Shame on me! I realized it’s been months since I posted on time or task management. Sounds like I need a better system, doesn’t it?

Well, as it happens, I am trying a slightly new task management system this year, and I thought I’d share.

I’m basically working three jobs this year: 1 to 1 Discovery, writing/publishing and volunteering for Homeward Deployed. It would be easy for me to spend my time disproportionately, and all of them are important. My coach challenged me to come up with a way to keep track of all them, and I can’t stand not responding to one of her challenges.

So I started this system last week, and so far it’s working well.

Each morning I spend a few minutes looking over my day. I’m still using Pocket Informant as my calendar and task management app. I see how much time I have devoted to meetings and how much time I have left over for other things.

Then I look at the tasks I (sometimes optimistically) have due that day. I prioritize them, and reschedule ones that don’t make the cut that day.

My final check is that I’m representing at least two of my “jobs” each day. If I can fit in all three of them, great, but some days that’s just not realistic.

Planning done, I go about my day, keeping track of which tasks I’ve accomplished.

At the end of the day, I’ve scheduled another few minutes. That’s when I go back and look at what I did. I created a template for an “All Day Event” where I can track what I did for my three areas of focus. I write down exactly what I did to advance the three big goals I’m working toward right now. Mostly, it’s just cutting and pasting completed Tasks, but it’s a way to hold myself accountable.

For you visual people, here’s what that daily event looks like.

As you can see, I did pretty well on the writing goal that day!

On Friday, I go back and look at each of those events and make certain each goal was advanced.

On Monday, I add another extra step. I look at all my Projects (ala Getting Things Done) and make sure I have a task assigned to each of them.

It doesn’t take much time. The daily planning and reflection takes less than 15 minutes. The recap and planning on Friday and Monday take about 30-45 minutes total. But spending those couple of hours each week is making me more productive by ensuring I’m working on exactly what needs to be done.

I wrote about GTD yesterday as a way to manage overwhelm. Not surprisingly, several of my clients regularly experience overwhelm, and I have worked with them on implementing the process. A common question arises. “How do I do this on the go?”

One of Allen’s principles is that you need to have your system with you at all times. If you think of something, you need to be able to write it down. Can you use scrap paper? Sure, but then you have to remember to copy it later.

A smart phone is a great place to keep your system. For those who haven’t read the book, you need two things: a calendar and a project/action list. I started GTD on my Blackberry using the calendar program and Memopad. I had all my action items and project lists in Memopad. And my dated items in Calendar.

Now I use my iPhone and a program called Action Lists It’s designed to easily implement GTD on the iPhone, and they update it frequently with improvements.

But you don’t need a fancy program to keep your action items with you all the time. A small notebook will work for you paper and pencil folks. Any phone that has a Memo program will work. The important part is consistency. Capturing everything on the go will keep you focused and on track, allowing you to be more effective in the same amount of time.

If you haven’t yet read the book, do so. It’s well worth the time.

Anyone have any GTD on the go stories to share?

I realized it had been a while since I have posted on Getting Things Done, the excellent book on time management by David Allen.

Last week, I was feeling overwhelmed by everything I was trying to get done, meetings I had to attend, clients to coach and presentations to make.

One of Allen’s main points is that you have to capture everything you need to do: business and personal, tasks and appointments. Anything you haven’t yet captured will take just a little bit of your mental and emotional energy. Multiply that by the number of things you haven’t captured, and you have a real drag on your energy and creativity. And that’s exactly what had happened to me.

I sat down and started capturing everything in my head that hadn’t yet made it into my personal GTD system (by the way, Action Lists for iPhone). It didn’t take long, no more than 10-15 minutes. I organized them into next actions and projects. As soon as I was done, I felt lighter! I was able to get on with the rest of my day feeling I had everything back under control.

Try it the next time you are feeling overwhelmed by life and work. And don’t forget to share your stories.