Current reading material is Sally McGhee’s Take Back Your Life! Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to Get Organized and Stay Organized. I got it back in 2004 (link is to more recent version) and refer to it periodically even though I don’t use Outlook (long side note: I’m still on Microsoft’s Entourage for Mac–though I’m considering switching to Mac’s suite of programs, i.e. Mail, Address Book, and iCal. However I still haven’t straightened out whether the sync’ing is working with the Palm Treo–it seemed to be a pain last time I looked into it–and I’m not sure how to deal with Notes. /end long side note) The book has all kinds of helpful information, but as far as I can tell, only an organizing geek (like myself) would actually read 250 pages. If disorganization is your thing, that’s about 150 pages too many. Which is why I’m working on my own book. A short one. Well, shorter. And with more cool images.

What I found helpful in Take Back Your Life this time around (directly related to my own long term business planning adventures for the Natural Professional and Project Simplify) is her breakdown and distinction of objectives/projects/tasks (she actually has “tasks” and then “SNA (strategic next actions) but that’s a bit too much for me.)

So often I see people put projects on their ToDo lists (instead of next actions). Or they lose sight of what they are working on, i.e. their “objectives”. Or they’ll put objectives on the wall and not break them down into projects and then get down on themselves for not seeing more progress more quickly. What’s the world coming to? Total mayhem, obviously. (yikes!)

So let’s do a quick review so you don’t have to go buy the book if you don’t want to (save your cash for mine, eh?):

Objectives: The big kahuna. The ultimate goal.
for example, for client X, “Create awesome website”

This is what you might put on your wall to keep you focused on current high priority.

Next to that objective you might write the next phase or two moving you towards completion. These are sub-projects, or, to drop the dash, just projects.
for example: site navigation

Finally, as you review your projects to determine what you will actually be doing during the day, you’ll put the next action(s) on your ToDo list.
for example: 1. draft navigation plan, 2. call client for appointment to review draft plan

While you may have many more irons burning at one time, you’d break each down in a similar manner. The process of the steps above were inspired by Sally McGhee’s book–though as indicated by the title, she’d track them all in Outlook. If you are good with your lists and check them regularly, then using Outlook is fine. Most of my clients are of the more visual/creative oriented type and want the reminders on the wall, not hidden in a list in the Tasks section of Outlook. Besides, a good portion of said clients are Mac based, and they frequently don’t use their email program to track tasks (I do!) Which is all to say, you can customize and personalize systems written about in a book dedicated to Outlook even if you don’t use the program.

Thanks for the inspiration, Sally!

p.s. did I close all my parantheticals??? =)