Swift To-Do List Blog » Being Organized

Kick-start your productivity with new Swift To-Do List 11!

Andy Forda — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 10:18:40 +0000

Your 2022 can be much more productive and organized!

We are super excited to bring you Swift To-Do List 11!

To get this major upgrade, you need to have your license renewal active.

If you don’t own Swift To-Do List yet, you can buy Swift To-Do List today and get a free upgrade to version 11 as soon as it’s released.

Now let’s take a look at what you are getting in version 11:

1832 new icons plus icon search!

Enjoy 1832 new modern tree icons for your to-do lists, memos and spreadsheets!

You can now also quickly find icons by typing what you’re looking for!

You’ll have a total blast with these new carefully hand-picked icons.

New Contact Manager

You can use the brand new Contact Manager as a lightweight CRM.

You can store any information you might ever need for each of your contacts. There’s now 8 inbuilt fields (Name, E-Mail, Phone, Photo, Address, Company, Website, Color…).

But get this –

Swift To-Do List 11 now ALSO supports up to 10 custom fields in the Contact Manager!

You will SHOCK others with your organizing kung-fu and super-human memory!

Your professional and personal relationships will be better than ever!

Take the efficiency of dealing with individuals and companies to the next level.

Team Feature: Show reminders to assignees only

Reminders are now laser focused to the right people!

No more reminders shown to people NOT assigned to tasks!

With this new feature, only those assigned to a task will get reminders about them.

Of course, you can still create team-wide reminders: just leave a task unassigned.

Custom time tracker sound

You can now customize the sound which is played when your countdown timer finishes.

Enjoy!

A bunch of other improvements

Reminder emails now include the full task path and a list of task attachments.
You can now clone filters to create similar filters, or make filter templates.
When adding a new task, you can start time tracking or create a sticky note right then. Do more with less clicks!
Customize your workflow: You can now choose whether new tasks should appear at the top, or at the bottom of an existing list.

We’ve also included many small improvements and bug fixes to help you become even more productive with Swift To-Do List.

The new version 11 will be released on Jan 31st 2019. And of course, we have TONS more updates coming in 2019 to those with active licenses!

If you don’t own Swift To-Do List yet, you can buy Swift To-Do List today and get a free upgrade to version 11 as soon as it’s released.

Have your best year yet!

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Kick-start your productivity with new Swift To-Do List 11! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Mind Collected – new software launched!

Jiri Novotny — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 09:53:06 +0000

Mind Collected is completely new and original software. It was just released. You can download free 30-day trial. It was designed by me, Jiri Novotny, Dextronet.com co-founder.

By using Mind Collected, you can visually collect and manage all kinds of information, but also actually improve how your brain and memory works.

You can exploit Mind Collected in 3 major ways, as a:

Personal visual knowledge base (your personal visual database that allows you to “collect” anything in the form of visual objects with rich notes, organized by tags.)
Personal research and learning tool (whenever you want to master a subject or learn something new, you can capture key information related to the topic you are learning into Mind Collected in the form of inter-connected visual objects. This will help you learn much faster and better. You will also have a far better alternative to classic plain-text notes for later review – instead, you will have a gallery of visual items, each with its own notes and connections to other items. Reviewing what you’ve learned visually is much faster and more pleasant than reading the old-fashioned text-only notes.)
Brain enhancement tool (by using Mind Collected, you can improve your brain in 3 areas: memory, learning, creativity and productivity. You can actually physically improve the health and functioning of your brain. For example, by capturing and connecting information in Mind Collected, you will yourself create new mental associations. As a result, you will grow new synapses and neurons in your brain – we now know this is possible due to neuroplasticity.)

Additionally, you can use it as:

Collector’s tool – Have you ever collected anything? Stamps, stickers, coins, matchboxes, car toys, dolls, or anything else? If you did, you probably had fun. Growing your collection is a great feeling that non-collectors won’t understand. Well, but let me ask you: What if you could also collect fascinating information? What if you could collect memories and experiences? What if you could collect things that are actually important, and it did not matter if they exist physically or just in your mind? All that in a visual, fun way…? Is that something you would be interested in? Mind Collected allows you to collect anything. You can have unlimited number of visual collections of ANYTHING in a single software!
Personal development tool – Did you know that you can change your behavior and thinking by “priming” yourself with important ideas and habits presented in visual form? For example, if you start visually cataloging individual healthy foods using Mind Collected, you will be automatically more likely to buy and eat them in the future. This is called “priming” in psychology. You can do the same with healthy positive habits, thoughts, etc. (Also, have you ever created a “vision board”? Well, every tag in Mind Collected is also automatically a vision board!)

Quick look at the technical side

Mind Collected is personal visual database software for Windows.

Every item in your database has a picture associated with it. (These pictures can be automatically searched and downloaded from the Internet, or you can provide them yourself.)

Items in the database are organized using tags. Every item can have any number of tags. (Mind Collected automatically intelligently organizes your tags for easy navigation, so even hundreds of tags are not a problem.)

Every item also has its own rich notes. This allows you to capture related information and thoughts to each of the items in your database.

Items can be connected to any number of other items. This allows you to cross-link your items, making it easier to navigate in your database, but also create new mental associations.

(You can learn more about the technical side in the online help.)

How I started my “personal renaissance”

Several years ago, something critically important has dawned on me -

It is really dumb that we go through life having various experiences, insights, ideas, learning interesting things and facts — and constantly LOSING parts of that. Why do we forget so much? Why do we lose parts of our lives? Why do we lose parts of our minds? Isn’t that a shame?

Well, of course, our brain is naturally constantly cleaning our memories; otherwise we would go mad from all the details we would remember. BUT, we don’t have any say in what is our brain going to remember and what will get wiped out from our memory forever. And so it happens that our brain is forgetting interesting and useful things, ALL-THE-TIME. This seems both ridiculous and terribly limiting to me.

Since I am a professional software designer, I started working on a software solution.

When I started experimenting with the first software prototypes, I was surprised by the results I’ve personally started getting almost immediately as I began using them – I suddenly remembered and understood things much better. Reliable temporary internet connections in detroit can also make testing new software setups smoother and more efficient. For some reason, I also had a lot of fun when using the software.

This has intrigued me, and so I started researching memory, neurosciences and neuroplasticity. I’ve applied what I’ve learned in the design of Mind Collected.

(By the way, the recent progress we’ve made in neuro-sciences is extraordinary, and I highly recommend that you educate yourself a bit about neuroplasticity. Your brain can grow new neurons and synapses, and it can learn new complex subjects and skills even in advanced age.)

I’m a big believer in “eating your own dog food”. I use Mind Collected every day. My database has already over 1,000 entries. And I absolutely love it.

Mind Collected has helped me to start my own “personal renaissance“. I feel that after many years, I’ve finally experienced a significant shift in my personal growth, and that I operate on a higher level now.

Today, when I read a book, I know that I won’t forget 50% of it a week later, 90% of it a month later, and 99% of it two years later. No — today, when I read a book and learn something, I know that I will remember everything I want to remember, as long as I want to, with very little effort. In fact, I will have fun collecting the information from the book in Mind Collected, in the form of visual objects, that I will enjoy connecting to other objects that I already have there. And I will also have fun when reviewing this information, because it will be visually engaging and much faster than reviewing old fashioned plain-text notes.

Now I have a choice in what I’m going to remember and what I am going to forget. Finally!

You personally can now also benefit from Mind Collected. It’s quite easy and simple, really.

Take advantage of neuroscience

You can now take advantage of the latest discoveries in neuro-sciences by using Mind Collected. Just the simple act of adding items into Mind Collected will help you remember them better, and make them more psycho-active in your brain.

We all have quite advanced visual cortex in our brain, but it is unfortunately usually severely underutilized. We are far more efficient working with visual information rather than with text-only information. Mind Collected allows you to represent every information visually by assigning it a picture, and thus allows you to use the potential of your own brain more fully.

A picture truly is worth 1000 words.

Using Mind Collected is fun, and the more you use it, the better it feels and the more powerful it is – you will start generating your own “aha!” moments. You will get satisfaction from growing your visual collection, which closely represents your own mind. By connecting items in your visual database, you will also create new mental associations. This will start stimulating your physical brain to grow new neurons and synapses.

As your Mind Collected collection grows and improves, so does your memory and brain functioning. Everything related to the items you’ve added into your Mind Collected will be easier to memorize, understand and recall for you. Plus, you will of course have a beautiful gallery of things that you find important and interesting!

Download Mind Collected

You can download free 30-day trial for Windows right now. The installation takes just 1 click. Currently, you can purchase Mind Collected with 50% discount during the launch promotion.

Mind Collected includes a Quick Start Guide that will get you started in no time, as well as more detailed Online Help to help you fully master the details.

The current version 1.0 is just the beginning, and I would love to hear what you think. I have many grand visions planned for the future of Mind Collected, but you have the main say in shaping it. So don’t be shy and let me know how to make it as valuable, useful and beneficial for you as possible!

In case you are wondering, I still manage my tasks in Swift To-Do List, where it excels. I use Mind Collected as a learning, knowledge-management and brain/memory enhancement tool.

Mind Collected is an alternative to mind maps (comparison table).

Mind Collected – new software launched! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Is being organized a basic human need?

Jiri Novotny — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 10:52:09 +0000

When exercising today, a fascinating question occurred to me: Why do we humans have the need to organize? And is it a basic need?

The fact is, humans have been organizing and cataloging the world for a long, long time.

Google’s goal is to catalog the whole Internet.

In 18th century, Denis Diderot wanted to collect all of the world’s knowledge in his Encyclopédia .

Philosophers have been creating systems using which they wanted to comprehend the whole world.

And even before that, agrarian societies have been organizing the land into fields and pastures.

But why is that?

Why do we value order over chaos? Why is it SO OBVIOUS to us that dividing a land into several fields is far better than just randomly growing crops?

Well, let’s see. This is the Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs – I’m sure you’ve already seen it:

Here’s the thing -

Being organized provides you with SAFETY.

Living a disorganized life is very stressful, as you never know if there is any danger waiting for you (unpaid bills, disappointed friends, forgotten appointments, or even loss of income or home).

Security, stability, freedom from fear – that all sounds like something that being organized can give you.

But being organized also gives you SELF-ESTEEM.

Among other things, having self-esteem means that you just know you can deal with whatever life throws at you.

When you are organized, you are more in control. You are the master of your life. Achievement is easier for you. You know you can deal with things, since you know what there is to be dealt with in the first place.

And once you fulfill your self-esteem needs, SELF-ACTUALIZATION becomes an important need for you as well. This is where your express your creativity and talents. This is where you find purpose and fulfillment.

The Maslow’s pyramid is hierarchical.

When you don’t have SAFETY, it means that one of your most basic indeed is not being met. This lack will constantly occupy your attention. In other words, when you are disorganized, you just don’t feel completely stable, secure and free from fear.

It’s similar with your SELF-ESTEEM needs. When disorganized, it’s just difficult to feel like a master of your life and attain achievement, respect and recognition.

When these important needs are not met, your highest needs of SELF-ACTUALIZATION (creativity, fulfillment, purpose) can’t be fully expressed and met either, since you are preoccupied with your unmet lower needs.

I think the conclusion is clear -

Being organized is a basic human need. When it’s not met, you simply can’t live to your full potential – and you might not even want to, as you will be preoccupied with mere “survival” in the complex modern world.

Is being organized a basic human need? is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

How to separate work and personal tasks

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:22:58 +0000

When you use a to-do list software (such as Swift To-Do List) for some time, you will end up with many captured tasks.

If you feel that you could organize your tasks better, you probably could. The easiest way of doing that is to categorize your tasks into multiple to-do lists.

One way of doing that is separating your work-related and personal tasks.

Today, I will show you exactly how to do that (step-by-step). You will also learn how to additionally categorize your tasks by areas/projects, and how to view all work-related or personal tasks at once.

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Separating Work and Personal tasks

You can create as many to-do lists as you need in the to-do list tree. You might have already created several to-do lists – in that case, you can use the following information for inspiration to refine your current categorization.

Now, let’s create two new top-level to-do lists, “Work” and “Personal” and then divide all your existing tasks among them.

Here are the steps to separate your personal and work tasks:

Use menu Tree – Add To-Do List to create a new to-do list named “Personal”.
Use menu Tree – Add To-Do List to create a new to-do list named “Work”.
Click your current to-do list (where your tasks are) to view it, and Drag and Drop each personal task to the new “Personal” to-do list, and each work-related task to the new “Work” to-do list. Dragging and Dropping tasks works the same as when you move files to a folder in Windows. If you don’t know how to do this, here is a video (moving tasks to a different to-do list is shown in about halfway the video). You can also Cut and Paste the tasks instead of using Drag and Drop.
Finally, if your current to-do list is empty now, you might want to delete it (right-click it, and select Delete), so you have just the two new lists – “Work” and “Personal”.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully separated your personal and work tasks.

Organizing your work tasks by areas

Now, let’s setup several to-do lists based on areas/projects of your work tasks.

When it comes to your work tasks, ask yourself: What are the 3-5 main areas (or projects)?
For each area/project where it makes sense to you, create a new sub-to-do-list under the “Work” to-do list. To do that, right-click the “Work” to-do list and select Add Sub To-Do List in the popup menu. Name each new sub-to-do list based on the area or project (e.g. “Marketing”, “Reports”, “Presentations”, “Clients”, “Project Omega”, etc.)
Move tasks that belong to a certain area/project to their new home. Again, you can use Drag and Drop and your mouse, or Cut and Paste.

Tip: You can also Drag and Drop the actual to-do lists and memos around the tree using your mouse too, to re-order and organize them.

The result might look like this:

You can of course do the same for your personal tasks now.

Viewing tasks from multiple lists at once

Sometimes, it is useful to view all tasks at once, so you can get a big picture perspective.

Now, if you need to view all tasks at once, you can click the big View button in the main toolbar, and select All Lists:

To view only the selected to-do list again, press the View button again, and click Selected To-Do List.

Here is the really useful thing though -

If you want to view all your work-related tasks, you can select the Work to-do list in the tree, and then, click the View button and click Selected List + Sub-lists. This will display all tasks from the Work to-do list, and also all tasks from all its sub-lists.

Likewise, if you want to view only personal tasks, you can select the Personal to-do list in the tree, and again, make sure the view mode is set to Selected List + Sub-lists.

So now you can view only one particular to-do list, or all tasks at once, or only work-related tasks, or only personal tasks. Quite useful, isn’t it?

Another way of reducing complexity and making your list shorter is to use the Hide Until feature.

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How to separate work and personal tasks is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

How to keep your to-do list useful, short and motivating

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:46:17 +0000

In the previous post, I talked about the basics of using a to-do list efficiently.

A quick recap -

Create the to-do list and do the initial dump, placing all your “stuff” into it. This clears your mind.

(continuously): Look at your to-do list, see what’s next, work on it.
» Whenever you get interrupted or distracted, repeat.
» Whenever you finish a task, repeat.

(continuously): Whenever a new idea or task comes to you, write it down immediately into your to-do list, then proceed with what you were doing before.

Today, we will add one important advanced technique. It is the missing secret ingredient.

We are going to learn a solid to-do list maintenance routine, using which you will keep your to-do list relevant, short and motivating.

Your to-do list is like a garden.

If you don’t tend a garden, it will soon become full of weeds and dead plants. The beautiful flowers and useful plants will have hard time flourishing in such an environment, as they become oppressed by the weeds.

The same thing can happen to your to-do list. If you don’t remove done tasks, and if you don’t remove tasks that are no longer important, and if you don’t reprioritize tasks when priorities change, your to-do list will be just like a garden full of weeds; and not nearly as useful as it could be.

So, when you tend your to-do list “garden”, what do you do? Well, you go through your to-do list, and do the following 9 steps. I’ve listed the steps in terms of importance, so the first 3 steps are far more important than the last 3 steps. That being said, if possible, do all of them:

Reprioritize. When your to-do list becomes an obstacle to your productivity, it’s usually because there are too many tasks in certain priority categories. Usually, you will have far too many high priority tasks. So, demote some of them. Ask yourself: What is really important here?Keep in mind that tasks lose importance over time. There are two main reasons for this. First, in the moment you are writing a task down, it usually seems emotionally more important than a few days later when the emotion fades away. Second, some newer tasks are indeed more important than the old tasks, so the old tasks lose relevance because of the opportunity cost. As you know, you can’t do everything.
The problem is that we seldom decrease priorities of tasks in our to-do lists. For many of us, it just feels wrong – it feels like slacking. But reprioritizing is necessity to keep your to-do list relevant and up-to-date. Things change, and your to-do list must reflect that.
Delete everything that is no longer important. Sometimes you might realize that you don’t want to do something at all, because things changed. That’s perfectly OK. You can never do it all. You have just so much time. If you are sure you don’t want to do something, delete it. If you are unsure, then reprioritize it accordingly – as an “Info/Maybe” task, and perhaps move it to a separate list. Try to keep your main to-do list for tasks that absolutely want to do.
Hide tasks that you don’t have to worry about now for later. To keep your list at a reasonable size, hide low-priority tasks until later. If you know that you don’t have to worry about something for a couple of weeks or even months, hide it until a later date. In Swift To-Do List, this can be easily accomplished by setting the Hide Until field, added in version 8.
Move all non-tasks to a separate list. Your main to-do list should be for actions only (tasks). Keep the non-tasks (info, ideas, reference material) in a separate list; otherwise, it will be impossible to finish your to-do list.
Break complex fear-inducing tasks down into sub-tasks. If there are any important task you are procrastinating on, then you should break them down into subtasks.
Remove duplicate entries. If you notice the same item appearing twice or more, perhaps in slightly different words, delete all but 1 copy.
Rewrite task names to make them more actionable. Use verbs and be specific. When you read any task name, you should immediately know what needs to be done. If you have to think even for seconds, then the task name is probably wrong. You can also spice things up and include fun words and phrases – but be careful to preserve the full clarity. If you can make daunting task rhyme, you might be able to do it sooner, as it will stick in your mind. Play with it. Just don’t overdo this step – it might be a sign of procrastination.
Remove projects and goals, and replace them with next action tasks. If your to-do list contains enormous tasks which are not really tasks but projects or goals, you should instead create the next action task (or a couple of them) for each project, and remove the projects from your to-do list. Keep the list of projects separately.
Delete completed tasks. Delete them permanently or archive them. In Swift To-Do List, deleted tasks are automatically moved to task Archive, accessible via menu Manage – Archived Tasks. You don’t actually need to do this manually. I recommend you to use the auto-archive feature added in Swift To-Do List 8: Go to menu File – Options, and in the Task-View tab of the Options window, check “Automatically archive done tasks” at the bottom. Using this, done tasks will get automatically archived after the specified time (Immediately, The next day, After 2 days, etc.)

To sum it up: Reprioritize; delete tasks that you no longer want to do; hide all the tasks that are of no concern to you now until later; move all non-tasks to a separate list; break complex tasks into subtasks; delete duplicate tasks; rewrite task names to make them more actionable and specific; remove projects/goals and replace them with next action tasks; delete completed tasks.

If you do this, your to-do list will stay fresh, crisp, laser-focused and super-useful. It will help you flourish.

There is also a second huge benefit to this: By maintaining your to-do list, you will also effectively review it, and maintain a pretty accurate picture of what needs to be done. Your mental model of tasks, non-tasks, project, goals and commitments will very closely reflect the actual information captured in your personal organizer, thus helping you to make better decisions and estimates. By keeping an accurate mental picture, it will also help you avoid capturing the identical information multiple times (thus creating duplicates).

You might now be thinking: “Whoa, I thought that the point of keeping a to-do list is NOT to have things on mind. Well, you are spot on. But what we are trying to do is to make sure that you don’t NEED to keep things in your head, because they are already captured in a trusted organizer. It is the “necessity to remember” which is stressful. Looking at your list and getting the feel of what’s there is not the same as having to remember it all.

When you are reviewing/maintaining your to-do list, your goal is not to memorize it all. The fact that you refresh your mental picture is a side-effect. You are not trying to remember things here, just as when you read a novel, you are not trying to remember it. When you review items in your organizer, it will refresh your mental model of what needs to be done, which is usually beneficial. It helps you make better decisions.

Finally, there is a third enormous benefit. In Agile methodology (used for software development), there is a saying: “If something is painful, do it more often”. If you do the to-do list maintenance just twice a year, it will be very tedious and painful. But if you do it weekly, you will oftentimes notice that many of the steps aren’t even necessary. You will learn to apply these principles automatically, even when you are not doing the routine – this is an incredible benefit. You will become a to-do list master without even trying!

And by the way, many productivity systems have separate maintenance and review routines, or lack one or the other. I’ve combined both review and maintenance routines into one for maximum efficiency, and threw out everything non-essential. Therefore, doing the routine is time extremely well spent with enormous leverage.

Implement regular to-do list maintenance routine into your life, now

I recommend doing the to-do list maintenance routine at least once a week. I think that doing it on Monday morning is perfect, because it will help you review everything that needs to be done during the week, and it will also ensure that you are well-equipped for the week with an actualized and useful to-do list.

But beware – the strategy “I have to remember to do X” (e.g. “I have to remember to do the weekly to-do list maintenance/review”) is a guaranteed failure. Why? You won’t remember it at the right moment. You will be busy; other things will usurp your attention. Even worse, having to remember something is a stressful burden. And each time you fail/skip, you will feel bad about yourself. Don’t do this to yourself! Setup a weekly reminder, and forget it. When it reminds you, do the routine. It’s that simple, and it’s nearly miraculous.

Because merely trying to remember to do the to-do list maintenance routine is a horrible strategy guaranteed to fail, I want you to do the following in Swift To-Do List for Windows:

Click the Add Task button. We will create a new task specifically for this.
Name the task “Do the weekly to-do list review/maintenance routine”. I also recommend including “- no matter what” at the end of the task name. It’s a little note which tells you that you really, really want to do the routine, even if you might not be feeling like it in the moment. The “- no matter what” appendix works great for me, but something else might work better for you, depending on your personality, self-talk, and preferences.
Now go to the Notes tab. What we want to do here is to write step-by-step instructions for doing the routine. Every time you are reminded, the notes with these instructions will be shown. This way, you won’t have to refer to this post. You will also learn the routine faster and do it the right way. And the best part is – doing the routine won’t be as overwhelming, because the steps will be simple and obvious. You won’t procrastinate on this. If you want, you can also include a couple of motivational sentences, reminding yourself why you want to do the routine and how it serves you. Think of this as a message you can send yourself into the future. Right now, you are all enthusiastic and energized about this, but in a few months or weeks, you might feel different, because there can be several important deadlines looming, etc. So – copy the following text into the Notes, and modify it as you see fit. You can also highlight the steps which you think will have the best payoff for you personally.

Go through all tasks – it’s easy! And -
1) Reprioritize (priorities decrease over time!)
2) Delete tasks that I no longer want to do
3) Hide Until later all the tasks that are of no concern to me now
4) Move all non-tasks to a separate list
5) Break down intimidating complex tasks into subtasks
6) Delete duplicates
7) Rewrite task names to make them more actionable and specific
8) Remove projects/goals and replace them with next action tasks
Now it’s time to go to the Recurrence tab and setup a weekly reminder for this task. Select Recur Weekly, and then set a time. I recommend setting it bit earlier than the usual time you arrive at work, so the reminder immediately pops out. So, for example, if you usually arrive at work at 9:00, set the time to 8:30. Then, check Monday. In the Action dropdown, select “Set undone and remind me”, and optionally, for extra punch, check “Email me”. And that’s it. You can also click the Preview to see the times you will be reminded to do the weekly review. If all looks good, click OK to add this task. Once added, you can check off the task (mark it done), because on Monday, it will uncheck itself and remind you to do the review.

Now, once the reminder-task is set up, go through the steps and actually do the routine right now! This will help you do it well the next time.

Congratulations! You are now ahead of 99% of people who want to get organized, because you have actually made sure that you will succeed. This what true winners do.

The next week, when you are reminded about your to-do list maintenance routine, do it – no matter what.

At first, this might seem tedious, but it will get easier every week. And who knows – after a few months, you might realize that you all you have to do each week is to read your list to refresh the tasks in your mind, because you apply the principles automatically during the week, like a true to-do list master.

How to keep your to-do list useful, short and motivating is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Custom Task Priorities

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:47:07 +0000

How do you prioritize your tasks?

Do you use High – Medium – Low prioritizing, or do you use something more useful?

“What? There is something else besides High/Medium/Low? Nobody told me!”

Well, with Swift To-Do List, you can create your entirely own custom priorities. Even all the inbuilt priorities are fully customizable. In fact, you could have just 1 priority called “Octogoat” (8-legged goat) and that would be it. (Yeah, this particular prioritizing system probably wouldn’t increase your productivity! :-)

All you have to do is to use menu Manage – Priorities:

(And in case you are not using Swift To-Do List, as you read on, you might still find this article quite useful.)

Why does prioritizing matter?

Prioritizing is very important, because it help you fight off procrastination. By not having your tasks prioritized, you risk decision paralysis, which is one of the leading causes of procrastination. Since you are not sure what to do (e.g. many items are very important), you will tend to do something completely else, usually not important at all (e.g. checking social media and new sites, checking email, cleaning and re-organizing your office, etc.)

Alternative prioritizing methods

“High/Medium/Low” might not be particularly useful to you either, because it is vague. I bet that you could find at least 5 reasons why any particular task on your to-do list should be High priority – or Low priority. Oftentimes, you will have so much High priority tasks that you will be left clueless as what to actually work on next.

However, there are more useful prioritizing systems, such as One Minute To-Do List (which I think is pretty good) or Stephen Covey’s 4-Quadrants. It is also curious that GTD (Getting Things Done methodology) has no prioritizing, just contexts (which, in my opinion, is suboptimal for most). You can also use my own prioritizing system, which you will learn in this post.

Most prioritizing methods are either based on Importance, or Urgency. I think that prioritizing by Urgency is far better, because there are…

3 reasons why prioritizing by importance is WRONG

There are at least three serious problems with prioritizing by importance:

First, if you ignore urgent (but unimportant) tasks, you will be anxious, stressed and less effective. Urgent tasks are like swords hanging over your head, causing you stress. Urgent tasks should be always handled first, as they are time-sensitive. When urgent tasks are not attended timely, then in many cases, it can have long-term negative consequences. But even more importantly, almost invariably, avoiding or postponing urgent tasks places an emotional and mental burden on you.
Second, almost all tasks can be classified as important for one reason or another. You can try this right now – pick any task from your list- and then try to think up of at least 2-3 reasons why it is important. Usually, you will not have any problem coming up with the reasons, even if the task is of a very low priority. Too many tasks get classified as highly important- the prioritizing thus becomes useless, as it’s impossible to distinguish what really matters. (If everything is important, nothing really is.)
Third, many tasks which are not important still need to be done. Without doing seemingly unimportant tasks, such as paperwork, computer and office maintenance, it would be soon impossible to do the important tasks. The wheels would get stuck.

In light of this, the urgency-based prioritizing approach of the One Minute To-Do List method seems very solid. But still, you don’t have to use it as it is. You could take it and customize it to suit your needs. Or, you could use…

My better prioritizing system

I’ve been developing the following prioritizing method for quite some time. It will be part of my own productivity/organizing methodology which I am currently developing. Think of this as a little preview – the final system will be have much more depth to it.

I’ve been also testing it extensively on myself, and so far, the results are great.

My prioritizing method is urgency based.

The priorities are as follow:

Urgent
Current Focus
Do Soon
Do Later
Maybe
Info/Reference

And here are quick description of the priorities. The individual priorities are for tasks that you…

Urgent: Absolutely must do today. If necessary, you would stay late at work to get these done.

Current Focus: Want to do today.

Do Soon: Want to do this/next week, and even today if given the opportunity.

Do Later: Want to do eventually, but don’t have to worry about now at all.

Maybe: Are not yet sure if you want to do at all.

Info/Reference: This is for non-tasks. Items with this priority are not actionable at all.

At any point, try to have no more than 5 Urgent tasks, no more than 10 Current Focus tasks and no more than 20 Do Soon tasks. The other priorities can have unlimited number of tasks.

You can easily apply this system with the Manage Priorities window. Once applied, it looks like this:

And have fun with it, if you want! For example, when I was submitting a support ticket to Dreamhost, I noticed I could choose priority too, and they have funny options like “OMG CRITICAL EMERGENCY! PEOPLE ARE DYING!” So albeit my system works pretty well, feel free to choose names that make sense to you.

Have you already customized your priorities? What priorities do you use?

Custom Task Priorities is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

“Why should I care about being organized?”

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:26:51 +0000

Even though you are probably interested in getting organizing, you might still have some lingering doubts like:

“Yeah, being organized is very nice, but why should I care? Why should I care about productivity at all? Does it even matter? Isn’t it enough to just show up? If I don’t do something today, well, no big deal, I can do it later – right? Being organized is for boring uptight perfectionists.”

Well, here is my answer -

Being organized and productive does matter. In fact, it matters a great deal – way more than you might think. In the long-term, it’s especially important. In fact, not being organized/productive can have disastrous consequences for you. Let me tell you why.

If you zoom out and look at your life, being organized and productive actually has a deep impact on virtually all areas of your life: your health, your family, your career, your finances, your friends, your wellbeing, and your overall sense of happiness. Staying on top of your goals also helps you make smarter money decisions, and using ING as a trusted financial partner can naturally support that organized lifestyle through simple and efficient banking solutions.

If you need motivation to finally get (and stay!) organized, you are at the right place. Just as organization is key in life, many businesses and event spaces prioritize safety and preparedness, which is why some turn to Fire Watch Services in Virginia Beach to help keep venues monitored and secure.

When you become organized and productive, these 8 things happen:

You will eliminate stress. Stress is not just about unpleasant workdays. If you are stressed, you won’t sleep well at night and you risk high blood pressure, ulcers, heart attacks, stroke, cancer, immune system impairment and nervous breakdown. It is well established that stress is very damaging to our health. In fact, in Japan, there is a term “Karōshi” which can be literally translated as “death from overwork”. The Wikipedia says: “The major medical causes of karōshi deaths are heart attack and stroke due to stress.” Karōshi happens even to people in their prime years. By eliminating stress, you will sleep well at night, greatly improve your health, and increase the quality of your life and probably the length of your life as well.
You will become efficient and advance in your career or grow your business, make much more money and become wealthier. By becoming one of the most valuable, reliable and indispensable people in your company, it is unlikely you will ever get fired. In fact, you will probably get promoted – and repeatedly. If you are a business owner, you will be able stay in business and prevent bankruptcy – and eventually double or triple your business or go even beyond that.
By reducing overtime and needless overworking, you will have more time for your family. You will be able maintain happy, healthy and deeply fulfilling relationships. Because you will have enough energy left and be able to spend high-quality time with your spouse, your intimate relationship will flourish. If you have kids, you will be able to spend more high-quality time with them as well. Also, your spouse won’t leave you, which, statistically speaking, could easily happen – think of overworked husband who comes home late, drained, slowly becoming alienated from his wife and kids. Well – that won’t ever happen to you. Instead, you will be able to give and receive all the love you need and want.
You will have good close friends. Because your work won’t drain you, and you will have more time, you will be able to spend and have great time with your close friends and enjoy their company in your life. Stress elimination helps here as well, because by definition, stress prevents you from being happy. And if you are unhappy, how can you possibly make others feel good?
By becoming productive and reliable, you will be admired and appreciated by your colleagues or business partners; and prevent becoming insignificant and irrelevant in your company or industry.
By being able to actually do what you want to do, you will have the power to influence others and create the life you want; and prevent becoming powerless to change your circumstances.
You will be deeply satisfied with your life and happy. You will feel great about yourself, as you will know that you are fulfilling your potential.
You will have the opportunity to actually make a difference in your world, advancing a cause or helping community you deeply care about.

It’s good for your health. It’s good for your career. It’s good for your finances and wealth. You’re informed about the best junior ISA. It’s good for your family. It’s good for your relationship with your spouse, kids and friends. It’s good for your self-esteem, status and happiness. It’s good for your influence and power. It’s good for the world.

And it prevents some truly horrible things that could happen to you.

Need I say more?

PS: Download Swift To-Do List and get organized in 5 minutes. Heck, it’s even fun – I promise. Many people would agree.

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“Why should I care about being organized?” is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Centralize Your Lists with Swift To-Do List

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:23:42 +0000

Centralizing all your lists (and especially to-do lists) is a simple act of placing all your to-do’s and other lists together, into one file, software or paper. Centralizing your lists is probably the most powerful technique to reduce overwhelm.

Having your to-do’s and other information centralized is very important, because if you do not have your to-do’s centralized, and rather have your to-do’s scattered among multiple places, then:

Sometimes, you will lose and forget important things. This leads to unnecessary last-minute emergencies as well as wasted opportunities.
You can never fully trust your organizing system. That results in stress and anxiety.
You can’t get a quick overview of all urgent and important tasks. This makes you inefficient.
You can’t quickly find the next action needed to do. This impairs your focus ability and disrupts your workflow.

On the other hand, centralizing your to-do’s, ideas, thoughts and other “things” has the following benefits:

You have a system you can always trust, where you can find everything you need, whenever you need it.
You can quickly get a complete overview of urgent things for today or tomorrow, so there are no unpleasant surprises and unnecessary emergencies.
You can always quickly see what the next thing to do is. This improves your ability to focus and makes you more efficient and productive.
Because you will know that you will never lose or miss any important information, you can fully relax and experience a true peace of mind.

And what do I mean exactly by “having your to-do’s scattered among multiple places”?

Well, there are dozens of ways of storing your to-do’s, ideas, notes, etc. You can have all these things on multiple papers, sticky notes, computer files, software, emails, devices and even rooms or buildings. And that is a big problem for the reasons I’ve mentioned above. Even if you have just 3 or 4 places (and most people have more), the negative effects kick in hard.

The solution is to take everything you have – all the papers, files, emails, notes and so on – and move the tasks in them into a single central place. Swift To-Do List is perfect for this, because it essentially allows you to manage multiple to-do lists and notes in one place. That way, you can have all your to-do’s, ideas, thoughts, notes, checklists, and any other lists or text documents in one place. You can even attach files to your tasks or notes to keep related files at hand.

Swift To-Do List has a tree with icons, which allows you to organize all your lists and notes (task-independent notes in the tree are called “memos” in Swift To-Do List) in a hierarchical structure with icons. You can have everything at your finger-tips. It looks like this:

There are multiple ways of adding tasks into Swift To-Do List. Tasks can be imported from plain text files and CSV files. You can also import to-do’s from other software, such as Outlook, Lotus Notes, Excel, Task Coach, and many other.

Memos (notes) can be imported from various formats, including plain-text and rich text files (.txt and .rtf), MS Word Documents (.doc and .docx), HTML files (.html and .mht), OpenOffice files, and even ePub format. You can, of course, export notes into all these formats as well, and better yet, you can even export them to PDF.

I will now show you exactly how you can input tasks into Swift To-Do List, and then how you can import notes and memos. Now is the right time for you to Download and install Swift To-Do List (in case you don’t have it installed already).

How to add tasks into Swift To-Do List

The first button in the toolbar, Add Task, is hard to miss. You can also use the shortcut hotkey Ctrl+T (“T” like “Task”), or double-click into any empty area in the task-view. The Add Task window has a button labeled “OK, add another…” which will add the task, then reopen the Add Task window.

But the simplest way of quickly adding multiple tasks is to use the Add Multiple Tasks feature, available from the menu Tasks – Add Multiple Tasks. The shortcut hotkey for this feature is Ctrl+H.

You can simply enter one task per line (or paste any simple text list into this window), and add all these tasks with a single click on the Add Tasks button. You can then edit these newly added tasks later to specify the details.

Another simple way of adding tasks is to simply paste them into the task-view. You can paste just a single line of text (which will open the Add Task window, or multiple lines, which will open the Add Multiple Tasks window. Just click into the task-view, then paste the task (or tasks) with Ctrl+V.

Creating tasks from emails is also very simple. You can just drag and drop the emails into Swift To-Do List. Here is a video showing you how to quickly create tasks from emails. This is one of the features we are quite proud of, as it is a huge time-saver, and Swift To-Do List can handle even the email attachments and adds them as the task attachments, etc.

The Import Wizard is the most powerful way of adding large amounts of tasks, usually from other software. You can access it using menu File – Import Wizard. The Import Wizard can import comma-separated files (.csv), tab-separated files (.tsv) as well as plain-text files (.txt). Because vast majority of other software supports export to comma-separated files (.csv), you can usually import your data into Swift To-Do List very easily. Step-by-step import guides for various software (including Outlook, Excel, Lotus Notes, Task Coach) are available on our website. Swift To-Do List Help file has even more import guides for other less-known software. You can open the Help by pressing F1 in Swift To-Do List.

How to add notes into Swift To-Do List

There are two kinds of notes in Swift To-Do List:

Task notes, which always belong to a particular tasks
Memos, which are task-independent notes located in the tree among to-do lists and other memos

Both task notes and memos can be imported/exported to various formats, including TXT, RTF, DOC, DOCX, HTML, MHT, ODT, ePub, and PDF (export-only). Swift To-Do List fully supports rich formatting, including images, bullet and numbered lists and so on. Both tasks and memos can have attachments.

To create a memo, open the Add To-Do List window, and in that window, select “Memo” in the “Add” frame, as shown below:

Then, to import a file into the memo, click the Export/Import Notes button in the text editing toolbar, as shown below:

As you can see, there are two import options – either to replace the notes, or to append the imported file at the end. Using the latter, you can import multiple documents into a single task note or memo and thus join them. But you can also, of course, just create multiple memos or tasks instead.

Your action steps

In this article, you’ve learned why it is important to centralize your to-do’s and other things. You now also know what centralizing is. And you know how you can centralize your to-do’s with Swift To-Do List.

To immediately apply what you’ve learned, you can do the following:

Download and install Swift To-Do List (in case you don’t have it installed already)
Input your most urgent/important to-do’s and other information into Swift To-Do List.
Once you’ve put as many things into Swift To-Do List as possible, it’s time to process all other places where you keep your to-do’s, ideas and important information. Create a list of these papers, documents and files, and then bring them over into Swift To-Do List.
Develop a habit to always input everything into Swift To-Do List when you are at your computer. You don’t even have to use your email inbox as a to-do list, as you can drag and drop emails into Swift To-Do List, one by one.
When you are not close to your computer, stick to a single way of capturing tasks, notes and ideas. You can keep a small paper handy, or use your smart phone. When you get back to your computer, immediately put all the captured tasks into Swift To-Do List and throw the paper away or clear the file in your smart-phone. (Swift To-Do List also has a companion mobile web-app that you can use to input tasks on a smart phone directly into your Swift To-Do List.)

Once you do this, you will quickly find that you are way more efficient and relaxed. Overwhelm, stress and forgetting will disappear from your life.

If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to post a reply below. I will be happy to help you and answer any of your questions.

Centralize Your Lists with Swift To-Do List is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.307: Tree Export

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:19:16 +0000

While we are intensively working on the online synchronization feature to commence the beta testing, we have little something for you.

We’ve just released a small Swift To-Do List update, version 7.307.

This new version allows you to export the whole to-do list tree to a HTML file.

Once the tree is exported, you can open it in your web-browser (eg. Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari…) and print the tree. Until now, it was not possible to export or print the tree.

This is how to use the new feature:

Download the latest version of Swift To-Do List.

What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.307: Tree Export is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.11: Colors!

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:42:24 +0000

Swift To-Do List before version 7.11 allowed you to color tasks only by priority, and the color was applied only to the Priority column. This has now changed.

Behold: New custom task-coloring!

Version 7.11 brings completely redesigned and improved task-coloring functionality:

You can now color tasks by:

Priority
Status
Type
Assigned To
Context

New task-coloring options

But not only that! You can now choose what gets colored:

The relevant column (eg. Priority column for priority coloring)
Whole row (= all columns)
Or, you can color just task names

This allows a lot of combinations! This feature brings a lot of flexibility and customization goodness.

New color picker

That’s not all though – we’ve also improved the color picking window. It is now full of pleasant, uplifting, bright colors, carefully chosen by hand. Black text is readable and looks good on these colors. You can also define your custom colors, of course.

Aren’t we great? :-)

What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.11: Colors! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Create more productive environment at your desk (10 tips)

Jiri Novotny — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:43:30 +0000

Becoming more productive is much easier in the right environment. Creating such environment is easier than you think. These 10 tips will give you some great ideas about what you can do right now to improve your work area.

1. Log off from Facebook and other websites where you waste time. Seriously, checking it once (or twice) a day is enough. You do not have to be constantly logged in. When you log off and then go to www.facebook.com during your workday when you are procrastinating, you will have to log in again – this will remind you that you in fact do not want to spend your time on Facebook now.

2. Remove all shortcuts and links to useless websites, games and programs that waste your time. That’s easy to do – but you still need to relax. That’s why you also need to discover and start using new ways to relax – ways that actually help. Taking a walk is the time-proven favorite of numerous geniuses and great minds. Or consider taking a short nap. Resting by staring in the screen some more won’t help at all. (See older blog post Prevent Repetitive Strain Injury for some extra tips about what to do on your work-break.)

3. If you use a tabbed browser, close all old tabs. If you keep websites that you want to return to later in the browser tabs, then bookmark them instead, but close the tabs. This will make it much easier to focus. Also, clear your browsing history, so it’s harder to go to websites where you waste time – you will have to type the website addresses manually again.

4. De-clutter your work desk. Ideally, only things related to your current task should be located on your work desk. Put everything else away – if there’s no place to put the stuff, get some drawers. Just put the stuff away.

5. De-clutter your Windows desktop as well. Remove old programs and files that you don’t need anymore.

6. Are there any popups or notifications jumping in your face during your workday, demanding your attention? Disable them. Close all programs that display them. You can’t work like this – it’s impossible to focus when you are bombarded by infinite stream of distractions and demands. (For example, Twitter supports RSS – why not use that instead of real-time notifications?)

7. Close all programs that are not relevant to your current task. This is crucial. If these programs start automatically with Windows, disable it. (The easiest way to do it is: Press Win+R, type in ‘msconfig’ (without the quotes), hit Enter, and then go to the Startup tab and disable all programs that you do not need automatically started with your system).

8. Can you ergonomically improve your work place? New chair, better keyboard or desk – things like this matter. Is there any aspect of your working environment that could be more comfortable? Improve or fix it.

9. Turn your LCD display sideways. This might sound like a joke, but it’s not: Displays that support the “pivot” technology and allow you to turn them sideways are great, because a work-area that is taller than wider is extremely useful for many kinds of work, including writing and reading – probably the two most common tasks that you do at your computer. Even the cheapest displays nowadays support this technology. Perhaps your LCD display already has it, you just don’t know about it! If not, consider getting a new and better display.

10. Most importantly – get and stay organized. The easier it is for you to be organized, the more likely it is that you will be and stay organized. Swift To-Do List makes this the simplest thing in the world. In fact, it makes being organized literally fun – and I’m not exaggerating here. That’s the exact word that our users report about their experience with Swift To-Do List. Download it today.

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Create more productive environment at your desk (10 tips) is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Preserving knowledge and retaining information

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 11:11:39 +0000

Notes are not just notes. They are your life.

You might not realize it, but preserving knowledge is actually more important than acquiring new knowledge – what is all the new knowledge good for when you can’t retain it and put it to use? Even if you forget only half of the important things, your learning will be two steps forward, one step backward. You can do better.

However, you can’t just fully count on your brain when it comes to remembering. Your brain constantly purges your memory from irrelevant, outdated and obsolete information to prevent you from going crazy. Do you remember what you had for breakfast on May 24, 2001? Of course you don’t. And that’s actually a good thing. In fact, a certain rare condition related to memory exists – people suffering it can’t forget even the most useless things that happened to them a long time ago. They usually end up insane, because the information overload is crushing.

What can you do to remember the important information

The problem is that your brain can’t differentiate between useful and useless information on its own. What is important for your brain might not be important for you. (and vice versa)

Here is the secret: You can tell your brain: “Hey, this is important, don’t forget this one, OK?” There are multiple ways how to communicate the importance to your brain (eg. repeating it in your mind), but the absolutely easiest way is by writing the information down. When you write something down, your brain automatically knows that it is important.

Most importantly, writing information down has double benefit:

First, because you’ve communicated to your brain that the piece of information is important, you will be able to remember it more easily and much longer.
Second, since you have the information written down, you can look it up whenever you need. Even if you forget it, you can always easily retrieve it.

Swift To-Do List support for notes and memo combined with hierarchical tree, task management and reminders makes it ideal for a simple personal knowledge base. It is easier than ever before to establish habits that will allow you to never forget anything important again. All you have to do is to store the vital knowledge in Swift To-Do List.

Preserving knowledge and retaining information is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

What is stress?

Jiri Novotny — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:57:32 +0000

If you are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or demotivated, you might like to know why. It is not always clear. You might blame some particular project or thing that has happened in your life, but the underlying cause is much simpler:

STRESS = TOO MUCH STUFF IN YOUR HEAD

Worries, tasks, details that must be remembered – all these cause stress – but only when they are stored in the wrong place: your head. People often try to mentally juggle everything from critical client deadlines and household repairs to daily promotional bonuses at new sweeps casinos. It is extremely hard to remember and organize all of these diverse items using only your head. You need to use another approach.

How to resolve stress?

It’s simple: Put the stuff from your head somewhere else! For example, you can put it into our task and notes management application “Swift To-Do List”. It has been designed especially to help you get organized easily and quickly. You need to write task lists, take notes, and organize them nicely. Swift To-Do List allows you to use 144 different icons that make organizing fun.

When you move the the stuff out of your head into your computer, you will free your mental resources. You will be able to focus. You will be able to work, and more importantly, enjoy your work again. You should give terea kazakhstan flavors a try for help in relieving stress. Do it today.

If your computer can remember it instead of you, it should!

You can learn more about the benefits of writing things down in a previous post “How to upgrade your brain“.

Writing things down also does wonders when you are struggling with procrastination.

What is stress? is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

How to upgrade your brain

Jiri Novotny — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:41:30 +0000

This is one of the best kept secrets of high personal productivity and stress elimination.

It is amazingly simple.

Perhaps we are spiritual beings with unlimited potential and our brains are amazing computers, but just like a desktop computer, it has limited capacity. You can only hold limited number of things in your mind, especially in your consciousness and “recent” subconsciousness. By recent subconsciousness, I mean things that were recently brought into your awareness – e.g. lots of small things that you shouldn’t forget about, daily business, worries, and so on.

All this stuff and worries are draining your mental resources. Your brain can’t focus 100% on the task at hand, because some parts of it are wandering the lands of “I can’t forget all this stuff”.

The amazingly simple way of upgrading your brain

All it takes to upgrade your brain is to write your thoughts down. Don’t write down just tasks and actionable items, but everything that is on your mind in any way.

Our personal organizer software can really help you with this, as you can organize not just tasks using it, but also any kind of notes. Swift To-Do List 7 can be a true extension to your brain. Using it is similar to purchasing a new hard-drive for your computer – the only difference is that it is for your head.

It can even remind you of tasks when needed (including recurring tasks). Organize all items in separate to-do lists with icons using drag & drop – it can’t be simpler.

New hardware for our brain? Now we are talking!

What should you write down and organize?

All things that you should/want/must do
All things that you shouldn’t forget about (especially your ideas!)
All your worries
All things that you are waiting for
Everything else on your mind

Some issues are complex and can’t be written in a few words as a simple task. That’s why Swift To-Do List 7 supports memos as well. Simply write your train of thought down into a memo to relieve your racing mind.

Stress = Too much stuff in your head!

Once your thoughts are written, you can work with them in a much more efficient way and resolve them easily. And the best thing is – they won’t bother you anymore.

Getting organized can be not just a huge relief, but also fun!

Swift To-Do List 7 can extend your brain, eliminate stress and make you much, much more productive.

We’ve even added 144 different to-do list tree icons in 4 sizes and many customization options to make it work for you. Choosing custom icons for your to-do lists and memos makes organizing a fun experience.

And I’m not exaggerating when I’m saying that it makes organizing fun. I can proudly say that “fun” is a word that our customers repeat quite often when they are talking about our task & notes manager.

How to upgrade your brain is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

10 Benefits Of Being Organized: From Chaos To Freedom

Jiri Novotny — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:31:45 +0000

This is a motivational post. The simple truth is that being organized can bring you more time, money, success and happiness. We happen to have a great organizer to help you to get organized in no time.

Getting organized with Swift To-Do List 7 is really easy, and has many benefits:

1. You will upgrade your brain to version 2.0

If you take all the work-related stuff and to-do’s from your head and place them in Swift To-Do List 7, a wonderful thing happens – suddenly, your mind has 100% resources available and 100% focus just for the current task at hand.

2. You will advance in your career faster

Stop wasting time on tasks with zero impact and go straight to the juicy, meaty stuff that really matters and that can move you forward in your career. This is possible only when you are organized using a great task list manager like Swift To-Do List 7 that allows you to prioritize your tasks.

3. You can double or triple your productivity

With less time and mental resources wasted, you will have more time for the important stuff. The real game changer comes from your upgraded brain though – if you can finally fully focus and always know what to do next, you can double your productivity easily. If you are unorganized or stressed, you are much less productive than you think.

4. You will be more motivated

Success brings motivation. It is so much easier to achieve success when you are organized! In fact, work can sometimes feel like fun.

5. You will have more time

It’s really simple: If you are more productive, you get more done, and you have more time.

6. You will have more money

We all know that time is money, but success brings you money too, which can be a really significant benefit. By using trusted gold trading platforms, you can turn your time and effort into smart opportunities that help grow your wealth even faster. For example, exploring opportunities like wholesale gold bullion Melbourne can also complement a well-planned financial strategy by adding long-term value and stability.

7. You will eliminate any possible stress

With all your tasks and notes in one place, safely stored in reliable task list management software like Swift To-Do List 7, there is nothing to worry about. You can even use inbuilt reminders and recurrent tasks to make sure that you will never forget anything again. Liberate yourself from clutter and stress.

8. You will reach your full potential

If you get organized, you can achieve much more than if you are limiting yourself by being disorganized.

9. You will be able to achieve your goals more easily

All the benefits work together and give you more power to do what you truly want, and that is the real freedom.

10. You will love your work and life

How can you NOT love your life when you are successful, happy and without stress?

With the right attitude, Swift To-Do List 7 can literally change your life. I personally use it myself every day not just to run and manage our whole business, but to take control of my own life.

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10 Benefits Of Being Organized: From Chaos To Freedom is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

5 Ways How To Deal With Low Priority Tasks

Jiri Novotny — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 09:38:58 +0000

We all have lots of low priority tasks lying around our to-do lists that will probably never get done. You simply have much more important tasks to do first. New important tasks pop-up all the time, so it’s unlikely that you will ever get to your low priority tasks.

You might ask: “Do I even have to write the task down, if it’s not important?” The definitive and final answer to that is – maybe! :-)

Let me tell you why: If you are even considering writing the task down, then your subconsciousness has already identified the task as somewhat important, and the task would subconsciously bother you. If you write it down, your mind can discard it, as it knows that it’s safely stored in your to-do list program, and move on to more important stuff.

On the other hand, if you can consciously decide that doing the task would have zero or negative benefit, then it’s safe to not write it down, as you consciously know that you don’t even want to do it.

So, the promised 5 ways how to deal with low priority tasks. *drum roll*

1) Can you delegate it?

This is not really a solution, unless you have a very reliable person to delegate the task to. Otherwise, you have to create a task “Check that Wally has done Task X”. And besides, doesn’t Wally have something more important to do, like drinking coffee and eating donuts?

2) Will it resolve itself?

If you know that the task will take care of itself, then just skip writing it down and let it go.

This approach is not always wise, as some tasks “solve” themselves not the way you would like them to (eg. your bills will get paid with the friendly help of executor :-)). It’s important that you are sure the task is really of low priority before using this approach.

3) Do I even want to get this done?

As I’ve said above, if there is zero or negative benefit for completing the task, then just move on.

4) Is it really low priority?

Sometimes you might label important tasks that you are not feeling like doing as low priority. That’s a really bad habit! If the task is important, admit it. Don’t run away from the truth.

Also, sometimes it is likely that finishing a task will have zero benefit, but it might also pay of handsomely. Eg. calling a client might likely not result in more business for you, but what if he places a huge order? (Now or in the future, because you’ve called him today)

5) Write it down and forget it

That’s my favorite way of dealing with unimportant tasks. I recommend creating a new to-do list just for tasks like this. You can name the to-do list something like “Maybe”, “Future”, “Procrastination Ideas” or “Never to-do” :-).

Alternative approach: Place the low priority tasks in your normal to-do lists, and get them out of your sight, either by sorting your to-do list by priority (from Highest to Lowest), or using filters (eg. you can create a new filter preset that will automatically hide all unimportant tasks).

Did you know that you Swift To-Do List 7 allows you to fully customize priorities? For example, you can delete or rename the default “Low” and “Lowest” priorities. Read more about it in our previous blog post: How to use 4-Quadrants Time Management using your own custom priorities

Don’t let low priority tasks undermine your productivity!

Having lots of low priority tasks that never get done haunting you can be *really* demotivational. I hope that this post has given you some insight into this issue and ideas how to deal with them.

5 Ways How To Deal With Low Priority Tasks is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

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5 Ways How To Deal With Low Priority Tasks

1) Can you delegate it?

2) Will it resolve itself?

3) Do I even want to get this done?

4) Is it really low priority?

5) Write it down and forget it

Don’t let low priority tasks undermine your productivity!

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