Make a Task List

For day 26 of the 2015 October Platform Challenge, Mr. Brewer has directed us to make a task list for the month of November, and then continue making monthly task lists each and every month thereafter.

If you remember back to day 14, when our task was to create a time management plan, I made a confession. I admitted that – as a self-employed writer – time management was my nemesis. Without deadlines imposed by a corporate boss, I had gotten lazy with my time management.

Remembering how organized I used to be when I worked in retail management, I decided to return to what worked for me back then. I am now keeping monthly, weekly and daily planners.

The last day or two of the month, I will pencil in all appointments, deadlines (self-imposed and otherwise) and planned tasks for the following month on a calendar page for that month. On Sunday nights, I will fill out my weekly planner for the following Monday-Sunday week, using my monthly calendar as a guide. And every night, I will fill out a daily planner sheet with the next day’s appointments, tasks, and challenges, using my weekly planner as a guide.

And my planner will be color coded. (Perhaps I am going a bit overboard?)

If I have an appointment at a specific time (be it an appointment with my doctor, or an online chat), it will be written in red. If it is a personal task that can be completed at my convenience that day (grocery shopping, laundry, etc.), it will be written in green. If it is a writing task which must be completed, but has no set start time (complete a chapter of the book I am writing, research an agent, craft and submit a query, complete a #platchal challenge), it will be written in purple. I will check each task off as I complete it.

So today’s Platform Challenge task will be completed by the end of this month, and will be continued for each month thereafter.

Feel free to stop back from time to time and see the new, fully organized me! I’ll keep the porch light on for you. (That will be the last task for the day each day, and I will check it off in the appropriately colored ink.)