The two to-dos system for organizing tasks and being productive

Managing lots of work for lots of different clients can be difficult at times. I’ve come up with a system I like, that I’ve dubbed ‘the two to-dos’ system. I’m sure someone else somewhere uses this system and has written about it before, but I haven’t read it, so here’s my take on task management for freelancers (and anyone I suppose)!

The problem: Having a lot of tasks on gets overwhelming very quickly. If you don’t manage it, you end up flitting between tasks and spending more time in between tasks than actually doing something. As I’ve written before, I would much rather work 3 hours at 3 times the intensity than 6 hours at normal pace. Part of that, is being on top of what you’re doing.

My solution: I have two to-do lists. One of my lists is “To-do today” and the other is my “General to-dos”. On my To-do today list, I put tasks that I want to accomplish today (amazing huh?). Tasks in this list are broken down into their simplest form. For example, if I’m working on a site for a client and I’m waiting on content, my task is “follow up xyz for content”, because that’s the only thing I can do today that will further me to accomplishing that goal.

In my general list, I put my longer term tasks or tasks that I’m not going to get done today. So for example, I put things like “site for xyz”, or even “1/2 – follow xyz lead”.

Then, at the start of every day, I figure out what should be on what list. I drag items from my general list into my to-do today list, and put in any of the smaller tasks that weren’t important enough to warrant listing in the general to-do list. Then I re-order the list based on priority and get started crossing off items on the list.

If I’m ever feeling overwhelmed, I simply move items from my “To-do today” list onto my “General to-dos” list. It helps keep my head clear and focused on the task at hand.

The software I use to do this is Freelance Total (I have my lists on my dashboard), and you can also do it in Backpack. In fact, Backpack inspired the feature in Freelance Total. There are probably others, but basically you want something where you can reorder lists and move items from list to list. And of course, pen and paper works as well =)

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• How to word follow up emails for payment reminders
• Getting back into the swing of freelancing after holidays
• Charging more for your freelancing