Never Before!

 This has never happened to me before.....

Ok this may not mean much to others, but to me it is priceless. Usually I am happy if I can keep my inbox below 20, and most of the time I struggle with that. To get it in single figures is considered quite and achievement, but to get it to zero? Unheard of and simply awesome!

Now this doesn't mean that I have nothing to do. Below is another screenshot, this time of my To-Do list summary:

As you can see, currently I have 76 outstanding projects either I or someone I have delegated them to are working on. But the fact they are in here instead of my inbox means that I have actioned them and moved them along. When they are just in the inbox it generally means they are awaiting a response or an action. I am proud to say that whereas in the past I might have sat on emails for months on end, now I am moving on them quickly. That is partly because I have more people to delegate to now, and partly due to the size of my job necessitating swifter responses and action.

So why the change? Well, I have been moving towards a better task management system for years now. Yes, literally years. I have procrastinated, dabbled in numerous offerings (including the one I use now), but never felt satisfied. Then I realised that there truly is no promised land of productivity tools - one has to make something work for one. I was getting frustrated as I had so much on my plate, and I needed to act. Initially I also had to-do lists on the side of my timesheet spreadsheet, which is kind of my personal bible - I use it daily. But I found myself referring to the to-do aspect of this less and less, and the Microsoft To Do app more and more. So there I was and there we are.

I am happy that this is a part of my professional and personal life that I have improved in the last 12 months. I consider this to be quite an achievement.