If you just change the word…
I was leaving my friend Karol’s house the other day and she was showing me all of the work her husband’s done on their house and the projects that he’s currently working on.
As we walked out of the gallery he’s transforming into an office, she noticed the door wasn’t closing right. “I’ll have to put it on his to-finish list,” she told me.
“His what?”
“We realized that the things on his ‘to-do’ list never got done. But the ‘to-finish’ list? Things on that list always get done.”
Huh. Apparently, if you just pick the right word, magic happens. But you and I knew that already, didn’t we.
Image credit: I like
Filed under How To | Tags: copywriter, task management, time management, to-do list, writer, Writing | Comments (7)Do you do this, too?
Every day I make a to-do list. Typically, I write it at the end of the day – so I know what ‘tomorrow’ will look like and so I can really (attempt) to let go of work when I go home, you know, because a piece of paper is holding down the fort for me. (Odd sidenote: my to-do list is the ONLY work thing I do on paper. I’m sure it’s because I LOVE crossing things off the list with a good old-fashioned pen.)
So, the last thing I do before I leave my office is make my new to-do list. The second to last thing I do is look at the current day’s list to take stock of all I’ve accomplished. And, I’ve noticed this pattern recently. Somewhere in between the tasks that I’ve crossed off, the notes that I’ve scribbled down throughout the day and my incessant doodling (3-D boxes and stars circa 2nd grade), there is always one to-do that I did not complete.
It isn’t usually a huge or monumental task, though sometimes it is. And sometimes, it’s the same thing that I’ve managed to not complete over and over, day after day. Point is – there’s always something.
Why? I wonder. Wouldn’t it feel fabulous to have everything done? You’ll have to tell me, I wouldn’t know.
I have two thoughts about my ‘issue’. First, I think it’s left over trauma from college where, if you remember, we were simply never done. Right? There was always something that had to be read or written.
Or. It’s simply that I hate goodbyes and endings (unless it’s a headache or a mean person that I’m leaving), so this remaining task must be some kind of anchor. A thread that ties me back to my office, my business, my writing – making it truly impossible for me to let go and disconnect. Like a love note, promising that I will be back.
Filed under Critical Copywriting, How To, The Business | Tags: copywriting, copywriting business, organization, time management, to-do list, Writing | Comments (5)
ghost action: the ultimate to-do list and project organizer
I’m in love. Yes, with an application. Ghost Action is everything I’ve been looking for in a personal organizer:
- easy to use. I don’t think it gets much easier.
- I create Projects, for me these are typically client names
- I create Actions, ie. write blog post, edit site or interview Erin
- I give each Action a due date
- I create Contexts, mine are Write, Do, Meet or Delegate
- I sync it with my iCal
- good looking. It’s clean and simple and organized – the total opposite of my desk. And, the icon is a plump and friendly check mark, the world wide identifier that exclaims, ‘IT IS DONE!’ Just seeing that check mark makes me feel accomplished. (see icon above)
- made for Mac. Listen, I tried to have a PC for years and I only got frustration, freezing and restarts. Ghost Action was made for Mac…so it works just like everything else on my computer, looks like everything else and I don’t have to learn anything new. If any of you PC users want to guest post about a similar app for PC, send it along!
- syncs with iCal. As long as you put the @ sign before your iCal entries, they will sync up on Ghost Action. So now, I have a list of things I have to do in Ghost Action – divided by Context and Project, I also have a view of my to-dos in daily, weekly and monthly calendar form AND I have iCal popping up reminders throughout the day (basically kicking me in the pants and telling me to do what I have to do).
- has finder functionality. I’m pretty sure that Finder is my favorite function on my Mac because it doesn’t require me to remember where I put anything, I only need to remember the words I used to define said things. For instance…I just wrote a press release about kids cleaning up the beach…so I start typing in those words and everything on my computer that has those words, starts to pop up (and it prioritizes the listings in terms of word match and recent usage). It’s a beautiful function and Ghost Action does it too, so in this case, I can type in ‘press release’ and all of my press release to-do’s will appear – instantly.
It costs $19.95…less than a good day planner and more than a notebook filled with lists and scratch outs…and so much more useful, functional, infinite and productive than either or both of those systems could ever hope to be. Get it here.
Major props to Erin Anderson of Flexpaths for introducing me to my new best friend, Ghost Assistant.
Filed under How To, The Business | Tags: business organization, copywriter, copywriting, freelance writer, Ghost Action, Julie Roads, marketing writer, organization app, personal organization, project management, project organization, to-do list, Writing Roads | Comment (0)
