Friday 9 May 2008

Keep it simple!


Spending time with children acts as a good reminder to keep things simple, pure and to the point. Adults often tend to complicate things for no good reason at all. Maybe it's too much formal education? Too many abstract ideas in our heads.
Children are cool. They tell you what they think (until we teach them not to). They ask for what they want. And they are good at it too. Children go for it! And they should. It's their planet as much as anybody elses.
After years and years of trying to find a good "system" to keep all my task and time management in one, good place... I finally solved all of those problems. And the solution was simple. I have tried all sorts of time management systems, the Tony Robbins one, the FranklinCovey, the David Allen. But good, flexible systems to support those methods have been failing. Their softwares have been unflexible and with too many bugs.
What if we could use a tool that we already use, every day? For many people Outlook isn't powerful enough. And it has not been built to act as a good time and task management tool. But you can make it one. With a few clever settings, and a few simple skills, your e-mail client becomes a very useful and powerful task management software. No to-do-lists that grow out of hand, no problems with scheduling follow-ups, checking projects, goals, roles...
What I'm promoting here is Michael Linenberger's book "Total Workday Control" which teaches you just how to do that in Outlook without any plug-ins or other needed software.
The benefit? More done in less time. Peace of mind. More time to enjoy on the Family Pillar. Like playing with your kids.
And talking about keeping it simple. Remember to do it in your business. Talk to people and ask what they want. Provide them what they want. Believe in what you do and be excited. Your excitement is contagious. We can learn that from kids as well...