October 2012 - Moreno Valley Unified School District

O C T O B E R 2 0 1 2P A G E 3“go through shoes,” “organizecanned good in pantry,” or “askkids and hubby what they feel likeeating this week.”accomplishments and analyze howyou spent your time. It makes youfeel great. If you use applicationsthat allow you to hide, well, I won’teven go there.My mother always had lists lyingaround the house. She took timeoutlining her duties and errands foreach day and enjoyed the pleasureof accomplishment. To-do listscan be a valuable resource in timemanagement, whether for PTA ornot. But you have to go at themproperly.I have four simple suggestions forusing lists to get things done.A list isn’t much good to you if youcan’t ever find it. Digitalapplications, customizedspreadsheets, a computerprogram…you choose the methodthat works best for you. Anyformat is fine as long as you canget to it, refer to it, add new itemsas things come up, etc. Keepinglists in my head does not work! Ialways make my lists on linedpaper, preferably in a notebook ofsome kind, steno pads and anyother small bound notebook, etc.It has to be where I can get myhands on it quickly and it has to fitin my purse so I can easilytransport it with me. I know friendsthat keep lists in their head. Ialready have trouble rememberingthings I have known for years.Daily things would probably kill me!Another thing I try not to do is writedown projects. I try to list tasks.Break down large, time-consumingtasks such as Spring Cleaning—which I do not do—into tasks suchas clean out bedroom closet ororganize kitchen pantry, sweepgarage, make monthly menu list,etc., into manageable tasks likeI am often tempted to knock of thequickies so I can start crossingitems off my list. But I havelearned, to my chagrin, that leavinglarger, often more important tasksto the end can be self-defeating tomy own efforts. Prioritize your list.I use circles or boxes in front oflisted tasks to remind which needto be done first. I even prioritizeerrands so I accomplish everythingout in one fell swoop out of thehouse! If check email is on yourlist, by all means check your email.But don’t let yourself getsidetracked for an hour onlinegoing to other links or whatever ifthere are more urgent things to bedone.If your list is well written and youmanage the tasks and the timeeffectively, you will have many ofthose items crossed out orchecked off at day’s end. You areunlikely to finish what I call mydreaded master list, my list thatrecords must-do’s into the future.These items can seemunreachable because, sometimes,they are. Looking at what youhave accomplished daily andcrossed out is motivating andbuilds morale. Look at yourMy daily lists include errands to berun, PTA work to be accomplished,articles to be written, phone callsto be made, notes to be written,etc. Sometimes just the writingcan be intimidating but, over theyears, I have learned this is how Ineed to work to get things done. Ifmy list isn’t finished, I move the notdone items to the next day if theyare truly important. I have alsobeen known to just cross them offafter evaluation, deciding thatmaybe that item wasn’t thatimportant after all.Writing lists may not be right foreveryone but it works for me. Ihave a lot that needs to be done;my fingers are stuck in a lot ofpies. In the long run, writing tasksdown, prioritizing, accomplishingtasks, tracking and crossing thingsoff allows me to feel my time hasnot been wasted, that I am gettingimportant things done and,actually, helps me find more timeto do things I just want to do, likereading, watching movies, lunchingwith friends, etc.To me, writing lists is a no-brainer.I want more time to do fun things,relaxing things. Better timemanagement allows more time forthe fun stuff!Kay Rookhuyzen,Leadership Mentor