HOW TO: Organize With a Calendar and To Do List

What do you need to get organized?

Estimates are that annual sales of handheld computers will grow from 3,000,000 units in 1997 to 13,000,000 units by the year 2001. But, the sexy handheld computer is not, despite the seductive marketing, the solution to organization. It is a tool. It will not magically organize you or your work. You still have to do that yourself.

Start to organize with two basic tools for the workday, a calendar and a To Do List.

Many workers feel that they are not high enough up the chain of command to bother with maintaining a calendar or a To Do list. They think that since they have so few appointments, and someone else tells them what to do, that they can keep any information they need in their head. This is shortsighted and naïve.

A calendar is much more than just a place to log appointments. A calendar can be used to keep an organized daily record of what should happen and what does happen. This chronological perspective is invaluable in assessing your own productivity, in learning about your own work habits, and in tracking the success and failure of people and process.

Many workers worry about getting just the "right" calendar. This is a misplaced anxiety. Any type of calendar will do an efficient job. The work to worry about is the systematic collection of the information, not where you put it.

I have experienced a migration in "calendaring" in my career. I started out with a small spiral notebook that cost about 25 cents. I would write the day and date at the top of each page, and record what I was supposed to do each day, as well as what I actually did each day. This work took me about five minutes or less at the beginning of each day, and about five minutes or less at the end of day.

I kept the notebook on my desk. I really had no appointments and no meetings to track. But I always knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing and what I actually had been doing. I used my calendar to maintain a To Do list, and wrote down and crossed off the work to do and the work done. Each morning I would review what was not done and include it in that day’s plan.

Only much later in my career did I realize that this, for me, instinctive practice is at the heart of all organizational techniques. With an effort of fewer than ten minutes each day I managed never to forget to do anything. I also knew exactly what I had been doing and who asked me to do it, which allowed me to make a business case for my advancement and success. I could see trends in work and in how to do work that others did not see. I could track inefficiencies through the repetition of work. I learned a great deal from my 25-cent investment, about myself and about how to see work more globally.

I finally branched out to a real calendar. My job provided one of those small, inexpensive desk calendars that sit in a dark plastic tray, and has two loops sticking through the pages and down into the tray. I loved it. It had the day and date printed on it. I could see two days at a time. I thought it was marvelous!

But just like my small notebook, my new calendar did not record information just from its proximity to my work. I still had to be disciplined and put the information into it or the information would be lost. I used this simple, but seeming more professional, calendar for many years. I dutifully wrote my To Do list on it, and crossed off what I finished. I continued to learn about myself and to see work more globally.

Then my daughter gave me a Day-Timer System.

It had a beautiful brown leather case, with a daily calendar, a separate monthly calendar and an address book inside the brown leather case. The tops of the pages were perforated, to be torn off when that day was completed, so that there was always immediate access to the current day. It had an hour listing for appointments, a diary and work record, and a special To Be Done Today section for each day. It also had endless accessories and colorful pages, designed specifically to organize anyone’s life.

I loved it. I felt as if I had reached the pinnacle of organization possibilities.

But I noticed that just like my calendar, and my small notebook, my Day-Timer System did not record information just from its proximity to my work. I still had to be disciplined and put the information into it or the information would be lost. I dutifully wrote my to-do list in it, and crossed off what I finished. I continued to learn about myself and to see work more globally.

Then I got a Palm Pilot.

It seemed like a natural progression: notebook to calendar to Day-Timer to Palm Pilot. It was a true technologic marvel. I had everything at my fingertips. I could download. I had an infrared beam. I could HotSync!

But I noticed that just like my Day-Timer, and my calendar, and my small notebook, my Palm Pilot did not record information just from its proximity to my work (although I imagined that it must have that capability). No, even with a handheld computer, somewhere in the process I still had to be disciplined and put the information into it or the information would be lost.

What you really need to be organized is the discipline to record information, not necessarily a special or costly tool. No matter what tool you use, you have to put the information into it or the information will be lost. It is the information that has value, not the tool.

The keys to organization are discipline and follow through in a consistent manner.

Spend five minutes or less at the beginning of the work day and five minutes or less at the end of the work day, entering a daily record of what should happen and what does happen, and you will be organized beyond belief. Use a now-98-cent notebook, or an inexpensive calendar, or an organizing System, or a handheld computer. The tool will not make it work. You will make it work regardless of the tool.

It really is that easy, and that hard.

My life changed, and I gave my dizzying Palm Pilot to my daughter. She loves it. She is a natural for it, as it is her medium. She has mastered its language and its features, and the joyful noise of its technology. She HotSyncs wondrously.

I got a new refill for my old Day-Timer System.

But both of us spend time entering a daily record of what should happen and what does happen. We share the discipline, but we use different tools.

However, we are both organized.

Copyright © 1998, 1999 by D.E. Summerville. All rights reserved.

The advice and suggestions in the Women in Business column are solely those of the author. DC Web Women assumes no responsibility for its content.

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