50. Stop Being a Slave to Your Day Runner

I first started making “to-do” lists when I was in the third grade. Over the years, I graduated from simple 3″ × 5″ spiral notebooks to an 11″ × 16″ black leather briefcase-type three-ring-binder time-management system with a two-page spread for my daily schedule and up to a dozen tabulated sections for goals, priorities, strategies, decisions, communications, addresses and phone numbers, forward planners, backward planners, mind maps, expense summaries, personal information, daily (and monthly and weekly and yearly) calendars, and a priority management overflow chart (whatever that was). Any yuppie worth his salt is familiar with this or a similar system for personal organization.

I actually spent a day and a half and more dollars than I’m comfortable admitting learning how to use this organizer. It required a commitment of at least thirty minutes each day to evaluate progress, check off completed items, and transfer unfinished business to the next day’s two-page spread. Fully loaded, the binder weighs over five pounds, occupies 4.2 square feet of desk space, and I couldn’t go around the block without having to lug it with me in case I was overcome with a brilliant idea, or remembered something I had to add to my Communication Planner Sheet.

For some people, these organizers probably serve a useful function (in addition to making money for their franchisers). I made zillions of phone calls each day, scheduled appointments around the clock, had a handful of projects going at any one time, and definitely needed a way to keep track of it all. It was just that, like many other yuppie Type A personalities, I’d overdone it.

Fortunately, I looked at my planner one day and realized I didn’t want my life to be that complicated. This was the beginning of my simplification program.

Gradually, over time, I simplified not only my home and personal and business life, but my planning system as well. I went from that gargantuan book to a 3″ × 5″ appointment calendar, which can fit into a small pocket, but stays on a tiny corner of my desk most of the time. There were several stops in between, but I finally reached a size and a system that was compatible with my simple life.

If you’re controlled by your time-management system, maybe it’s time to look at how you can change it so that you control it instead.