Your Secret Weapon: Task Capture

Unfortunately, life (and particularly work) is a series of tasks. If you execute tasks promptly, correctly, and proactively, you can reduce overall task volume by heading things off before they become bigger issues —which means more free time to pursue your goals, relax, or do whatever. I prefer to work hard now so I can be lazy later. The key to all of this is effectively capturing tasks. Here’s how.

As you move through your day, your mind will naturally wander. And occasionally a task will pop into your head; maybe something you remembered you need to do, or a great new business idea. Now:

• You need to immediately get this into writing.

• It needs to be the same place every time.

• It needs to be somewhere you refer back to ~daily.

Personally I use boring old text document (powered by Simplenote) to handle this task capture. I simply make a new line in the document and write down a summary of my idea. Later, I process that into my calendar, email, task management software, or elsewhere. And because Simplenote syncs to my phone and my home & work desktops, this list is always available. It’s as simple as that.

Missing these ideas (“I’ll remember it later”) could cost you opportunities and increase stress. Why take a chance? Capture them at the source and have a system for processing. This basic idea is extremely powerful, yet rarely implemented.