The most important thing you can do is shift your time and attention to the things you can control. Sure, that includes the things on your to-do-list, but it also includes your attitude and your communication with the other people you’re counting on to make sure things get done.

If you make a list of the things that are stressing you out, and cross off the ones over which you have no control, I bet you’ll end up with a much less fearsome list.

Sometimes it’s difficult to know whether you actually have the ability to influence a situation. That means you have to pay attention to the way your bosses, employees, teammates or clients work. Be aware of whether sending an email is going to be enough to get the results you want, or whether you’re dealing with someone who needs a bit more hand-holding.

More importantly, make sure you’re on the same page about the division of responsibility. What’s actually your job, and what has everyone else agreed to do? If the answers are ambiguous, talk it out until you’re sure everyone is on board. Communication saves a lot more time than it takes, and that’s time you can spend on your own work.

Also, even when you can’t control something (like funding, deadlines, or someone else’s part of a project), you can still control your attitude toward the situation. Remember that it takes more time to freak out about things you can’t control than to finish the tasks you can.

The upshot of all of this is that sometimes we have a false sense that we’ve taken on too much responsibility, when we’re actually just worrying about things we can’t (or shouldn’t) control.

Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He blogs about software for Download Squad and contributes interviews to The Morning News, among others. You can also find him on Twitter.

Photo credit – secretlondon

If you’re struggling to overcome your own perfectionist impulses, you might be interested in The Cult of Done Manifesto. Don’t worry, it’s not some 700-page manuscript. It’s a list of simple principles put together by noted gadget-maker and electronics hacker Bre Pettis (along with Kio Stark).

The coolest part? They wrote it in just 20 minutes.

Here’s what’s in the Cult of Done Manifesto:

There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.

Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.

There is no editing stage.

Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.

Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.

The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.

Once you’re done you can throw it away.

Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.

People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.

Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.

Destruction is a variant of done.

If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.

Done is the engine of more.

For my money, the crucial part of the Manifesto is “Laugh at perfection.” Getting through something and making mistakes is often the best, and most interesting, way to get something done. The result might not be perfect, but at least you have something you can start editing, instead of a blank page. Just don’t start editing it until a version of it is … well, done.

“Okay, but this won’t work for me,” you say, “Because my job demands perfection. I’m not allowed to make mistakes.” That’s a fair point, but I’d bet that turning things in on time is also expected at your job. If all perfection gets you is a blank page and a headache about deadlines, it might be time to try a different approach.

What are your thoughts on the Cult of Done Manifesto?

Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He blogs about software for Download Squad and contributes interviews to The Morning News, among others. You can also find him on Twitter.

The gist of the post is that you can approach a problem by starting anywhere in the design process — making sure you’re asking the right questions, studying the problem, throwing together a draft or prototype — as long as you start somewhere. If you have process, and know which steps you have to complete, it doesn’t matter which one you do first. Start anywhere, as long as you start. This doesn’t just apply to designers. Whether you’re writing a novel, putting together a business plan or opening an art show, you have to start by hiking up your pants and taking that first step.

I’m in love with this whole post, but my favorite part is the image of the writer who wanted to tackle a huge book project, but was forever arranging the bookshelves in his office. A story like that gives us a great way to suck all the power out of distractions. Just think, “All of this fiddling isn’t progress, it’s just bookshelf-arrangement.”

Small tasks are important, but you have to choose the right small tasks. Waiting for the perfect work environment, or fiddling around endlessly to create it, is just a way of wimping out of what you really want to do. It doesn’t add up to anything. Even writing a bad first paragraph or throwing together a jokey outline can be extraordinarily productive if it gets you moving toward the bigger picture. It’s not about having your pens neatly stowed in the right place, it’s about picking one up and starting to write.

Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He blogs about software for Download Squad and contributes interviews to The Morning News, among others. You can also find him on Twitter.

Photo Credit – heipei

Here’s why:

Keeping it REALLY simple

All Anxiety does is allow you to add, view and check off to-do items. No reminders — that’s what Task.fm is for! — no email, no integration with web apps. Just a clean list.

Living in your menubar

Anxiety doesn’t have to be in the dock to function. It just sits in your menubar, waiting for you to pop open the attractive, compact HUD display. Keeping it out of the dock means it’s not distracting, but putting in the menubar means it’s there when you need it.

Playing nicely with others

Anxiety doesn’t replace your iCal or Google Calendar, but you can choose to have your Anxiety items listed as to-dos in either iCal or Apple Mail. That way, if you need to assign dates and times to them, place them on your calendar, add reminders, etc., you can do it fairly quickly.

Going easy on your system resources

Anxiety only uses 7 or 8MB of memory on my system, compared to 24MB for iCal and 55MB for Mail. It’s as if you don’t even have it open.

For me, Anxiety is basically a list of article ideas and pitches to send out when I have time. You could really use it for any kind of list, though. Certainly, it’s not going to be enough for some people, but it’s worth considering if your organizational style  is fairly loose and lightweight.

What’s your favorite to-do list app? Let us know in the comments.

Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He writes about software for Download Squad and contributes interviews to Geek Monthly magazine, among others. You can also follow him on Twitter and at his blog.

It’s certainly not always an easy decision to make, but here are some signs that you’ve gone too far need to scale back on the obsessive list-making:

You’re Spending More Time Making Lists Than Doing Work

If you’re using list-making to procrastinate by jotting down more and more low-priority tasks instead of getting any of the high-priority ones finished, you’re in trouble. It’s a vicious cycle, too, because the list only gets more overwhelming as you make it longer.

Your List Has Stale Items On It

When you’ve got a bunch of tasks that have been sitting on your to-do list, making you feel guilty for months, it’s time to either do them or wipe the slate clean. Sometimes, admitting that you’re not actually going to get something done can be as much of a relief as finishing it. Either way, make sure you’re not seeing stale tasks when you look at your to-do list.

Your List Has No Sense of Priority

If you’ve got a full make of stuff to do with notes in the margins, or an email folder full of action items that all appear equally urgent, you might want to start over. When your list isn’t telling you what your next action should be, it’s hurting you more than it’s helping.

Throwing away your to-do list doesn’t mean getting rid of everything on it. It means reevaluating what you should be doing right now, and making a clean, less-intimidating list. In fact, try to finish a couple of your most pressing tasks BEFORE you make that new list, so you don’t end up in the trap of drafting and redrafting pages of items without acting on any of them.

I know lists can seem immensely important, but sometimes you just have to let them go. Happy prioritizing!

Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He blogs about software for Download Squad and contributes interviews to Geek Monthly magazine, among others. You can also find him on Twitter.

Photo Credit – waterboy_of_the_lord

Always Take It With You

One of the easiest ways to defeat your notetaking system is to leave home without it. Do everything you can to make a habit of bringing your capture mechanism of choice with you when you go out, even if that means making a place for it by the door where you can’t miss it.

Take Notes Immediately

Even if an idea seems farfetched, write it down right away, just as it is. You have plenty of time to revise later, but if you let that initial flash of inspiration disappear without recording it, you might never get it back.

Record Enough Context

Jotting down a couple of words might seem okay, but you have to make sure you give enough context to remember what you’re talking about later. I  just found a notation in my Moleskine from a few months back that read “… what that says about zeal!” Sounds interesting, and it might have become an interesting article, but now I have no clue what it means. Including tmes, dates and locations will help you remember why you recorded what you did.

Act On What You Write Down

This might seem pretty obvious, but some people never get it: taking notes on everything doesn’t help you much if you never go back and turn them into action items. I commend you for making a note about buying dog food, but your dog’s not going to be too impressed until it’s actually in his bowl. This goes for brilliant, complex plans, too: they aren’t going to go anywhere if you never sit down and figure out the next step in making them happen.

Got any other useful tips on capturing stuff for your GTD workflow? Go ahead and record them immediately by leaving a comment.

Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He blogs about software for Download Squad and contributes interviews to Geek Monthly magazine, among others. You can also find him on Twitter.

Photo Credit – adulau

Set A Deadline

If you have a task that doesn’t have a deadline yet, give it one. You’ll be more likely to start something once you rid yourself of the idea that you can do it any time. Personally, I’m a lot more likely to respect external deadlines than the ones I set for myself. If you’re the same way, getting a friend or coworker to set one for you might help.

Give Yourself An Incentive

If your problem with getting started is that you don’t care enough about what you have to do, try adding something that will make you care. Take yourself out to dinner and movie when you finish, or reward yourself with a nap. It’s easy to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you put it there yourself.

Break Tasks Down Into Smaller Pieces

Instead of putting entire projects on your to-do list as single items, break them down into smaller parts that are easier to start on. Maybe you’re stressed because you have to build a whole website, but you can start with something a lot smaller, like buying the domain name or doing a WordPress install. All those baby steps will eventually get you to the end of your to-do list.

Get Rid of Anything That’s Not Essential

It’s tough to start doing anything when you’re thinking about 10 other things you should be working on. Get rid of as many of them as you can, to make sure only the most important tasks are competing for your limited attention.

Just Do It for 10 Minutes

Even if you know you don’t want to do a certain task, tell yourself you’re just going to work on it for 10 minutes. You’ll probably end up doing a lot more than that, once you get started, but 10 minutes is such a small commitment that it can make even the most fearsome work seem manageable. The idea is just to get started, continuing from there is the easy part.

If you want to finish your work, you’ve got to start somewhere. Hopefully these five techniques will help you do just that. Do you have another good technique for beating procrastination and starting in on your important tasks? Post it in the comments.

Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He blogs about software for Download Squad, and contributes interviews to Geek Monthly magazine, among others. You can also find him on Twitter.

Photo Credit – rowens27

The idea behind doing only three things is acknowledging that your overwhelming to-do list might be intimidating you out of getting your most important tasks done. You have a choice between freaking out about a dozen things and only getting three of them done, or getting the same three things done without all that needless stress.

The key to making this work is to make sure you know what’s on your agenda for the day. Taking a half-hour before you go to bed every night to get your priorities straight and write them down means you can jump into work first thing in the morning.  Some of Leo’s other tips aren’t necessary, but they make the three-things plan a lot more effective:

• Don’t check email until you finish the first thing. You want at least one item out of the way before an incoming message potentially rearranges your day.
• Choose your three things for impact. Which of your to-do items are most urgent and most important? What’s going to make you feel like you’ve accomplished a lot?
• Pick a fourth task that you can procrastinate on. Rather than wasting time when you get bored, have a fallback plan that’s also productive.

I know that doing three things a day sounds lazy and irresponsible, but it’s actually just being realistic. Pick your tasks wisely, and don’t let a long list of action items overwhelm you.

Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He blogs about software for Download Squad, and contributes interviews to Geek Monthly magazine, among others. You can also find him on Twitter.

Photo Credit – gpeters

1. It’ll take less than two minutes.

The two-minute rule is an important piece of the Getting Things Done system. It operates on the assumption that very short tasks take more time and energy to write down and think about later than they do to finish right now, so there’s no reason not to do them immediately. The two-minute rule was also the subject of an earlier post on Task Blog.

2. It’s the next action for one of your projects.

Multi-step tasks are considered “projects” in GTD, and you shouldn’t put off finishing a to-do item that’s keeping one of your projects from moving forward.

3. It’s the next action for a team project.

This one is even more urgent. If you’re collaborating with others on a project, and they’re counting on you to finish your portion before they can keep working, you should do it now.

4. You’ve already put it off more than once.

Procrastination is a tough beast to tame. If something’s been on your list for a while, and you’ve either moved on to other things or stopped working altogether, you should either do it now or cross it off your list. There’s no reason to let one nagging task interfere with everything else you have to get done.

5. You won’t get another chance to do it.

Sometimes you end up with an opportunity to do something you’re not going get another shot at. Maybe it’s a job application that’s due today, or maybe it’s a backstage pass to a rock show. Whatever the situation, you should make extra effort to shake off being tired or stressed out so that you don’t miss your only chance to get something important done.

6. You’re getting extra incentives to finish more quickly.

If you’re working on something that offers greater returns depending on how soon you can get it done, like a bonus from your job for finishing a project in ahead of schedule, you should go ahead and grab it. Sometimes, that might mean other tasks get put off and turned in late, but the rewards can potentially outweigh the penalties.

7. It wakes you up in the middle of the night.

Grab onto inspiration it when it appears. Sometimes a great idea might not seem so great once you start second-guessing yourself, so even capturing it on paper might not do the trick. The only way to get the most out of that situation is to start working right away.

I know I must have missed a few items that should be on this list,  and I hope you’ll leave a comment if you think of some. On the other hand, now you’ve got at least 7 reasons to close this tab and take care of the immediate tasks in your life. Happy GTD-ing!

Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He blogs about software for Download Squad, and contributes interviews to Geek Monthly magazine, among others. You can also find him on Twitter.

Photo Credit – kacey

I’m sure you’re familiar with the ubiquitous 2×2 grid that’s printed in the back of so many high school planners. Urgency is on one axis, importance is on the other. The grid works pretty well as a way to set priorities: start with whatever’s due soonest, unless there’s something due later that’s much more important. But backstage passes, spontaneous invitations to fly to Paris in the middle of the night — and more somber things, like the death of a family member — can completely shatter that neat little grid. These aren’t the kinds of things you check off a to-do list.

You can’t predict these opportunities or catastrophes, but you can still be ready for them. If you know what’s on your plate at any given time, you know which tasks you can let slide temporarily or abandon altogether. Some people remember everything they have to do, and when it’s due. If you’re not one of those people, it’s essential to unload your to-do list from your brain and store it somewhere else. That means different things to different people: you could use Task.fm, a spreadsheet, or a simple pad of paper. As a writer, I find it helpful to keep a pad, a pen and my iPhone with me at all times, ready to write down ideas for later. (In fact, I found the idea for this blog post saved as a voice memo in my iPhone this morning.)

If you’re organized, it’ll be a lot easier to do triage when you get back to work after the crazy surprises in your life. Triage isn’t pretty — in medicine, it means someone has to die — but if you already know which tasks are salvageable and which ones you have to let go, you can move forward without wasting valuable time stressing about what to do first. Sure, missing a deadline is a bad thing, but missing the opportunity of a lifetime is worse. Stay organized, stay ready and stay productive.

Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He blogs about software for Download Squad, and contributes interviews to Geek Monthly magazine, among others. You can also find him on Twitter.

Photo Credit – goincase