Best Results Organizing

This week, we’re rounding out our discussion of digital helpers to keep our To Do lists from overflowing our desks and flat surfaces with floozies. Old-fashioned To Do lists, where you keep a running lists of tasks, are wonderful, provided that you:

a) keep your list prioritized and updated;
b) know where to find your list; and
c) actually look at your list!

For many of you readers, a list written on the back of an envelope, a Post-It or even a fresh sheet of notebook paper will be forgotten minutes after pen is set to paper, but a computerized list (even one created by you) carries more weight. It seems actual typeface wields magical powers that even the most perfect display of the Palmer handwriting method can’t match. So, if you’re the type who’s more likely to take orders from a list that lives online, here are some opportunities for you to use old-school To Do lists with a newfangled, online twist.

Unless noted otherwise, these sites are FREE to use (at least at the basic levels), although homemade sites do welcome donations!

Remember The Milk — While it helps that Paper Doll adores animated cows, the true test of a system is whether people use it and enjoy it, and according to a recent Lifehacker poll, Remember the Milk gets truly high marks. It seems like nobody can say enough good things about Remember the Milk’s interface and options, but as with all of these resources, only you can determine what will keep you committed to using your system. Just know you can milk (hee!) these features out of RTM:

• Lists are organized by tabs to make them easy to flip through, and reordering by priority is simple.
  
• Create your To Do items the way you prefer — Standard list? Tagged list? Task clouds? All are options here, so if you’d like to look at clouds from both sides now, have at it!
• Add tasks easily–by email, by phone, even by Sandy and Jott!
• Take your tasks with you if you have to be on the go! — Access your task lists on any web-enabled cell or mobile device, print an entire list or a weekly planner with upcoming tasks, view tasks on your web-based calendar with Apple iCal or Google Calendar or even subscribe to feeds with Atom or RSS (so it’s like blogging to an audience of one: YOU).
• Receive reminders however you wish–via email, SMS/text, and instant messenger (including AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo! IM).
• Color code tasks on your list, if you’re guided by visuals, and/or add add notes to tasks if you’re more verbal.

Ta Da List comes from the folks at 37 signals which an awfully good online rep for developing productivity tools (like Basecamp, Backpack and the new Highrise).

• Ta Da list combines listmaking with some common Web 2.0 features of social networking, so you can view other people’s lists to help you get started on your own. So, while you probably need to create your own grocery list, viewing someone else’s list of “Books I Should Read Before I’m 100” would probably benefit your own listmaking.
• Share your lists with family, friends or co-workers to help make sure nobody duplicates any efforts on a shared project. Or share with the world to inspire someone two continents away to spread your goal of trying every soda pop currently in production. Or keep your lists private, like a 7th grade diary entry.
• Lots of white space abounds, so you won’t feel overwhelmed by words and diagrams encroaching on your already overfilled brain.
• Larger-than-typical fonts mean you won’t have squint to read your lists; tasks can already be a headache, and Ta-da doesn’t want to contribute to that.
• Check boxes allow you the visual and visceral satisfaction of checking off a completed task.
• Use your favorite web browser for PCs and Macs…and even the iPhone.

Todoist is almost zen-like in its simplicity, and yet it managed to rank second, just behind Remember The Milk, in reader popularity in that Lifehacker poll. This leads Paper Doll to believe that we may really all desire fewer features, but more of one big benefit–serenity.

• Registration is amazingly simple. I timed myself–it took 14 seconds (using, of course, my browser’s auto-fill option for typing my name and email address).
• A series of keyboard shortcuts (just like you use in Word or Excel or your mail program) means your hands rarely have to leave the keyboard.
• Reminders can come in a variety of forms: Email, Instant Messages (via Jabber or MSN), cell phone text or Twitter.
• The interface is so easy, even a Caveman (uh, oh) technophobe could handle it.
• The calendar lets you set due dates and then view, with a click, what needs to be done when. You can even click to see what you’re overdue for completing, like reading the most recent Paper Doll blog!
• Integration with other systems, including gMail, iGoogle widgets, QuickSilver and a variety of other goodies means that simplicity doesn’t have to be low-tech.

Todoist has one other nifty feature–“screencast” videos with audio to walk you through each step of the process in order to maximize your use of the system. For those of us who like some hand-holding, this is appealing.

Bla Bla List isn’t very fancy, but for some people, the fewer attributes, the better.

• You can watch a video to see how fast and easy registration and list set-up can be.
• BlaBlah’s interface is designed to take up a small footprint on your screen, so you can keep it open while you’re working on other things.
• Set up an RSS feed so you can keep track of updates to your tasks.
• There are secure options to invite someone to access your lists (a family member? a work partner? your nutritionist or life coach?), and you can control all access.

Rough Underbelly‘s Online CEO makes getting things done into a game. If you’re the type who thrives on competition, even playing your own personal version of Beat The Clock when performing daily tasks, this may be an intriguing option for you.

• Daily, repeated To Do items are the focus. Unlike most To Do list web sites which focus on maintaining a wide variety of lists related to shopping, tasks, appointments and project elements, Rough Underbelly’s Online CEO is designed primarily for those who want to concentrate on daily tasks, like publishing blog posts, working out, prospecting clients, and so on.
• Assign point values to the tasks you create, based on the relative value (in your estimation) of completing the tasks.
• Once you check the box to show you’ve completed the task (like checking in after a treasure hunt), the system scores your success and creates neato charts and graphs to reflect your achievements.

Again, this is a more specialized option. If you’re looking for a straightforward web-based To Do system without the competitive aspect, opt for one of the choices.

Web To Do

Simple doesn’t even BEGIN to describe this option, representative of a lot of the homemade To Do list sites out there. After creating a username and password and providing your “real” name and email address, you’re faced with a simple screen a text box and an “ADD” button below each of four task options:

1. To Do Today
2. Near-term Goals
3. Long-term Goals
4. Other Fun Things

One a task is typed it, you can edit it, delete it, or with the click of an arrow, move it to the next category to downgrade its relative urgency or to the previous category to upgrade the urgency.

This is barely one step above using digital (on-screen) Post-It Notes that you can move around your desktop to indicate priority levels, but for those who like the sleek and simple, you can’t get any more streamlined that this option.

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The above items merely touch on some of the more popular or better known online To Do list sites, but just because something is well-blogged-about or in the running for Best “To Do” On Campus doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. Each system has its own backers, so you may also want to check out the following niche options, as well as Brian Benzinger’s stellar (if dated) 25 To Do Lists To Stay Productive post at Solution Watch:

do.Oh is best described as a To Do system crossed with some wacky polling options. It seems perfect for the younger, trendier set to use to poll friends via Twitter and Facebook. In other words, a great option for people with more time than tasks and a yen for the goofy.

Orchestrate was created by just one person and is “in beta”, meaning that it’s still being tested. The funny thing? Between Paper Doll finding the site and creating this post, the secret invitation-only aspect got so secret, nobody can play in this beta sandbox right now. But keep your eyes open!

ToodleDo is a clean hierarchical system of folders for projects or task types, with options for creating sub-tasks, tags (such as for status as tasks near completion) but sadly no task clouds, and myriad collaboration and mobile options.

Voo2Do ties with Remember the Milk for cutest logo! Note the option of seeing the original vs. current estimated completion dates for a tasks; the system also notes elapsed time and time remaining until estimated completion. That voodoo that they do so well reflects that people, and projects, must be flexible.

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And finally, if you’re experiencing To Do list overload, review 52Project.com’s excellent NOT TO DO LIST, especially my favorites:

• Do not put on Prince and party like it’s 1999. (Well, okay, maybe ONCE, just to get you fired up about your project.)

• Do not go into the bathroom and give your Academy Award acceptance speech.

Paper Doll is spending a solitary, soon-to-be-rainy, Sunday perusing a fictionalized travelogue circa 1889–Jerome K. Jerome‘s Three Men In a Boat. I’ve known of the book for years, heard it praised as one of the classics of English humor, and even seen it referenced in a favorite time-travel novel by Connie Willis, To Say Nothing Of The Dog, but only recently managed to pick it up.

I’ve been generally pleased by the pace, and the gentle English humor still holds up today (as slight sarcasm never goes out of style), but imagine my surprise to find a philosophical delight for professional (and amateur) organizers everywhere, amid chapter three:

The first list we made out had to be discarded. It was clear that the
upper reaches of the Thames would not allow of the navigation of a boat
sufficiently large to take the things we had set down as indispensable;
so we tore the list up, and looked at one another!

George said:

“You know we are on a wrong track altogether. We must not think of the
things we could do with, but only of the things that we can’t do
without.”

George comes out really quite sensible at times. You’d be surprised. I
call that downright wisdom, not merely as regards the present case, but
with reference to our trip up the river of life, generally. How many
people, on that voyage, load up the boat till it is ever in danger of
swamping with a store of foolish things which they think essential to the
pleasure and comfort of the trip, but which are really only useless
lumber.

How they pile the poor little craft mast-high with fine clothes and big
houses; with useless servants, and a host of swell friends that do not
care twopence for them, and that they do not care three ha’pence for;
with expensive entertainments that nobody enjoys, with formalities and
fashions, with pretence and ostentation, and with – oh, heaviest, maddest
lumber of all! – the dread of what will my neighbour think, with luxuries
that only cloy, with pleasures that bore, with empty show that, like the
criminal’s iron crown of yore, makes to bleed and swoon the aching head
that wears it!

It is lumber, man – all lumber! Throw it overboard. It makes the boat
so heavy to pull, you nearly faint at the oars. It makes it so
cumbersome and dangerous to manage, you never know a moment’s freedom
from anxiety and care, never gain a moment’s rest for dreamy laziness –
no time to watch the windy shadows skimming lightly o’er the shallows, or
the glittering sunbeams flitting in and out among the ripples, or the
great trees by the margin looking down at their own image, or the woods
all green and golden, or the lilies white and yellow, or the sombre-
waving rushes, or the sedges, or the orchis, or the blue forget-me-nots.

Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with
only what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two
friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat,
a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little
more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.

You will find the boat easier to pull then, and it will not be so liable
to upset, and it will not matter so much if it does upset; good, plain
merchandise will stand water. You will have time to think as well as to
work. Time to drink in life’s sunshine – time to listen to the AEolian
music that the wind of God draws from the human heart-strings around us –
time to –

I beg your pardon, really. I quite forgot.

Well, we left the list to George, and he began it.

It further helps that I am imagining the wonderful Hugh Laurie (with his true English accent and not his also-adorable Gregory House grumble) as the narrator. (What, you think Paper Doll ought to be true in her affections solely to Mr. Clooney?)

Nonetheless, as you enjoy your summer and we approach a holiday week (here in the U.S.), I encourage you to ask yourself — what’s in your boat?

 

How are you doing at getting rid of the floozies (those loose scraps of paper reminders) in your life?

Over the past few weeks, we’ve talked about why just sticking reminders on our desks or fridge doors is counter-productive, and how using digital solutions enables you to let go of things from your active memory while avoiding the paper pile-up.

Last week‘s fun tool was Jott, which lets you call from your cell phone (or any number you’ve registered) and tell a computerized digital assistant what to do: send you a reminder (via email), email notes to friends or colleagues, add items to a work, personal or project list or create a blog post by voice. Instead of jotting something down on a stray piece of paper (creating a floozy), you can make a quick phone call (while mobile) to get the right information to the right people while avoiding killing a single tree.

Jott is a personal assistant you contact with a phone call. This week, we’re going to focus on Sandy, your private Jeeves (or Jeevette), whom you trigger with a quick email.

Sandy, a lifelike Gal Friday at IWantSandy.com, is set up to operate just like a virtual assistant. The twist? She’s a virtual virtual assistant, made up of bits and bytes. Sure, if you have more heavy-duty needs, you’ll want to find a reputable human virtual assistant through the International Virtual Assistants Association, but if you just need a helping hand (or a Helping Hannah) to remind you to stop blogging now and go pick up your kids from school, or to move your car to opposite-side-of-the-street parking, or to start working on your taxes (while avoiding the Floozy Patrol for paper pileups), Sandy may be your girl.

What does Paper Doll like best about Sandy?

• The service is free.
• There’s nothing to install on your computer, PDA, cell phone or whatever gadget Mr. Jobs and Mr. Gates are working on next. (Don’t you hate having to install something before figuring out if you even like it?)
• There’s nothing to learn and no special “language”. Contacting Sandy to get “her” to remind you of things is as easy as sending an email, and certainly you already know how to do that!
• You can contact Sandy via email, texting, Twitter, Jott and an ever-expanding number of options.
• You can skip extra steps — in fact, you can let Sandy “eavesdrop” on an email conversation by CCing her, and “she” can read between the lines to figure out what you want her to do.
• You’re not weighed down with information before you need it. Sandy can be programmed to only tell you what you need to know, when you need to know it. That Post-It Note on its last legs, hanging from the desk lamp to remind you to do something in September sure can’t say that!
• Sandy’s system sets up a special personalized address to help prevent spam. So instead of the address to which you are sending Sandy a request appearing as boringthing@IWantSandy.com, you actually get to personalize it with two elements, before and after the @ sign, so your address format might be @<2ndName>.IWantSandy.com. Thus, you could have an address like ManOfDreams@Clooney.IWantSandy.com to ensure that work reminders are a little more fun.
• It feels like you’re dealing with a real person. Sometimes, the reminders I get from Sandy say “Hi”, but today, I got one that greeted me with “Merhaba, Paper Doll” (that’s Turkish, for “howdy, partner!”) and once I got one that said “Gruzi!”, which I’ll admit was a puzzle. But that’s part of the fun!

Getting started is easy:

Sign up for a free account at IWantSandy.com and provide your preferred email address and password, and then agree to the boilerplate Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which seem to apply strict rules prohibiting doing mean or nasty things, a la Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” policy. Love that!

Sandy will then send you an email to activate your account. Click on the activation link!

Once you’re activated–think of it as having completed Sandy’s W-4, as if she’d been an actual employee–Sandy will email your personalized email address at which you can reach her. It won’t be a fun address, but don’t worry, you’ll be able to log in to your account and change it. Other things you’ll be able to do at this point:

Set up a nickname so Sandy will address you however you wish: Dude, Boss Lady, Mommy, Your Holiness…whatever you prefer.

Set up a secondary address, in case you can’t access your primary address, such as when you’re on vacation or your work account seems to have run away and joined the French Foreign Legion. (And in case you’re wondering, you can even send Sandy messages directly from the website for those times when you’ve got web access but can’t get into any of your 43 email accounts.)

Specify your time zone, as well as your preferred lead time to tell Sandy how far prior to having to take an action you want Sandy to remind you. If you’re the type who forgets things 30 seconds after you’re told, you’ll want a short lead-time so you don’t get distracted; if you prefer having a buffer of 15 minutes so you can wind up whatever work you’re doing, you can schedule that, too.

Allow Sandy to send you SMS/text messages on your cell phone and/or generally tell Sandy where/when/how to reply to you.

You can also decide whether you want Sandy to confirm back to you that she got your message. Remember Mrs. (ha)Wiggins and Mr. Tudball on the old Carol Burnett show? (Trust me, click on that last link to give yourself today’s laugh!) Poor Mr. Tudball would really have appreciated getting some sense that Mrs. (ha)Wiggins heard and understood what he said. I’m sure Murphy Brown would have appreciated the same thing from any of her revolving door of assistants. But maybe you trust Sandy to be your personal Radar O’Reilly and won’t need any confirmations. That’s up to you! And hey, even if you generally would prefer a reminder, but you know you’re going to have a high-email kind of day, you can tag an item with @noreminder to override this setting and have Sandy skip the reminder.

You can twitter a message to Sandy. Are you a twitterer? Sandy can “follow” your tweets, enabling you to twitter her with your public or Sandy-only tweets to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

To can Jott a message to Sandy from your phone. If you’ve got a Jott account, call Jott as usual, and when Jott asks you whom you want to Jott, say “Sandy”, and then proceed as usual.

Is your head spinning? Don’t worry, you don’t have to change or update all the settings at once. All you have to know to start is that once you have your personalized email address at which to send Sandy notes, you can tell her what you want, and she’ll get back to you at the right time. You can tell Sandy to:

• Remember a generic something: “Remember Stupid Airlines frequent flyer number is 6660666”
• Set a specific reminder: “Remind me to take recycling to the curb on Sunday night”
• Repeat a reminder, appointment, or to-doitem by using the @ sign to designate frequency: “Remind me to pay Capital One Visa bill on 7/14 @monthly”
• Add a variety of things like:

Look around your computer. What “To Do” or “honey-do” notes do you see? How many of them have been there longer than two days? And how well are they doing at reminding you of anything? (In other words, did they become wallpaper two minutes after they were put up or laid down?) If you’re not in the market for a living, breathing, taking-a-day-off-because-he-broke-up-with-his-significant-other kind of assistant, consider giving Sandy a try. You don’t even have to buy her a holiday present, give her vacation days or pretend to be interested in pictures of her pet iguana.

Mr. Tudball, Murphy Brown and our friends and the 4077th would be so proud.

 

Last week, we talked about how most of the make-shift systems we use for reminding ourselves to do things just cause a paper pile up. Consider:

• expired coupons and forgot-to-attend invitations on our refrigerator doors
• notes to ourselves piled in sedimentary rock-like layers on all horizontal surfaces
• crumpled notes stuffed in pockets, ruining the lines of our clothing
• curling, fluttering scraps blowing around the floorboards of our cars

Paper has important uses, but as we’ve discussed before, floozies, those loose papers designed to remind us to accomplish something usually become an urban blight on the landscape of our homes, offices and cars. Indeed, cars, where we spend an exceedingly large portion of our time–bemoaning the cost of fuel, pondering the relative vigor of our air conditioning and, unless we’re inveterate texters and Blackberry aficionados, wishing we had a better way to make sure all our To Dos get To Done.

Similarly, when we’re in meetings, traveling, or otherwise in transit, we need a better sub-system, running parallel and tangential to our main tickler and task-list system, to make sure all of our reminders get back to the in-office or in-home version of ourselves.

Let’s face it–stuffing our pockets, purses, and backpacks with phone numbers, notes to ourselves and reminders is inefficient on many levels. Chances are, you’ve got no formal system or ritual for emptying your hidden cache of notes, smoothing them out and triggering action on your part. (At least men and purse-eschewing women generally empty their pockets of loose change each evening, but the notes probably get no further than the dresser-top!) But rarely do the notes stuffed in various locales get from their mobile start to their end location until at least laundry day, by which time the notes have often outlived their utility.

So how do we make sure our reminders meet us back at homebase when we cease being our mobile selves? A few options:

1. Call yourself!–Low cost, low complexity

When you’re on the road, literally or figuratively, your mobile self can leave a message your “future” self will later retrieve. I’ve seen my business clients suddenly realize something they needed to do or buy upon returning home. They reach for a scrap of paper, see me watching them, drop it as if burned and smile, sheepishly: “No floozies! I know!” they groan. “But even if I write it in the notebook as I’m supposed to, I may not open my briefcase until after dinner (if at all)! How do I make sure I remember?”

So, I ask how they expect to remember a crumpled Post-It stuffed in a suit jacket if they believe they won’t even open a briefcase. Ouch. Instead, I suggest they simply pick up the phone, call their home number and leave a message for themselves. Assuming (and yes, it is a potentially flawed assumption) that people are more likely to listen to their phone messages upon returning home than flip through piles of notes, a few “Hi, Self. Don’t forget to call Uncle Joe (he’s movin’ kind of slow) to see how he’s doing.”-styled messages will be heard and acted upon.

Similarly, a relaxing weekend need not be ruined by a search for paper or a computer to get down some ideas for a blog, report or client message. How much easier is it to call the office number, dictate what you want to accomplish, and then return to your joyful weekend, knowing the message will safely await you on Monday morning.

Advantages: It’s quick, inexpensive, and you can use self-styled shorthand words, because you probably know what you mean when you say “Call the guy about the thing at the place!”

Disadvantages: You have to actually play your messages and then act. If you don’t play the messages, you’re no further along than if you don’t declutter your papers. Plus, if you tend to transcribe your phone messages instead of acting upon them immediately, you’ll still have the paper pileup! Finally, it’s not safe (or always legal) to operate a phone while driving.

2. Call a buddy!–Low cost, low complexity, moderate imposition

I have my own personal GPS–he lives in Minnesota. This old college pal is almost always at his desk, mere inches from his computer and phone, and it’s easy to call him to request an emergency Mapquesting or Google-mapping when I find myself hopelessly lost. It’s not much of a jump to voice-dial him and say “Hey, will you email me something that says “account 773152″ before I forget the number?”

If you’re the type of person who won’t listen to a phone message until it’s too late to do anything about it but will check your emails when you get to your desk, this is a better option.

Advantages: You get a quick moment to socialize and a guarantee of a paper-free reminder.

Disadvantages: Use this option too often and your pal may feel put-upon.

3. Jott it down!–Free, moderate complexity, patience learning a new system

Do you Jott? (And do you, like me, remember when we didn’t Twitter, Flickr, or otherwise noun-verb our way through life?) Jott is this so-far amazing little online application that converts your voice into emails, text messages, reminders, task lists and appointment notes.

I’ll admit, I’m a novice at Jotting, but so far, I like what I see. To get started:

• Sign up for a free account, associating your preferred phone (probably your cell) and your email address, provide your time zone and select a password.
• Check your inbox for a verification link. Click on the link to get a four-digit verification code.
• Call Jott from the phone number you’ve designated and provide the verification code.

That’s it! It took me under three minutes. From there, explore the options:

Send email reminders to yourself:

• Call Jott (from your registered number) at 866-JOTT-123 (For those of you who hate “reading” the phone, that’s 866-568-8123.)
• Jott’s friendly voice asks who you want to Jott. You say “me” or “myself”.
• Jott will beep to signal you to record your message to yourself. When you’re done, stop talking. (Duh!)
• Jott will say “Got it!” and then you can hang up.
• Jott will transcribe your message and send it to you via email.

You can also type a little note or reminder to yourself from the Jott inbox (yes, you get message in your regular email and an archive at Jott), but c’mon, if you could send yourself an email, you’d do it directly, right?

Of course, that’s not all. You can also use Jott to:

Jott more specific reminders. Instead of Jotting to “me” or “myself”, you’ll jot to “reminders” and you’ll be prompted to set the exact day, date and time you want your reminder to arrive. So, if you want to remember to call your client to discuss a project, but the client will be away until next week and you don’t want to fill up her mailbox, no problem. Specify it, and Jott won’t remind you until next week, at the requested day and time–so no cluttering up your inbox. Neato!

Jott items for a list of tasks. You can actually set up a series of task lists (list for work, for home, for planning an event, etc.) and Jott will maintain the lists in your account. Then, when you call Jott and are asked “Who do you want to Jott?”, you say the name of the list, and Jott not only sends you the email reminder, but adds the message to the right list.

Jott to someone else–a person, or a team! With this cool option, you state that you wish to Jott to a specific person (whose name you’ve already set up in your account) just as you’d voice-dial from your cell phone. The transcribed message will be emailed to them–so you’re not using up their precious cell minutes–with a linked option to listen to the recorded message online. (Of course, you can have the message texted, too, if you prefer.)

Jott to a link. Yes, bloggers, this is for you! You can set Jott up to transcribe your messages and deliver them (along with a link to the actual audio) to your blog, Yahoo! Groups, your Google calendar, your Twitter page, or any other link you choose.

Advantages: All of the above features and options, plus you won’t feel silly saying you “jotted”, because it doesn’t sound like a silly, made-up web word.

Disadvantages: It’s not entirely plug & play. The verification code didn’t work on my preferred browser (Safari, on a Mac), though copying it into Firefox worked well enough. My Buffalo accent was easily accepted by Jott’s voice recognition software, but a friend with a heavy non-North American accent has trouble being understood.

Being on the go is just no excuse for letting important tasks and reminders fall through the cracks. You still need a master list of tasks–we’ll talk about To Do list options next week–and a solid system for dealing with your paperwork when you do make it back to your desk.  Until then, stay away from floozies, and talk to yourself (or your friend, or Jott) to stay on track.

Paper Doll‘s best friend called the other day, mopey and chagrined. I could year her planting a “Wow-I-Coulda-Had-A-V8!” slap on her forehead:

Of course, as a friend, I offered all possible succor. She had plenty of reasons to have been distracted. Her eldest daughter, just back from a semester abroad, was ill with a stomach bug. The younger one was, as noted, on the way to the doctor. My friend had been up late the prior night helping her elder son with schoolwork. And normally, had she not been doctor-bound, she wouldn’t have even been taking time off from work. (And of course, would the mother of the bride really have wanted my dear friend carting in a germ factory?)

Yes, yes, my otherwise practically-perfect friend agreed, “but I’d forgotten the wedding altogether. I thought it was TODAY (Saturday) not yesterday (Friday).” She’d even arranged with the mother of the bride to bring the kids along, and convinced her sons they’d have fun. All along, she’d been thinking “Saturday”.

Ouch. As loving a friend as I am, the professional organizer side got the better of me. What had she done, I asked, to try take note of, and then later, to remember the wedding date?

“I put the wedding invitation up on the refrigerator door!”

Oy. Well, no wonder. Just as socks mysteriously disappear in the dryer, anything remotely important posted on the front of the fridge becomes instantly invisible, like Wonder Woman’s plane, until the day after it is actually needed. It’s a law of physics. (Trust me. Would Paper Doll lie to you?) Putting something on the fridge to remind you to take care of it is only marginally better than asking your puppy to remind you to put the casserole in the oven. Well intended and charming, but not exactly efficient.

A wedding invitation, like a term paper assignment, or any other “do this” piece of paper doesn’t represent just one task, but a series of tasks. When assigned a term paper, a student must brainstorm a topic, develop a bibliography, conduct research, create an outline, write a rough draft, and edit the paper. Indeed, the early realization of what tasks a piece of paper represents, and therefore comprehending the difference between tasks and projects, is a major key to time/task and paper management.

The problem, whether with fourth graders or so-called adults, is that too many of us put the reminder (assignment, invitation, etc.) somewhere visible in expectation it will tell us what we have to do…as if completing an assignment or attending a wedding (or preparing taxes, or going grocery shopping, or buying a house or planning for retirement) were one step on a To Do list.

Upon receiving the invitation, my pal had (at least) the following series of tasks to complete:

1. Check her availability against her other already scheduled activities (i.e., check a calendar, detect conflicts, hope the calendar was accurate)
2. RSVP to the wedding (i.e., mark the number attending, seal the envelope and actually remember to mail it!)
3. Schedule the wedding on her calendar to prevent conflicts later on
4. Find out at which stores the happy couple registered
5. Purchase the gift and arrange for delivery (by the store, or by herself, in which case she needed to arrange for a safe place to store the gift and enable herself to remember to bring it to the ceremony or reception)
6. Arrange for childcare (in this case, my friend’s children were also invited, but assuredly sick kids would not have been the most welcome, or most obliging, of guests)
7. Select an outfit and ensure that the elements were clean, pressed and ready to wear
8. Plan time to complete all other tasks that would have gotten her to the wedding on time, hygienic and well-clothed
9. Go to the wedding

Can anyone really imagine that posting a paper wedding invitation behind a refrigerator magnet amid the children’s art and T-ball schedule and pizza delivery phone numbers would get all those tasks completed?

Paper Doll is no Superwoman (nor Wonder Woman, though things on my fridge do become invisible, too), even without kids. Plus, people expect near-perfection from professional organizers (just as they think bankers never mis-balance a checkbook and English teachers never say “further” when they should say “farther”). Thus, I need to have a carefully crafted system to make sure the papers in my life actually prompt me to perform the required tasks.

In fact, we ALL have to have a system, and the right system for Paper Doll might not be the right system for you. You’ve all heard me sing the praises of using a tickler file. Heck, this very page has a link to the little e-book I wrote to help people successfully use tickler files to keep things (like remembering to actually go to a wedding on the right day) from falling through the cracks.

But, of course, successfully using a tickler file does require that you are in the vicinity of your tickler file every day, and that you open it, preferably at least once per day. A To Do list demands the same sort of bare minimum effort on the part of the user.

A Post-It Note across the car’s ignition might remind you to get out of the car and go back inside for the cupcakes you’re taking to the bake sale because you’ll perform the task BEFORE putting the key in the ignition. However, the same ritual won’t remind you to fill the gas tank, which you can’t do until after starting the vehicle, because three seconds after you remove the note and insert your key in the ignition, your brain will have moved on to other tasks.

Entropy: 1; You: Nil.

Some people don’t check their voicemail (or even use their phones) or their email (or even turn on their computers) every single day, so electronic reminders won’t work for that subset of the population. They’re often the ones who write notes to themselves, leaving floozies (Post-Its and scribbled backs of envelopes) piled on the desk or taped to the bathroom mirror, or yes, affixed by magnetism to the refrigerator door…which they will then proceed to ignore, like parsley or wallpaper, until just after the notes might have done some good.

You need a system that will jump up and beat you around the head until you are 100% cognizant of what you’re supposed to remember, know and do.

In the coming weeks, we’re going to review tangible systems (like calendars and tickler files), audio options, digital reminders and a other nifty options to minimize the effects of forgetfulness. As for ditching the guilt about forgetting, just call your best friend. She loves you anyway.