The most important takeaway I got from David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity is this.  The first step in getting things done is to get all the things that are swimming around in your head OUT and into a system you TRUST.  That last word is the key: “trust.”  We often have multiple systems, in case one fails us, but this can be confusing and unproductive.  What’s best is a single system you TRUST.

My system for managing projects is a sorter full of what I call Project Corrals.  I recently did a post on distinguishing projects from tasks.  In essence, you can’t expect to complete your projects in one shot, in this busy world, but you can complete the tasks that make up the projects.

I had used the elephant analogy in my post, but here’s another animal analogy for the tasks we need to do: wild horses.  If we jump on every idea that pops into our heads, we find ourselves going nowhere, just as if we had jumped on to a wild horse and then on to the next wild horse that comes along and so on.

Of course there are some wild horses that come along in a day, that we DO need to take care of this week (or now!), but many are just ideas THAT WE DON’T WANT TO FORGET ABOUT.  These wild horses can be corralled and these corrals can be simply organized.

For every project, there may be documents and other loose bits of paper.  I like to collect these in a clear plastic envelope and on the front of it I keep the tasks (or steps) that are necessary to complete this project.  One sheet of paper collects all these tasks on small Post-its, much like the front page of a newspaper collects all the headlines. This is a project corral.  Because we tend to have many project going on at the same time, each gets its own project corral.

I keep a daily task collector on a clipboard.  The fixed events of the day are printed out and the tasks that I must regularly rearrange according to priority are on the small Post-It notes.  This represents the daily to-do list.

It’s no coincidence that these Post-its are used both on the project corrals and the daily to-do list.  Every Sunday I set the timer for 15 minutes and quickly go through the tasks I have collected in my project corrals and see which are the priorities and where I can fit them into the coming week’s schedule.

In this way, I can safely collect all my ideas (or corral all my wild horses) in a system I trust, but still give myself a manageable collection of tasks to do on a daily basis.  Some of those ideas may sit in the project corrals and never get acted on, but ultimately that is OK, because they have been given a fair chance and have not met the vital criteria of being my top priorities.

In essence, this system allows my ongoing projects and long-term goals to be REMEMBERED and REALISTIC.  I would love to hear what systems are working for you.

The easiest way to answer that question is with another question:  How do you eat an elephant? It’s an age old question with an age old answer: One bite at a time.  Simply put, the project is the elephant and the tasks are the bites.

If there are tasks you never seem to cross off your to-do list, it may because they are actually projects in disguise.  A project needs to broken down into steps and there needs to be a plan for those steps, starting with a FIRST step.

Take for example, the task of cleaning out the garage.  Face it.  That’s a project.  If you treat it like a task, it not only becomes something you avoid (because in the back of your mind you know it’s an ‘elephant’), but there’s a good chance the job will be done inadequately, when you finally get to it.  It’s possible that some efforts may even make the mess in the garage worse, because you aren’t giving it the full project status it requires.

When you recognize that you’ve got a project on your hands, you will take the necessary steps to get your to-do to done.  You recognize, for example, that IF you are going to open up some space, the contents of that space have got to go SOMEWHERE.  Your first step, then, may be to confirm how late your local dump is open or rent a dumpster.  You may generate a lot to donate, in which case you would want to reserve a clear area for donates and schedule a pick-up service.  Clearing a garage usually involves opening a lot of boxes.  A clear work surface and good lighting will make this much easier and save your energy.  So have those set up.

When all of these steps are in place, you will actually find this “task” a lot easier to do, because you are treating it like a project. It is a clearly defined process, not just a wish.

Some other examples of tasks that should be treated like projects might include filing papers and updating a website.   If your file drawers are packed already and you have a pile of papers that need to be filed, your filing system probably needs an overhaul.  That’s a project, not a task.  Updating a website is important, but it is made up of a lot of steps, so that’s a project too.

When you get stuck with your tasks, don’t focus on your central action, but on the FIRST step.  If the journey of a thousand miles does indeed start with the first step, then that first step is where your attention needs to be.

Projects are not always easy to recognize.  In fact, I still sometimes struggle with the distinction myself.  For example, one of the to-do’s I have had for sometime is “assemble packets.” I have been seeing this as a task, but it is a project.  It requires a series of steps and the first one is to collect all the documents I need to print, in one folder on my computer. Now THAT’S a task and I am giving it a time limit of 10 minutes.  I may even set a timer.

No kidding!  Tasks are things that you need to take care of quickly, so give yourself a limitation and, if it helps, give yourself a “task-master” in the form of a kitchen timer.  It makes you conscious of your limitation and allows you to focus.

Sometimes, the difficulty in doing a task just comes down to the fact that you really don’t want to do it.  I can’t help you with that, except to say you might be surprised how often being unwilling is just being unprepared.

The next time you find yourself delaying a follow up call, for example, just grab the phone and it will suddenly hit you, why you’ve been putting it off.  Maybe you’ll find yourself saying “well I can’t call yet, because I don’t have the information I need.”  Bingo!  There’s your first step: collect information.  Put down the phone and either collect the information you need or make a note to do so.  Either way, you have made progress on this task because you have correctly identified the first step.

One reason I often delay making a follow up call is because I worry it may eat up a lot of time.  In that case I grab my trusty kitchen timer.  When that loud beeping goes off after ten minutes, even the most animated conversation on the other end screeches to a halt with “Ooh, do you need to go?” I’m back in control!

To summarize, the front page of a newspaper is made up of a series of short compelling headlines.  Each headline may have a short blurb, but it always has a connecter to the full story inside.  Much of the time, what piles up on our desks are full stories.  What we need then is just a short action description (or headline) and a connector to the larger project.

There is no one right way to do this, but since a physical model might help, here is what my headlines system looks like.

Rather than having several different directions to focus on, I have just one.  To the right of my desk I keep an upright clipboard with today’s schedule printed out.  The part that is printed is what I refer to as FIXED time.  They are mostly external commitments I have made to other people.

The problem with most time management systems is that they don’t take into account the FLEXIBLE time, internal commitments you make to yourself that are constantly changing.  That’s what the little Post-It notes are for and THEY are the headlines.

One of the reasons traditional newspapers are dwindling is that the latest breaking news usually changes by the time they go to print.  Newspapers just can’t compete with the flexibility of the online news services.  The little Post-its allow you to adjust your priorities as fast as they change AND you don’t have to keep rewriting them as you would on a fixed to-do list.

The real story here is the size of the Post-It’s.  It doesn’t take much to compel you to action.  In fact, the smaller something seems, the more manageable something is.

As the old saying goes, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.  It’s helpful to make a distinction between projects and tasks.  A project is an elephant and a task is a bite.  Each Post-It represents a task.  To continue with the newspaper analogy, it makes no more sense to write a task that says “create website” than it does to write a headline that says “China.”  “Create website” is a project, not a task and “China” is a country, not a headline.

Part of what makes this system work is being able to find files RELIABLY.  If there’s not a reliable connection between the headline and the full story, then the system falls apart.  This connection is represented by a very simple letter on the Post-It’s lower right (the same spot as a page connector in a newspaper.) The “F” is for file cabinet, the “T” is for tickler file, the “C” is for car (a handy place to find coupons), and “R” is for what I call running files.

Running files are files you want to make a point of acting on.  These are ongoing projects that need to be in front of you.  You can see these running files right behind the headlines page in the clear, labeled envelopes.  There is still a limited number of tasks and ideas contained within each project envelope.  If I need bulkier elements I will find them reliably in the file cabinet or reference shelf.

To make my day’s headlines portable, I simply slip them into a clear folder, pictured to the right.  I call this my Today folder.  It has pockets inside for receipts and other items I pick up outside the office, but I have one very simple rule: what goes in the Today folder comes out Today.  This way it always stays small and manageable.  My Today folder lives behind the clipboard.

To stay on top of weeks and months I review my projects and calendar every Sunday and print out a week’s worth of day sheets.  I pull tasks from the project envelopes, add new ones, and distribute them throughout my day sheets, around the fixed events.

You give yourself the best odds of getting your to-do’s to done when they are vertical, visible, and minimal.  Minimal is particularly important and the headlines approach keeps your action minimal.  Consider the opposite.  If the front page of a newspaper contained all the stories, the type would have to be tiny and the paper enormous.  The ability to focus on such a thing would be all but impossible.  If you feel the same way about the piles on your desk, you might want to give the headlines approach a try.

A few weeks back, I was working with a client when she got a long distance call from her father.  Her mother was in the hospital and my client needed to get on the next plane to see her.  She didn’t have a moment to spare, but she had to pack carefully because she had no idea how long she would have to be away from home.  Any clothes she forgot, she could buy.  Her one big concern was all the bills that needed paying.  They had been mixed in with a lot of other paper throughout the house.

Fortunately we had recently organized all her current bills into one clear plastic envelope, labeled unambiguously “BILLS TO PAY.” She just grabbed it, jumped in a cab, and caught the next plane, with one less thing to worry about.  Now, she could focus more on what mattered most:  her Mom’s health.

There is a wide-held belief that if you can just get organized, you will be able to do everything.  The truth is, the first step to getting truly organized is to recognize your most important priorities and then to take the less important priorities out of the way.  In other words, to be organized you CAN’T do everything.

A great way to prioritize is to imagine your last day on earth.  What would you regret not doing? What do you hope people will say about your when you’re gone? Now ask yourself, what are you doing about those goals NOW?

Perhaps you want to be remembered for bringing joy to people.  Unlikely to happen if you spend all your time WORRYING about making money.

Perhaps you want to be remembered for achieving great things.  The odds of this happening aren’t good if your home is buried in unfinished projects and self-help books, while you sit in front of the TV.

Perhaps you want to be remembered for giving to others.  Probably not if you spend all your time, energy, and money buying more stuff for yourself.

Perhaps you want to write the ultimate book on organizing, but you waste hours with social media and blog—(excuse me, I have to go.)

I would add notepads to this list and exclude binders, which can be useful for reference material.  The problem I have with notebooks is that they tend to trap information in and there it stays.  There is no plan for retrieval and no way to organize ideas in a useful way.

The idea behind notebooks tends to be to capture ideas as they come to us.  A single notebook can include to-do lists, doodles, calculations, poems, phone numbers, brainstorms, quotes, floor plans, websites, and so much more.  Creative projects, accessible information, and action items all belong in quite separate places.  If they are all bound together, hidden inside that notebook, they will probably go no further.  You can kiss your creativity, accessibility, and activity good bye.

The notebook problem gets worse.  There is rarely just one notebook with current information.  Many notebooks leads to much confusion.  This confusion is compounded by the fact that there are often multiple categories represented on a single page.  It can be very easy to forget that you had written down the number for the electrician on that page of calculations and doodles.

I recommend collecting bits of information in an envelope labeled “information to enter.”  Then it becomes an action.  This action may involve entering the information from the business cards, scraps of paper, and Starbucks napkins into a database or an address book.  It’s also a task that is so straight forward that it can be delegated.

For action items I’m a big fan of little post-its arranged on your day’s schedule by priority.  I like the adjustability of them.  They are moveable,  visible, and useable, not locked  in a book.

Creative projects may make sense in a notebook, but it is much easier to organize the project if you use a loose leaf notebook.

Odds are, if your notebook is bound up, your ideas, information, and productivity will be too.

Am I wrong? Do you stay beautifully organized with notebooks?

Julie Morgenstern is an organization and time-management expert, business productivity consultant, and New York Times best-selling author of five books, including Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life.

Michelle Forsythe, 37, a senior strategic sales specialist for FedEx and a mother of two, was thrilled when her supervisor okayed her request to work from home three days a week. What she didn’t account for was the tough time she’d have creating an organized work space for those at-home days. Her Byhalia, MS, home doesn’t have a spare room for an office, so Michelle writes sales proposals, takes conference calls, and supervises 1-year-old Rex and 3-year-old Reagan from a table in a corner of the kitchen. That “desk” became home to her kids’ toys, sippy cups, craft projects, library books, and her magazines. And as the clutter builds up, so does her stress.

Michelle and I both recognized that her frustrations weren’t limited to the physical state of the desk: As a working mom, she’s juggling a lot — and it’s wearing her down. For this organizational makeover, we’ll first find a way to tackle the mess on her desk, then we’ll create a system to make her working-mom life work for her.

Clearing the clutter

The first question I asked Michelle was what she felt the clutter on the desk was costing her. Immediately, she mentioned time; the last thing she needs when she’s trying to get herself and her kids out the door is to be slowed down by a frantic search for a file folder. Then, as we began to discuss the mess further, it became clear that the chaotic state of her desk was also robbing Michelle of her ability to focus — and chipping away at her emotional well-being. In the rush to pack up and get out the door on the days she heads to the office, she would occasionally hear herself snap at her children, starting the day off on the wrong foot for everyone.

To begin Michelle’s desk makeover, we needed to find a home for all those items that haphazardly land there. They seemed to fall into four basic categories: work-related materials, magazines, errands (mail, library books), and odds and ends, like her kids’ toys and drawings.

First, we’d focus on all the non-work-related items that have invaded her desk space — like the decorating ideas and recipes she’s clipped from magazines. We agreed that she would buy two three-ring binders: one for decorating, one for recipes. She can file and store the articles in the binders, then recycle the magazines. Library books, mail, and purchases to be returned can be stored near the door in a tote bag designated as the official “errand tote,” ready to go whenever Michelle or her husband leaves the house.

Michelle’s desk doesn’t have storage space, so I suggested that she purchase a small cart with drawers to place near her work area. Most of them should house her office supplies, with one set aside as a “belongs elsewhere” or “delivery” drawer. The reason: Michelle may not have time in the moment to place a toy back in her son’s room or decide where to put a project from day care, so this spot can serve as a temporary holding pen for these items. Note: A delivery drawer is not a junk drawer; it’s a way station of sorts for odds and ends. Once a week, Michelle can find 10 minutes in her schedule to put everything back where it belongs. This system will ensure that the desktop will always be clear for Michelle when she needs to work.

Easing the morning madness

To streamline her days and eliminate any frenzied What do I have to do today? moments, Michelle needs to consolidate her to-do list. Part of the reason her life feels overwhelming is that she uses so many tools as reminders: She has a paper page-a-week planner, to-do lists on scraps of paper, plus a stack of to-be-returned library books. These so-called visual reminders aren’t effective; as things pile up, Michelle will notice only what’s on top of the stack. What she needs is a single, consistent planner in which she can jot down all her professional and personal to-do’s — and one that, unlike her current system, won’t add to the clutter on her desk. Because Michelle prefers writing things down on paper (as opposed to using an online calendar), we determined that a two-page-per-day planner — which is big enough for her to write her to-do list, her to-call list, and any notes or thoughts that may come up for the day — would work best for her.

Because most of Michelle’s work is done via email, she doesn’t have a lot of files or papers to lug back and forth on the days she works at the office; a briefcase has ample room to store her laptop and current files. When it comes to her work papers, Michelle already has a good system in place: Printouts on current accounts are placed in separate blue folders, and papers to be filed are stored in a large accordion folder. I encouraged Michelle to think of her brief-case as her file cabinet, storing folders inside when she’s not working on them instead of leaving them on her desk to pack up during the morning rush. This change is a simple solution that will ensure a folder never gets forgotten in her transition from home to office.

Finally, to make a smooth exit on the days when she drops her sons off at day care and goes to the office, Michelle should think of the house’s main entryway as a landing/launching pad for her family. She can buy inexpensive cubbies and install some hooks so each family member has a spot to store jackets and backpacks for easy retrieval. And to guarantee that nothing is forgotten, I suggested that Michelle create and laminate a checklist of everything she and her sons generally need for the day (diaper bag, formula, cell phone, briefcase), and hang it by the door.

Designing the day

Though Michelle has a mother’s helper for a few hours on the days she works from home (a local homeschooled teen who loves spending time with the kids), she still regularly finds herself scrambling to come up with projects to keep her sons entertained. Currently, she’ll set them up with activities at the dining room table, but often the children become antsy and wander over to Mom’s desk, distracting her from her job.

I asked Michelle what her days would look like if she treated her sons’ daytime schedules with the same type of planning and intensity she brings to her work. She mentioned that she would like the boys to be exposed to music, crafts, reading, and outside play each day. I used the example of a kindergarten classroom schedule (music time at 10, reading at 11) and suggested that Michelle replicate that structure in her home. Each evening before a work-at-home day, Michelle can take just 15 minutes to plan and pull out activities, crafts, CDs, or games, then she can pass the activities and the schedule over to her mother’s helper. Michelle will still be available as needed, but she won’t feel the pressure to scramble on the spot for various activities to occupy the kids. That way, her children can have a rich, structured day while Michelle has the freedom to focus on her job.

To feel on top of her work and home life, Michelle simply needs to reclaim her desk space and incorporate a few simple systems into her daily routine. Once she makes these changes, she should be able to save as much as an hour or two a day — a huge gain for this busy mother of two!

MICHELLE’S REACTION: “I know that when I have a process, I can follow it. But because I didn’t have one, the junk piles — and my frustration level — rose. I love Julie’s suggestion of creating a landing/launching pad by the door, and I’m definitely going to buy a cart of drawers and designate one as a ‘belongs elsewhere’ drawer; I know I can find time once a week to clean it out. Thanks to Julie, I’m confident I can get — and stay — organized.”

Tame Your To-Do’s: 3 Secrets

These get-it-done ideas from efficiency expert Julie Morgenstern will help you feel on top of all your daily tasks.

1. Consolidate your to-do lists. The more random notes you have, the harder it is to plan your day. Choose one effective reminder system, and use that exclusively.

2. Put pen to paper. You don’t have to go digital to get things done. For lots of people, writing things down helps emblazon thoughts in their memory. If that sounds like you, find a planner large enough to fit all your to-do’s.

3. Ditch the paper piles. Instead, file those documents, no matter what their stage of completion, and keep an active to-do list — including exactly what needs to be done with which papers.

Want Julie to help you organize your home, office, time, or priorities? Email redbook@hearst.com (Subject: Organizing) to be considered for an organizational makeover.

So what does choosing headlines from a newspaper have to do with getting your pile of to-do’s to done? Actually quite a lot. Unlike a table of contents in a book, which gives you an idea of what’s coming, but assumes you will follow it in order, the front page of a newspaper allow you to prioritize, based on what headlines are grabbing you at the moment. I believe the most effective to-do list works like the front page of a newspaper. Here’s how:

1. Headlines Are Short

Headlines are designed to say just enough to get you to read the article. Nothing more. They are not a summary, let alone the full story. If you rely on that pile of competing projects on your desk to compel you to action, it’s like looking at several different newspaper stories at once. The natural choice is to get overwhelmed and choose NONE of them. If, however, you can summarize that intimidating pile into a few well-worded actions, it is much easier to see where you stand and prioritize.

2. Headlines Grab Your Attention

A good headline cannot be ignored. If you want to compel yourself to act on something, choose the words that will get your attention, not just any boring description. For example, instead of writing “update website” write “outline 5 FAQs [10](minutes).” “Update website” may well be a very important to-do item, but it is way too general to expect action. On the other hand, “outline” is a limited starting action, “FAQs” represents a specific menu, and “10” represents a limited time commitment. Specific goals get specific results.

3. Headlines Connect You To The Full story

At the end of each headline snippet there is a section and page number reference that connects you to the full story. As noted, your to-do list headlines should be limited to just enough to connect you to the larger project. Let’s say that headline is “review Acme research project.” That headline can fit on a 1-3/8 x 1-7/8 Post-It note on a single page of other daily to-do’s, but it can connect to a one inch stack of paper, which may be the actual Acme research project. This one inch stack simply represents an item you need to be able to find reliably, but it doesn’t need to waste valuable real estate on your work surface. You just need a reliable headline and a user-friendly filing system.

The front page of a newspaper gives you a single focus zone. It provides a forum to quickly choose your shifting priorities and connect to a fuller story based on your urgencies of the moment. When you finish with the full story you want that singular front page to return to for the next story. An effective to-do list needs to work in the same way. If everything is important then nothing is important.

Do you sometimes find that you have so much on your plate that you don’t feel like you can start on ANY of it?

Do you ever have one of those workdays where you’re trying to juggle several different things, but you don’t actually finish any of them? I sure have and it’s a really frustrating feeling. Of course emergencies arise that require immediate attention, but most distractions can and should be reserved while you focus on getting one task DONE.

I think the bird-in-the-hand saying is not just about tasks, but opportunities. For most of us opportunities arise far more often than we can act on them. These new opportunities are the birds in the bush. You may be closing in on finishing one task, when you hear these birds rustling in the bush with a ringing phone or “you’ve got mail.” It’s very easy to get distracted especially when you’re not enjoying your task at hand, but it’s important to secure its completion.

I grew up on a farm and we had bantam hens. Catching a live hen was not something you could multitask. You needed BOTH hands to grab her and secure her in the roost. It was tempting to think I could grab two hens if they were close together, but that never actually worked. The same is true with difficult office tasks. They require a singular focus or they end up flying away in a cloud of feathers (sort of).

So if you’re in the middle of finishing up a tough task and you hear the telephone bird and the email bird in the bush at the same time, don’t be tempted. Finish the task at hand, cross it off your list, and give yourself a pat on the back. That accomplishment is not worth the same as the potential of the phone cal and email. It’s BETTER, because you’ve advanced a step forward, not sideways. In most cases, the birds in the bush will wait.

TODAY’S KEY TO UNLOCKING SCHEDULE CLUTTER: A bird in the hand BETTER than two in the bush.

When you give your team clearly defined goals and instructions, it is more likely that you will get the results you seek. This is less obvious when we are a team of one.   This could be for a goal that’s as important as “create website for Acme” or as mundane as “organize home”. What both of these goals have in common is that they are too big to put on a to-do list.  I’ll choose the latter example to demonstrate, since it’s what I know best.

A to-do list is a collection of tasks you are essentially delegating to yourself. For this to-do list to be effective the tasks must be like good set ups in volleyball, except that is YOU who will be doing the spike. So don’t set something that is too far over your head. Subdividing by room is a start, but it’s even more effective to break it down further. The home office, for example may go like this:

Set 1. “clear desk surface”

Set 2. sort the contents into simple categories, including “items to file.”

Spike! file items from desk.

You will be much more likely to spike your task if the set is focused like “clear desk surface”than if it is overwhelming like “organize home office.”

Where the volleyball analogy may fall short is the fact that in real life, your goals often get interrupted. That’s OK. In this example, if the spike has to wait until tomorrow it will still be easier to file a sorted pile of “items to file” than if it was mixed in with yesterday’s mess on the desk.  You have advanced forward on your bigger goal because you have given yourself a series of smaller more manageable sets and that has put you in a better position to deliver a spike in the right place.

TODAY’S KEY TO UNLOCKING CLUTTER: Break down your big goals into a manageable series of sets and spikes.

Now, I know you may be saying that’s your whole problem: “I don’t organize enough!” Hear me out. Of course I see a lot of homes with insufficient organizing systems, but in those same homes I will also see excessive, complicated OVER-organizing. To arrive at a more harmonious balance requires a realistic assessment of the QUANTITY of stuff you are keeping and WHY, but that’s a subject for another post.

What I’m talking about here is strategic under-organizing opportunities. By minimizing your efforts in certain areas, you can maximize your efforts in more important areas. Here are 3 examples:

Sleeping Files. This is a big one. Sleeping files are basically archives. They are files you are keeping just in case. The likelihood of needing them is pretty slim, so there is no need to store them in your vital workspace and there is no need to carefully organize them. Just make the minimal effort of labeling and dating the box. That’s it.

Owners Manuals. Everybody’s got ‘em and usually all over the house, but in some houses they’re carefully filed. Under-organize them! Just chuck them all into one generous sized box or drawer, where you can always find them, in the unlikely even you need them. Don’t waste file space. That’s prime real estate. Owners manuals and the extra stuff that comes with them can be very bulky. I like using gallon sized Zip-Loc bags to do a basic sort between computer, appliances, entertainment, etc.

Photographs. I know, I know. You’ve got great plans for your photos, maybe scrap-booking, but one step at a time. I think it was General Patton who said “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” You can get an inexpensive 10 pack of plastic shoeboxes at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and start by simply sorting by year. At least they’re protected and you have a system in place for when strays turn up or for when you finally get that rainy day for scrap-booking!

TODAY’S KEY TO UNLOCKING CLUTTER: Under-organize some things so that you can free up some time to adequately organize the more important things.

Do you practice strategic under-organizing? What are some areas you find under-organizing makes sense?