No, I haven’t changed careers to become a life coach or anything like that, but as a small business owner I am continually refining my daily routines to get as much as possible out of each one. Nothing is more satisfying than wrapping up a busy day and knowing that I’ve crossed a bunch of tasks from my TODO list. (It’s even more satisfying if there were a few billable hours in there, too!)

With that in mind, I thought I might share some of what has worked for me (and I’ll be the first to admit that it’s an on-going process):

1. Make your tasks instantly do-able. “Design a website for XYZ Pty Ltd” might be my assigned job but it’s a mountain to undertake. Looking at something like that in my TODO list is just about enough to make my lips tremble as a freeze up in fear! (not really) If, however, I start with “Create a list of XYZ’s competitors” the task is ‘do-able’ and my day flows.

2. Keep a notepad file on your computer and keep it open, but minimised, all the time. When you think of a new task, ALT-TAB to your notepad and write it down. CTRL-S to save it. And ALT-TAB back to what you were doing. When you’ve completed a task, write “DONE” in front of it and move it to the bottom of the file so that you can see your completed task list growing!

3. Use an old-fashioned paper diary. As much as the likes of Backpackit.com and Outlook offer great calendar interfaces (and believe me, I’ve tried them all) this nerd always returns to the tried and tested paper diary. It’s instantly available, there’s no load time, there’s no fooling around with any interfaces more complex than un-capping a biro and scribbling words.

4. Turn off automatic email checking and ween yourself off email. I used to carry around a Blackberry until I realised that I just didn’t need to know what was in my inbox every minute of the day. While you’re at it, get at least one task out of the way before you check your email in the morning.

5. Track your “time expenditure”. If you end your day thinking, “Where the hell did all that time go?” it might be a good idea to track your “time expenditure” for a day or two. Some people do it every day but I think that’s a bit extreme. Once you’ve identified your time wasters, you can get rid of them.

6. (Free bonus tip) Remember the 80/20 rule. 20% of your efforts are resulting in 80% of your results. Cut the fat!

At the moment I’m developing a very fast and lightweight Windows application that is based on #2 but makes it even quicker and easier to manage your task list. I’ll let you know when it’s launched (shouldn’t be long now).