Done!

When we fail our ambitious attempts to become the structured, efficient people we want and strive to be, a sense of despair may not be far away. But, not to worry. You might just be making one out of two common, but crucial, mistakes. Today Done! is about two mistakes common when initiating a change for the better and how to avoid them.

I think it is safe to say that e-mailing is today one of our most used ways of communicating with each other. And it has its merits. But any tool not used properly and without clear intentions, is an inefficient or even a bad tool. And not having a defined way of using your e-mail tends to create more stress than it should. So today Done! is about how to better handle the usage of your e-mail and hence make it into the powerful structural tool that it actually is.

Being ambitious is often considered positive. Those with high ambitions get rewarded in our performance-focused society. But being ambitious has its downsides as well, and there are more than one negative consequence to over-achieving. Hence, today's Done! is about how to adjust your level of ambition to correspond better with reality and thereby achieve more in the long-run.

In certain situations or professions we may be in dire need for obtaining the right information, and preferrably all of it, right away. Trying to keep all the information we are provided in your head is challenging even for the most alert person, so the need for a tool to immediately handle and safely store the information becomes evident. Today's Done! is therefore about the ultimate tool for making sure you obtain and keep the right information, right away.

Sometimes it is hard to get going, everywhere we turn there is a hill sloping upwards, and we can't for the life of us get the wheels turning in whatever we should be doing. Today's Done! is about two equally simple approaches to initiating tasks and projects which can help you deal with even the most slow-started tasks.

Keeping things simple is sometimes more difficult than it sounds. Many, or should I say most, people have tendencies to, at one point or another, provide unnecessary information, be ambiguous, redundant, or simply beating around the bush too much. Thereby we waste precious time and energy. Today's Done! is about the art of getting straight to the heart of the matter and the benefits of doing so.

Being constantly logged in to and active on our e-mail account is true for most people. What might be equally true is the temptation to use the e-mail as a provisional to-do-list. We tend to think of this as a temporary solution to a problem which we actually create by commiting this structure-sin... Today's Done! is about the golden rule of keeping things in one and only one place, and what the repercussions are of breaking this rule.

We are all different. Some are more prone to regarding the glass as half-full while others see it as half-empty. But regardless how optimistic we normally are, in certain situations (in particular unexpected ones), we should consider our approach and attitude more carefully, and use it as a tool to "think on our feet". This week, Done! is about how you can move forward even in the most unexpected or stressful situations by applying a more embracing approach, and by using two particular words to set the course.

When a task becomes a project, and one project turns into several, many or even too many projects running simultaneously, we need structure to keep track of them all, make sure we are progressing in all and that we aren't neglecting or forgetting any of them. Today's Done! is about six methods you can use to create an overview of your projects.

We all need space, peace and quiet from time to time, and even more so when involved in something which requires our full attention and concentration. But making sure to work undisturbed at times can be difficult, especially if your colleagues are used to you always being available. Today's Done! is about how to get that un-interrupted time without stepping on any toes.

It is easy to dismiss reading as something you do continuously, in passing or "when you have time" and hence it tends to not qualify for the to-do-list. This is a mistake often leading to piles of materials we "will get to eventually". Today's Done! is about regarding reading as a task just as all other tasks on our to-do-list, getting to those accumulated reading-piles and what good will come from doing so.

Sharing our knowledge and expertise can sometimes be scary. We may be afraid of becoming superfluous and of not being needed (since our colleagues now know too). But doing the exact opposite of these fears often proves the contrary. Today's Done! is about how to make yourself dispensable and by doing so gain more time, energy to do what we really want to and more trust from our colleagues.

Being kept waiting, on hold or standing in line for something is to most people both frustrating and irritating. But rather than letting a situation out of your control get to you, there are ways in which to change your focus and use the time kept waiting contructively. Today's Done! is about channeling that aggravated energy into doing something which moves you forward while you are waiting.

Getting back from the vacation offers the ideal opportunity to put the perspective you have gotten while being away from work into practice. Today's Done! is about how to refresh your overview and get going with what you wish to accomplish during the fall.

Have you experienced returning to the office after a few weeks holiday only to find that the e-mail inbox is virtually overflowing with hundreds of unread e-mails? Today's Done! is about how to handle that situation swiftly and efficiently by being just a bit proactive.

Most of us have folders or even entire filing-cabinets filled with materials classified as "what might one day be good-to-have". Keeping our various types of materials organized is essential to being able to use them to their full potential, and our reference material is no exception. Today's Done! is about two methods in which to make our reference material more accessible.

Keeping track of what you have to do is one thing. To then actually do the right thing once you are doing something, is another matter entirely. Today's Done! is about a single question which can and will help you get back on track when you have lost your focus.

What isn't urgent doesn't get prioritized. Does this sound familiar? We tend to put the things which might be important in the long-run on hold, postpone them over and over again, in favor of more pressing matters, but there is a way to get these vital issues attended to as well. Today's Done! is about how to overcome the constant procrastinating and get ahead of yourself doing the things which may be important but not urgent.

Most people have and use an e-mail account, but even though the larger part of us use e-mailing in our daily communication with people, most do not have the structure and routines in their mail-habits necessary to make this vital tool efficient rather than a nuisance. Today's Done! is about how if all would abide to these simple guidelines, our communication via the web would be both smoother and easier.

I am sure that there are many masters of procrastination out there, and I am certain every one has experienced the consequences of putting things off which really should have been attended to immediately. Today's Done! is about the things you should do sooner rather than later to avoid unnecessary pain and agony.