Overwhelmed With Your To-Do List? Try Trello

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Stressed woman holding a long to-do list

Overwhelmed with To-Do’s?

One of the most powerful tools you have in dealing with an overwhelming to-do list is your goal list. Post your goals where you can see them as you work; when you have too many tasks to accomplish in too little time, look at your goals, and prioritize the tasks that move you closer to attaining a goal.

But, ah, you say, my list of goals is almost as overwhelming as my task list! Read on for some solutions to your dilemma.

Aarg! My Goal List is Overwhelming

Here are some tips to solve that problem:

  1. Don’t confuse a goal with a task. A task is something that moves you towards a goal. Calendar a task, or write it on a separate “to-do” list.
  2. Trello is a wonderful (free!) tool to keep track of tasks and projects. I made a 5 minute video to get you started with Trello. It’s so easy to use, that may be all you need. Watch the video.
  3. Limit your goal list to 3-5 goals. It’s great to brainstorm a long list of goals, but that’s only your starting point. Your next step is to highlight those goals which are most important to you, then try and combine similar ideas into one goal.
  4. Sometimes it makes sense to work on one goal before taking on another; in that case, put the only the first goal on your short list (the one that you see daily). Keep the brainstormed list in a file; when you attain a goal, revisit the long list and add a new goal to your short list.
  5. Make your goals measurable.

Filed Under: Apps to Help Run Your Biz, book, Getting Stuff Done Tagged With:

Make a Difference

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Make a difference; give back to your communityIf you had to pick one quote that best reflected who you are, or what you represent, what would it be?

This was my challenge last week. I’ve been honored with an award*, and was asked to provide a bio and short quote for a poster the organization is preparing for the ceremony.

I recommend that everyone have a pre-written bio [see why in my blog post Four Ways to Use Your Qualifying Conversation], but it never occurred to me to have a quote ready.

It’s a handy exercise. In the end it came down to four choices.

This one gives me great solace and hope:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
-Margaret Mead

This is the one that tells you the most about me:

The mountains are calling and I must go.
-John Muir

I like this one for its pragmatism:

You can have it all, just not all at the same time.
―Betty Friedan

Because it needed to be short, and I wanted something more hopeful than the previous quote, this is the one I chose:

There is more to life than increasing its speed.
-Mahatma Gandhi

I like it because it helps reinforce my message that one of the benefits of managing your time is having time for yourself, your family, friends, and hobbies.

Do you have a favorite quote? Share it below in a comment. What do you think it says about you?

Filed Under: book, KEEP, time management Tagged With:

Sequential Autoresponders: The Easy Way to Follow-Up With Prospects

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Email Marketing is one of the best ways to stay in front of your prospects and clients. But it’s important to find ways to put a system like this on auto-pilot, and today I’m going to share 3 tips you can use to do just that.

  1. Use a sequential autoresponder. I’m not writing a new email every day; that’s part of what is on auto-pilot. I created a unique sign-up form, and once you complete that form, one message in this email series is automatically sent to you daily. If you’ve ever set a vacation message in your email program [something like ‘I’m out of the office until —‘], you’ve used an autoresponder. An autoresponder automatically generates a set response to all messages sent to a particular e-mail address. A sequential autoresponder allows you to send a series of messages at intervals you control.
  2. Use material you have already created. There is no shame in re-using good content. Remember – it’s new to your prospect. In my case, I looked for blog posts I had already written, as well as checklists I use with my clients; I even pulled content from a program generally only available to my paid subscribers.  The question to ask is “Would this info be useful to the people I am targeting?”.
  3. Create multiple sequential autoresponders to deliver different types of information. Here’s where using sequential autoresponders can really amp up your marketing and keep your prospects engaged. If you ran an exercise studio, for instance, you might create three separate educational sequential autoresponders for back exercises, pregnancy exercises, and strength training. Each of these topics would appeal to a different type of prospect, giving you a much better chance that you will collect more email addresses than if you created one sequential autoresponder on a more general topic. Or you could set up one series of emails to educate new clients, and another series of emails to promote a new product. 

Not all email service providers [ESPs] offer sequential autoresponders. My favorite (& the one I use) is AWeber *, which provides robust sequential autoresponder (AR) features at an economical price, and excellent (real person) telephone and email support. It also allows you to automatically pull your blog posts into your newsletter – no cutting and pasting!  Additional features also make it a great choice if you want to make money directly from email marketing. 30 day trial (with no restrictions) for $1.

Constant Contact * is another popular ESP. It used to limit you to only one active autoresponder, but that has recently changed. For an additional price, you can add ‘Event Spot’, which will allow you to create an event and register attendees/collect payments for your events. No ability to automatically have your blog posts become part of your newsletter, which is a huge drawback, in my opinion. Constant Contact offers a free trial, but you can only test it with 10 email addresses, which is not very useful. Many businesses who start here grow out of it fairly quickly, and then have to spend time & energy moving to a new ESP.

Constant Contact is, however, very easy to use, and may be a good choice if your email marketing needs are unlikely to change for several years, and you only plan on sending out newsletters and/or registering people for events.  This is an area where I can help you cut through hours of indecision and understand which ESP (of the many out there) would be your best choice – and help you brainstorm concrete ideas on how email marketing can make you money.

*Disclosure: I earn an affiliate commission when you purchase through my links. Your cost is not affected. I appreciate you using them, but if you prefer not to, just use your search engine. I have used these products, and recommend them because I think they are excellent products. 

Filed Under: email marketing, small business marketing, System Development Tagged With:

What Are You Letting Go To Waste?

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SperrmüllYou know the old slogan ‘When it rains, it pours‘? That’s what it has felt like the past year as I moved my mother (and her possessions) 3 times, and also cleared out her home to put it on the market. And then, for the past 3 weekends, I have been helping my husband as he clears his father’s house. All of which has brought me face-to-face with one of my pet peeves: WASTE.

My father-in-law was a child of the Depression, and I don’t think he ever threw anything out. Add perfectionism to that trait, and you have a recipe for disaster. Case in point: when my mother-in-law became ill and was no longer able to drive, her car sat in the driveway for several years. It was a fairly recent model, in good condition, with low mileage. It was offered to various grandchildren, but was declined. No one drove it; it sat in one place, and the paint started to fade.

At the time, there was a fabulous non-profit in the area called Many Motors. They provided donated cars directly to those in need of transportation, including women making the transition out of domestic violence, veterans, homeless people seeking to get back into the work force, and youths emancipated from the foster care system. I suggested the car be donated to Many Motors. My father-in-law was willing, but insisted he needed to tune it and replace a belt first : i.e. make it ‘perfect’. Even after being assured that Many Motors would have a mechanic make any needed repairs before it was given to its new owner, my father-in-law still wanted the car to be perfect before he donated it.

So what happened? Nothing. My father-in-law was caring for a sick spouse, and had many other demands on his time, and making the car ‘perfect’ just fell to the bottom of his list. For 10 years. Until all the tires went flat, and the car ceased to work altogether. We actually had to pay to have it towed to a junkyard.

Which was a terrific WASTE. For many people, a lack of transportation is what keeps them jobless. That car could have been a lifesaver to a woman making the transition out of domestic violence, a veteran, a homeless person seeking to get back into the work force, or a youth emancipated from the foster care system. Instead it sat and deteriorated, unused, for over 10 years.

Does this happen in your business? What projects and opportunities are on hold until they are perfect, and therefore going to WASTE? Take a good look (and ask your employees to look also and report back to you). If  perfectionism is playing a role, ask yourself ‘Is good enough, good enough?’ Or is it time to allow someone else the chance to make good use what you are not?  It just may allow creative space for a new project or opportunity.

Would love your comments on this post below.

Filed Under: book, personal organization Tagged With:

Incredibly Easy Mind Map Software & App

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I have found a new mind map software which is very easy and intuitive. If you have tried mind map software and given up because it was easier to go back to paper and pencil, you need to look at SimpleMind http://www.simplemind.eu/. Creating a mind map is a great way to organize your ideas quickly, or even describe a process as an easy-to-follow visual.
If you’re not sure what a mind map looks like, there is a picture below, as well as a short video I created to show you just how easy it is to create a mind map using SimpleMind. In the video, I create a mind map to organize my thoughts in preparation for a phone call to my Virtual Assistant.

What I love is that there is a free app for the iPhone, iPad, and android; and it is as simple as tapping the screen to create the nodes of the mind map. You don’t need to have the desktop version to use the free app, but if you do have the desktop version, you can sync from your iPhone to your desktop and visa versa. You can print your mind maps from your computer to save after you create them, in case you choose not to pay when the 30 days are up.
The desktop version costs about $35 [it’s priced at 24 Euros; I’ve converted the price to US dollars at today’s exchange rate], but they have a free 30 day trial, so check it out. There is a version for both the PC and the Mac.
Filed Under: business management, Delegation, System Development, working with a virtual assistant Tagged With:

Creating the High Points In Your Life

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Maura on summit of Mt. Katahdin My husband and I met in a basic mountaineering training course offered by the Sierra Club. He was one of the instructors, I was a student. Many of our dates involved hiking or backpacking, and hiking has remained an important part of our lives. In addition to a shared interest, it provides us time together to talk about our week, and, of course, exercise.

A number of years ago, I heard about the HighPointers Club. The members share a goal of attaining the high point of every state. This sounded great!  We started by trying to fit in hiking a state highpoint whenever we vacationed, and one year decided to attend the annual convention (proving the point that there is an organization for pretty much any interest). We were hooked, and our highpointing efforts stepped up considerably.

Some of the high points are ridiculously easy (Florida is basically a mound in a small roadside park); at the other end of the spectrum is Alaska’s highpoint, Denali. Regardless of the difficulty, one of the beauties of this goal is that you see every state, and some beautiful scenery. But the highpoints are typically not in the most easy to get to locations, and Maine is a good example. It’s a full day drive from anywhere, and closer to Canada than it is to most towns in Maine. Which means that you have to plan your trip carefully to allow sufficient travel time and hiking time, especially if you are traveling from southern California just to hike this peak.

We learned this the hard way eight years ago, when we planned our trip so tightly that we only allowed one day for our hike. That was the day the tail-end of Katrina hit the Northeast, and the park closed all access to the mountain. Four years ago, we tried again. It was raining heavily when we left the trailhead at 6 am, and my husband had had a bad night after eating something that did not agree with him. We turned around after a mile.

So you can imagine I was determined to get this peak on our third attempt. I planned 2 hiking days, so one could be a back-up in case of weather. Fortunately, the weather cooperated, and we attained the summit last Tuesday – state highpoint #42 for me, and #44 for my husband. We’re already planning our next highpoint adventure.

Make sure you create your own highpoints- It’s important to plan time in your week for those activities about which you are passionate. It’s too easy to allow other things to co-opt your time if you don’t. As a start, acknowledge what you love to do but aren’t. Then schedule time this week on that activity. Make it a commitment by commenting what you will do below.

Filed Under: time management Tagged With:

Three Simple Systems That Saved My Sanity

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Clock. Time to planSupport systems are important in our personal lives, too. Here’s a post from 2009 that’s illustrates why.

My life changed dramatically in August 2009 when my 87-year-old father fell and required surgery. He was in the hospital for 10 days, then rehab until Oct. 28. What with visiting, acting as patient advocate, and setting up systems to support his return home, I was spending two to three days a week in Santa Barbara. At one point I realized the irony that I was making sure my mother had groceries, but hadn’t had time to do my own grocery shopping in 6 weeks.

Thank goodness I already had three systems in place that really saved my sanity:

  • Bill pay and direct deposit – What a relief to realize that all but one bill (the credit card) was already set up for automatic bill pay, and my husband’s paychecks were on direct deposit. There was no extra work to do. This automation was an additional blessing when I was consumed with my father’s illness – everything got paid without me putting in any work.
  • Dream Dinners – This is what kept food on the table. Once a month my husband and I attend a meal preparation session for an hour and come home with 36 servings of a minimum of 6 entrees we put in the freezer. I’ve been a loyal member for 8 years. In October I didn’t even have time for the one hour monthly session, but the good folks at Dream Dinners prepared my order for me, and I just needed to stop by and pick it up. I even had them make up extras to take to my mother. Another lifesaver!
  • A community of friends and relatives – sometimes we have to accept we are drowning and ask for help. I don’t know what I would have done without my sister, and I cannot come close to expressing my gratitude to her. Another resource was my minister, who used her “minister network” connections in Santa Barbara to publish my request for someone to live-in with my Mom. Although I had also advertised at a local university, it was the congregational appeal that garnered me the most results.

My father died in May, 2010; I still spend one day a week with my mother in Santa Barbara, but it’s planned, and not because of crisis. However, the essence of all disaster planning is to have systems in place, and I encourage you to evaluate what systems you need in place to save your sanity and/or your business. How would your business run if you were sick? [this is essential system #4 on the business systems assessment. If you have not done so yet, you can download this self-assessment from the top right of this page] .

Filed Under: personal organization, System Development, time management, working moms Tagged With: