smart appears every week on FastCompany.com.

The growing ubiquity of e-mail means that everyone in business, from lords of finance to programmers who dream in code, needs to write intelligently. By using simple, clear, precise language–and following a few other basic writing rules–you can become a better communicator and improve the prospects for your career.

"Clarity is the most important characteristic of good business writing," says Mignon Fogarty, creator of the "Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing" podcast. "Often businesspeople will use big $10 words because they want to sound intelligent. Instead, they end up sounding like they’re trying too hard."

Start by using short, declarative sentences. Never use a long word where a short one will do. (No need to write "utilize" when "use" works just as well.) Be ruthless about self-editing; if you don’t need a word, cut it.Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or any kind of jargon if you can think of an English equivalent. Regardless of how many times your managers ask you to "circle back," or "move the needle forward," take a stance against painful business jargon. These expressions may sound important–and like the official language of a club you’d like to join–but they make no sense.

When you’re composing an e-mail, say what you need to say, and move on. If your big idea isn’t in the first paragraph, move it there. If you can’t find it, rewrite. "Simplicity doesn’t mean simplicity of thought," says Kara Blackburn, a lecturer in managerial communication at MIT Sloan School of Management. "Start by asking yourself what you want the person to do as a result of this e-mail. Just asking yourself that question can make your communication much clearer."

Use plain English, and be specific. Instead of mentioning "the current situation," explain exactly what it is, whether it’s low company morale, or an SEC investigation.

Beware of common grammatical mistakes, like subject-verb agreement. The number of the subject (whether it’s singular or plural) determines the number of the verb. Use a singular verb form after nobody, someone, everybody, neither, everyone, each and either.

Know when to use "that" and "which." "That" introduces essential information in what’s called a "restrictive clause." "Which" introduces extra information in a "nonrestrictive clause." Here’s an example: "I’m interested in speaking with you about our new product, which has the potential to increase sales." The second clause provides extra information, and it isn’t essential to the first clause. Therefore, "which" is correct. In a sentence such as "Computers are the only products that we sell," the clause "that we sell" is essential to the meaning of the sentence, so the correct word is "that." You can’t remove the "that" clause without changing the meaning of the sentence.

Another common error is confusing "affect" and "effect." Affect is a verb meaning "to influence." "Effect" is a noun that means "result." The weather affects our ability to travel, and it had a terrible effect on my flight to New York.

For more writing tips, consult the classic books on writing and grammar, such as The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White, The Associated Press Stylebook and The Chicago Manual of Style. On iTunes, download the "Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing" podcast. Happy writing.

In the short term, this leaves you with an interesting challenge that there just isn’t much advice for – the moment when you realize that you still need to promote your business despite having a website that you hate and which you know is less than ideal. Can it really be possible to use the Internet effectively for marketing without a good website?  Yes, definitely.  Here are a few ideas on how to do just that.

1. Announce a non-existent redesign. The first thing you need to do with a subpar website is to give customers the impression you are working to improve it. The only thing worse than a bad website is one that seems like it will be bad forever. So put a note on your homepage in some way sharing that your redesign is “coming soon.” If you think about it, this is exactly what retail destinations do when they hang those signs saying “please pardon our progress.” Progress takes time, but the first important lesson is that your customers need to know that it is coming … even if you have no idea when.

2. Create other homepages. The nice thing about the web today is that you can get up and running on a host of other sites to create a branded presence for your business in less than an hour. What this means is that your website doesn’t need to be the only place that you share information about your business.  Need a page telling people where you are located? Populate that information into Google Maps and use that link. Want to tell people about your business and share some images? Create a Facebook fan page for your business. There are lots of sites out there where you can share information about your business without needing to just point people to your site.

3. Fix your homepage first. The homepage of your site is the gateway to your business and the first impression someone is likely to have. While a full redesign may be some time away, getting some help to recreate your homepage can be a good investment to start people with a positive experience of your site and then potentially drive them to other homepages as mentioned in #3.

4. Use more direct communications. When you can’t rely on your website to reach your customers, you may want to consider a more direct model. Email marketing certainly fits into this category – but starting a Twitter account and sharing updates directly can also be a way of offering a more consistent stream of content or information without relying on your website to do it.

5. Leverage your other materials. I have seen more than a few small businesses struggle to create a quality website while at the VERY SAME TIME they have an expanse of good printed materials such as brochures and other collateral they use in the real world to promote their business. If you have these kinds of materials, work with someone (or buy a relatively inexpensive scanner yourself) to digitize some of the best of your content. Then you can upload to your site or post it online in another location to make it available for customers and prospectives.

Most of our work happiness comes from our relationship with ourselves. For example, I recently started working on  a proposal for a non-profit human services organization. As I’m reading and putting all the research together, roughing out each section and making it all coherent, I hit walls that stall my progress.

Last week I actually flopped into my recliner, let out a loud groan and sputtered out in frustration. Why did I do this?  I hadn’t written a proposal like this in several months. It was no good. I didn’t have the handle on it I wanted. It wasn’t flowing. Fortunately, my boyfriend was home and he listened to my self-deprecating rant and cajoled me back into life with a few hugs, a popsicle, and a couple of well-timed  jokes. My creativity was zapped by my own thoughts of inadequacy, fear, and anger. The person from whom I needed the most encouragement was myself, and I was being ugly.

I took a look at the internal problems I was having and how they were affecting my work. By addressing a few weaknesses, I discovered how I can use them to work for me instead of against me.

1. One Project At A Time

Almost always, I have several things that I am trying to do at once. I could be writing an email, in discussion with someone in an instant message client while I am thinking about an upcoming task or project.  The distraction puts a strain on my attention and ultimately affects the quality of my work no matter how good I think I might be at multitasking.

From a long line of procrastinators, if I’m not forced to produce I don’t . Often my attention darts from thought to thought and thing to thing because there’s no deadline looming over my head like a black cloud of angst. So when I need to focus, I’ve started setting a timer. A little tension can be good when it brings focus to a person’s life.

Depending on the task, I may set the timer for 30 minutes and try to finish the task within that time frame. If the timer dings and I need more time, I reset it for the appropriate amount of time and go back to work. This allows me to focus on this one task without letting all the other “musts” distract me.

2. Break The Project Down

The length of my list on any given day would give even Gina Tranpani pause. I expect too much and never feel like I’ve gotten anything done.

Instead of getting lots done, there are times when my brain just shuts down in response to my overwhelming list. I needed to figure out a way to reduce those negative thoughts. I have tried bullying and forcing myself  but it never works. I only feel worse and do even less.

I’ve created a routine that allows me to handle my work load. When I realize that I have overextended my task list, I stand up, breathe deep, and let the air out with a slow breath. Then, I get comfortable at my desk and whittle my first big task into 20 minute spurts. As the project becomes less unwieldy, I find I’ve let go of the negative thoughts and boosted my confidence.I’m in the moment and enjoying the process. I’m not feeling overwhelmed by a mountain of work and I’m feeling good about my progress and the quality of work I am putting out.

3. Split Your Tasks List

I usually feel overwhelmed as a result of my own expectations. I expect to get too much work done. I’ve never been able to accomplish a massive task in one day. So when my task list gets too big I often split it into two lists.

I create a main list that’s simple to complete. If I have four hours for work, I make the list equal to about two hours. Typically these are the tasks and projects that need my attention first during the day. The second list is the extras list. This list contains the less time sensitive issues and tasks that require my attention that day.

Whenever I get to my extras list, I feel really good about my what I’ve been able to complete. Anything on the extras list that doesn’t get done today, is prioritized and put on tomorrow’s main list. Guidance and sense of accomplishment is the main reason for a list, so make your list achievable. And don’t forget to roll those unfinished extras items over to your main tasks list for the following day!

4. Take a Break

I can get stalled because I get tired and can’t focus on what is right before me. There are too many options. If I have to write an email, create a blog post, and work on a newsletter then I start to feel over-anxious and foggy. My overwhelmed brain simply wants to shut down. So I  usually get up and take a break to clear my head and let things simmer.

Since I work from home, there always some mindless household task that needs to be done. If negative thoughts are mucking up my progress, I take out the trash. If worry is hounding me, I do the dishes and think about those worries running down the drain with the soapy water. Maybe I’ll pop over to some favorite blogs that have nothing to do with work for some laughter and gratitude.  If the weather is okay, I might sit out on the backs steps and listen to the birds and watch my dog snore in the grass for awhile.  Almost always after one of these breaks, I come back renewed and refreshed; my creativity is moving again.

There are so many ways we can pull ourselves out of a stressful state if we just take a break and let go of what’s bugging us.

5. Check Out The Positive

Like many of us, I get preoccupied in how the present moment makes me feel. I create mountains out of molehills. I can create a torturous thought process by magnifying the bad things that are happening to me instead of focusing on all the good things that are there if I just take the time to see them.

If I’m feeling particularly ugly about a project, I write down of all the things that I’m learning from the project in my Good Things journal. I keep this by my desk and whenever I am gloomy about work, I haul it out and take a peek.

Big projects and unexpected demands on my time almost always push me outside of my comfort zone. By meeting these challenges as they come, with as positive an attitude as I can muster, I can  manage stress properly, compose clearer, better emails, and continue to develop more meaningful working relationships with my clients and bosses.

The bonus is I am getting paid to learn these lessons. That’s a gift.

By working at shifting my perspective to the positive, I’m better able to let go of my negative thinking more quickly and realign myself with the good things in and around me.

What do you do to stay happy during a stressful project or day?

Have you been miserable lately? Got the hump, feeling down, worrying, stressing? Whatever’s got you down – swine flu, the credit crunch, the weather, a busy time at work — you might as well milk it for all it’s worth. Here’s how to make yourself (and everyone around you) feel completely and utterly miserable.

(And don’t tell me you don’t want to be miserable. I’m pretty sure you’re already doing at least a few of the things on this list…)

Read the rest…

If you’re like me, it’s not unusual to have a pile of emails, documents and other information each day that need to be translated into tasks that you can actually move forward on. Learning to manage communications for any entrepreneur, freelancer, or self-employed person is becoming more and more important for maintaining a reasonable level of productivity. But before you can address anything coming your way the trick is identifying tasks first.

Who Wants What?
More often than not people will slip their requests in with polite communications. Often you’ll find a “I need you to…” or “Could you…” or “Please take care of…” sandwiched in between questions about you and the family or the status of a project. These phrases are like tags, noting what part of a particular voicemail or email is actually the task you need to complete. Focuson those first and deal with the extraneous stuff later.

Who Sent This?
It’s great to think that we can just scan our list of email messages and pick out all the tasks simply and easily. The real story is you have to at least read who sent you each message to figure out the context of what each message means. Comprehending just what someone’s asking you to do is an issue of context. For instance, as I read my email, I take note of what I need to do to take care of whatever question, problem or specific task and put it into context. A friend asking you to help with her blog is something very different than a client asking you for assistance with their blog.

Ask?
One of the things you do while processing new tasks is to get any necessary clarification. If there’s a question about what’s being asked of you send an email right away requesting any necessary details or a clarification. This way you can be sure that you have all the right information when you add a new task to your list. If you’re not sure that you’re correctly interpreting a message, go ahead and confirm you’re on the right track. Simply shoot back an email or a voicemail message restating the task and ask for a little confirmation.

What’s First?
For big projects that get dropped in your inbox, don’t bother fleshing out a whole time line immediately. That, in and of itself, is almost always a large task. Instead, identify the first step you need to take and make a note that planning out the smaller tasks and details is also on your to-do list. It isn’t always simple to identify what’s first but if you routinely work on similar projects, you can probably guess what the first step will be on your next project.

One Inbox?
Yes. Having one inbox where you can sort through everything can makes it easier to pull information from all the emails, documents and requests that get passed your way. Even if you have to move files around yourself, you can help speed up the time it takes to process this sort of information, just by having it all in one place.

Skipping Messages?
Skipping an email or message and promising yourself you’ll come back to it later is good way to make sure something slips between the cracks. Instead of avoiding complicated requests or tasks, get them out of your inbox now. You can even turn down the request if that’s a better option. Either way, don’t put it off until a later that will never come.

Help Yourself
Lastly, make the emails and memos you send to others easy to translate into tasks, for them and for you. While it may not help you complete your own tasks, making the effort to streamline your messages that you can minimize time-consuming back-and-forths about what a client or colleague really needs to accomplish. It really will save you more time than you might expect and just might help someone else to communicate tasks more clearly for you.

]]> http://activegreymatter.org/2009/05/7-ways-to-transform-e-mail-into-tasks/feed/ 0 http://activegreymatter.org/2009/05/4-tips-for-social-media-beginners/ http://activegreymatter.org/2009/05/4-tips-for-social-media-beginners/#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 03:18:47 +0000 Krishanna http://activegreymatter.org/?p=429 Continue reading →]]> Always tell the truth about yourself. Social networks are experiential. You need to jump in and experience it. If you are serious about establishing a social internet presence and networking, you have to be prepared to tell the truth about yourself if you want to connect with people on a real level. Using social media tools helps to establish your professional background but there’s a person that accompanies that background too.

Show yourself. If not your face then why not something about you? I don’t trust a person who wants to connect with me and doesn’t have a profile picture instead of the default photos they use on most social networking sites. And I’m not alone.

Stop cramming your business opportunities down my throat. Give it a rest. I get it. I really do get it. Quit talking about what you do and tell me about yourself. What books and articles are you reading? What television shows or movies do you like? Do you have a family? Pets? What do you do when you aren’t working? Trust me, I am not going to be more interested in your work stuff if you are always yapping about it and I’m fairly certain no one else will either.

Be as generous and positive and as supportive and nice as you can be. I don’t cozy up to unwarranted negativity. Not many people do. And yes, sometimes people are just jerks and there will be times you will need to handle these characters. Do it with grace and prudence and no one will bat an eyelash. I enjoy a good, carefully crafted, humorous and appropriate rant as well as the next blogger but if all you ever do is b**ch and moan, criticizing everything, you’ve lost me and everyone else.

Remember, it’s great when you receive news that someone in your network found value in something you shared or even just that someone thought enough of you tweet hello. Be glad. It means you have a network of friends amongst the Internet hype.

Staying productive is one of those skills no one teaches you in school but you have to learn. It’s especially important if you’re self-employed or a telecommuter because you usually find yourself performing many different jobs, each with their own set of tasks, during the course of a single day. It doesn’t matter how smart you are if you can’t organize information well enough to take it in. And it doesn’t matter how skilled you are if procrastination keeps you from getting your work done.

Many of us are prey to time-wasters that steal time we could be using much more productively. What are your time-bandits? Do you spend too much time ‘Web surfing, reading email, or doing personal stuff? Twittering?

Here are 10 tips that can help you increase your productivity and stay calm, cool and collected:

1. Make it easy to get started. Often we don’t have issues with finishing projects, we have issues starting them. I try to break own my projects into what Sark calls Micro-Movements, small nuggets of action toward the completion of a goal, so I am not overwhelmed by them.
2. Do the most important thing first. When I sit down at my desk in the morning, before I check e-mail, I work for an hour on the most important thing on my to-do list. I got this idea from Gina Trapani of Lifehacker. What I found was that even if I don’t get the whole thing done in an hour, I usually to go back to it once I’ve started it.
3. Prioritize and organize the night before. I have also found doing the most important thing first thing in the morning works best if I prioritize and organize the night before so when I sit down at my desk in the morning I know what my most important task of the day is. Some people do this as soon as they are done with work for the day. I generally take 20 to 30 minutes before bedtime to prioritize my To-Do list, check my calendar for events I need to attend or appointments I need to go to.
4. Check your email on a schedule. It’s just not time effective to read and answer every email as it arrives. Just because someone can contact you immediately doesn’t mean that you have to respond to them immediately. Check your e-mail on a schedule and prioritize the responses. During work hours, my clients’ e-mail tend to get priority. After business hours, other people and things get my attention first. Most people want a predictable response, not an immediate one so as long as people know how long to expect an answer to take, and they know how to reach you in an emergency, you can answer most types of email just a few times a day.
5. Don’t leave email sitting in your inbox. The capability to quickly process information and transform it into action is one of the most emergent skills a self-employed professional can have. I organize email in file folders and use G-mail to archive all my important e-mails. If the message needsmore thought, I move it to my to-do list; if it’s for reference or to read , I either print it out or save the URL and add it to my To-Do list; if it’s a meeting or an appointment, I move it to my calendar . Take action on an email as soon as you read it.
6. Keep web site addresses organized. You can use book marking services like del.icio.us or StumbleUpon to keep track of web sites. Instead of having random notes about places you want to check out, places you want to keep as a reference, etc., you can save them all in one place, and you can search and share your list easily.If you use Firefox, you can also use their handy tool bar to create links to the sites you use most often either with a button or using bookmarks.
7. Know when you work best. Because I telecommunute, I can pretty much work any time of day or night. But I try to schedule things so that I work on the most important things between the hours of 11AM and 3PM when I am the most productive. I also often work in the evening after dinner for a few hours, depending on my energy level. Everybody has a “best time”. You can figure out yours by monitoring your productivity over a period of time. Then manage your schedule to keep your best time free for your most important work.
8. Don’t waste time waiting. From client meetings to waiting for a bus, it’s impossible to avoid waiting for someone or something. But I don’t just sit there and twiddle my thumbs. I always have something with me to do such as something I need to read, a phone call that needs to made, or a small bound book in which I write new tasks, make notes or organize work for the following day. Technology also makes it easy to work wherever you are too; your cell phone ,
   laptop or netbook will help you stay connected.
9. Organize your to-do list every day. If you don’t know what you should be doing, how can you manage your time to do it? Some people like writing this list out by hand because it shows commitment to each item if you are willing to rewrite it each day until it gets done. Other people like software that can slice and dice their To-Do list into manageable, relevant clusters. For example, I use Tasktoy because it shows me only my tasks for a specific client or project and I can access it from anywhere as long as I have Internet access. It’s also free. You can get Tasktoy here. I use both methods. I flesh out my tasks by hand and then add them to Tasktoy.
10. It’s okay to be a little pokey. Remember that a productive manager actually responds to some things more slowly. For example, someone who is doing the highest priority task is probably not answering incoming email while they’re doing it. Typically in any day, there are more than a few tasks more important than processing email. Intuitively, we all know this. What we need to do now is recognize that processing work (evaluating what’s come in, what’s going out and how to handle it) and planning work are also critical tasks.

No matter how organized we are, there are still always only 24 hours in a day. Time doesn’t change. All we can actually do is manage ourselves and what we do with the time that we have.