0 CommentsPeople are passionate about their lists. Ask them to describe the ways they organize their lives, and they’ll detail the intricacies – or lack thereof – of personal systems built through the years to safeguard against tasks falling through the proverbial cracks.
Keith and Ilse Rassin love checking off to-do lists. (Photo: www.hartphoto.com)
One West University woman in her early 40s who works full-time as a doctor while managing two elementary school-aged children uses a range of tools, high-tech and otherwise, to keep her family under control. Barbara Trautner uses Microsoft Outlook to keep both a personal calendar and one for the family, so “all the events are with me on my phone and my computer screen, wherever I am.”
Then, on legal pads, she creates “running, long-term lists” for work and home. “Short-term lists” (think daily tasks) get recorded on a small pad of paper. At the bottom of the pad, she draws a line, below which falls everything that needs to be completed that day.
And there’s more.
“I break long-term projects into pieces, all of which go on the calendar,” she says. “So if someone has a project due February 1, the calendar reminds me on January 1 to go to Michaels with that child to buy supplies. The next weekend, I’m reminded to make time to work on the project with the child.
“The night before the project is due, the calendar reminds me to make sure the project fits into the child’s lap in carpool, or else plan to drive the child separately to school in the morning.”
It’s no accident that this woman is simultaneously a successful doctor and mother.
Jenifer Ben-Shoshan organizes her life with sticky notes. (Photo: www.hartphoto.com)
Ilse and Keith Rassin utilize a far less techy – but equally effective – plan for organizing their lives.
The couple met while pursuing their MBA degrees at the University of Houston. Both are driven, goal-oriented and just a little competitive. So when one (no one remembers who) started creating lists with checkboxes meticulously drawn at each entry, the other followed.
Today, both Keith and Ilse make comprehensive task lists with columns of little, hand-drawn checkboxes.
“I got it from my mom,” Ilse, who owns a small company that sells children’s play tents, says of her organizational drive. “She made weekly menus and posted them on our fridge. So every Sunday, I plan meals for the week, make grocery lists for Monday and Thursday, and know I’m under control.
“And each step has its own checkbox.”
To keep track of things at work, entrepreneur Keith uses a white board, where he posts lists organized by project. Bullet points – and checkboxes – emphasize follow-up work to be done.
The Rassins are building a house, and Keith has emphatically requested a study with one wall dedicated to his white board.
Jenifer Ben-Shoshan, an educational specialist and mom of two young boys, combines both ends of the spectrum. Like the doctor in West U, she uses an online Outlook calendar that syncs with her phone.
Bridget Wade uses neon bright Post-its as reminders of what's on her to-do list. (Photo: www.hartphoto.com)
“My husband and I ‘invite’ each other [via calendar-generated email] to appointments for our boys or family events. There’s no more, ‘You didn’t tell me about dinner with your parents.’”
But Jenifer also stays old-school and mixes sticky notes into her plan.
“Before bed, I look at my calendar for the next day and make a yellow sticky of things I need to do,” she says. “I stick it on my desk so I know exactly what I need to tackle when I wake up.”
Then there are those who take sticky notes to a whole new level.
“What would I do without my Post-it notes?” asks the very creative mom of three Bridget Wade. But Bridget veers from the typical yellow sticky and gravitates instead to neon brights. Her reasoning: “They scream at me, ‘DO THIS!!!’”
Bridget sticks bright Post-its everywhere – on her calendar, in the car, on the computer. But she says she doesn’t have trouble keeping track of them.
“I remember funny things about what color the Post-it was, or what pen I wrote with,” she says. “That helps when I’m not looking right at them.”
The systems – whatever form they take – become integral to living. Diana Brackman says she’s so “addicted” to her lists that, “sometimes I even write down things I’ve completed but forgot to write down – just so I can cross them off my list.”
And that, in a nutshell, probably defines the fine line between organized and downright obsessed.
