Personal Story: To-Do Lists

 I’m the type of person who color-coded my notes and study guides in high school and college.  I love office supplies and staying organized and making lists and I LOVE CROSSING THINGS OFF LISTS.  Whew.  I am the girl that has certain pens and markers for making lists and crossing things off of lists.  Hey I'm just being honest.  Running a business can make the most organized person feel a little crazy and overwhelmed.  I am starting my eighth year of growing Story Photographers and am still figuring out what works best to keep me organized.  We were just talking about how I stay on top of things in our business and personal life on the Facebook page so I thought I would share more here...I have to have different levels of to-do lists to keep everything balanced, from the big picture down to every day tasks…* Goals and Hopes for the Year.  David and I sit down in January or early February, outside of our home and office, and take an entire day to look critically at the past year to see what worked and what didn't.  Then we spend time taking what we learned from the previous year to look towards the new year.  We evaluate our business and personal life together - working in your home as a married teams means the personal and business lists can cross over.  This meeting is usually a really long day and it can be exhausting to inspect your world like this but it truly brings fresh winds to your sails and energizes you for a new year.  I try to check up on these goals and hopes officially (aka another meeting outside of our usual workspace) with David at least two times through out the year.  In between time we keep these notes filed away but not far from my every day reach at my desk incase we need to check in with them.* Monthly to-do list.  Each month we make a list of items we would like to accomplish.  This can include smaller items that are specific to that month or time of year, as well as big lofty goals that we pull from the list we make at our big planning meeting.  We might also take one big goal or dream that we have and then break it down into smaller tasks and spread them out over a couple of months.  This helps us keep track of the big picture items we want to do in a year without them getting lost in our day to day minutia.   We keep these monthly lists posted on a board in our office, right by our wedding schedule and weekly schedule boards.  This way we see them as we come and go from the office.*Running tasks lists/Daily To Do list.   Recently I have added the running tasks list to my life and let me tell you, I am a big fan.  I keep a mini legal pad with me all the time, always by my side.  When I think of something I need to do, I just flip the pages to the next open spot and add it.  I had also been making weekly lists, so on this running list I will block off a section of tasks that I want to accomplish in a certain week.  This helps me keep all the small little tasks organized and in one place, keeping things from falling through the cracks.  As I block tasks off for a week list, I will pull from my monthly to-do list to help get those items achieved.  Because I am crazy, sometimes I will even take a lined post-it note and make a daily list of things I need to do.  This post it note gets stuck to the pack of my iPhone or the steering wheel of my car because I don't know about you, but if I have several errands to run or a small task that I don't usually do, if it's not in front of my face that I need to do it, it might just get lost in the shuffle.  If I feel like I am purposefully avoiding a task then it might get to hop onto a little yellow post it and get stuck to my computer screen where I can no longer ignore it.  When I have marked off all the tasks on a page of my running task lists you better believe I get satisfaction from ripping that page out of there and recycling it immediately.My mind is notorious for running around once I lay down to go to sleep, which is not conducive to winding down and peacefully falling asleep.  Before I get into bed I try to think through the next day, write down on my running or daily tasks lists, or email myself any thoughts or tasks I’ve suddenly remembered I need to attend to the next day or within the week.  As a creative, I can get in the zone with a creative task and completely forget that I had an admin/noncreative task that really needed to get done.  All of these types of lists can help keep me grounded when it comes time to work ON my business, not just in my business.The Credits (always give credit where credit is due!) : I got the idea for my running task lists from Millie Holloman’s Get It Together Kit.  The monthly goal list was based off my reading Emily Ley and Lara Casey’s blogs.  Our evaluation of the previous year and setting goals for the new year have been based on Lara Casey’s guidance on her blog the past couple of years.  I modified all of these wonderful ideas to fit what works best for me, because it does not matter how awesome a program/idea is, if it's not what you need, it's not going to help.