Taming the to-dos

I don't know about you, but I think September's gone by in a flash! Fall is such a busy time of year. School starts, the workforce collectively awakes from its summer slumber, and suddenly lots of things need to happen simultaneously. Organization is a must!

I'm a huge fan of the to-do list.

Call me old-fashioned, but there is something incredibly gratifying about making a little box, writing a task next to it, and crossing it off upon completion. Here is my work to-do list for this week:




Why I cross out the whole line instead of just putting a check in each box, I'll never know...

 I digress. If handwritten is not your style, I'll offer some alternatives at the end of this post.

Now, some productivity gurus suggest organizing your list into subsections (e.g., Work/Home/School; Project A/Project B; Calls to make/Emails to send/Letters to write; and so forth). I disagree--that's too much work and your list will quickly become a mess!

Instead, I keep a running to-do list for work at the office, and make a home to-do list only as needed, usually on the weekends when I have lots of errands to run and personal projects to complete. Thus, the lists don't get organized by type of task, but rather the task will fall onto one of two lists: the one at work or the one at home.

The key is really to use the list actively, crossing items off upon completion and adding new tasks as they arise. In fact, the golden rule is to honor the to-do list or it's worthless.

Prefer a 21st century method of to-dos? Here are some options and my personal thoughts on them:

1. The Tasks module in Microsoft Outlook
To be fair, I didn't use it long enough to discover all of Tasks' functionality, but for some reason I felt it was more work to enter a task into Outlook than it was to just write it down. The deadline feature is great, but to me, it all felt like enough of an extra effort that I couldn't keep it up.

An alternative in Outlook: Add urgent to-dos to your Calendar so that you will get pop-up reminders about it throughout the day. Going back to the Golden Rule, though, you have to make sure to honor and complete whatever tasks you put into your calendar! "Dismissing" the task will be detrimental as once the next business day starts, you run the risk of forgetting all about the task.

2. Remember the Milk
This service played a critical role in my wedding planning. My husband and I would add tasks on an almost-daily basis, setting deadlines, assigning each task to a specific person (read: him or me), and tagging each task so that we could view our to-dos by category (e.g., reception, ceremony, photography, entertainment, attire, etc.). We could both access it from anywhere. The best part: it's free! The iPhone app does cost money, though.

3. Jott
To describe this simply, Jott transcribes to-dos for you on the go. This free service assigns you a phone number. You call it. It asks you what you want to jott. You tell it, and tell it where to send your jott. It will transcribe your words into an email, text, add it to your electronic list (such as Outlook or Remember the Milk), and more. A couple of years ago, I used this for a few months and found that the transcription was generally quite accurate. Ultimately, though, because I was only using it to jott reminders to myself, I found it more efficient in the end to call my work voicemail and leave myself a message with the reminders. A quick glance at their website today, however, reveals greatly expanded functionality--including jotting your Twitter updates, having your RSS feeds/news read to you and apparently much more!

Finally, if you want to read up on to-do lists and productivity, I highly recommend David Allen's Getting Things Done.  And he's built an organizational fiefdom here if you end up wanting more GTD!

How do you track your to-dos?

Simplified writing, patriotic style

Given that it is the weekend of 9/11, I hope you don’t mind my saying that I have the greatest affection for symbols of American patriotism: our National Anthem, the bald eagle, the Statue of Liberty, military songs and marches, the monuments and memorials in Washington DC, Ground Zero, the 4^th of July, apple pie, and baseball, to name just a few.

Today, I had the deep honor of singing the National Anthem (or one verse of it, anyway) at a wonderful fundraising event in Boston.  It was moving to look out on the crowd of hundreds of cancer survivors, supporters, and uniformed officers saluting the flag and singing along to this important American song.

As I rehearsed the song at home last week, I began to think about why many singers--including me--find it so tough to perform.  I came up with the following reasons:

• There are few natural places to take a breath because each lyrical phrase (or sentence) is so long. As a result, most singers breathe in between “can you see” and “by the dawn’s,” and again between “star-spangled” and “banner,” which you wouldn’t do if you were speaking the phrases.
• The tune starts off quite low and ends quite high; you need to be aware of the vocal range required to sing the National Anthem and prepare accordingly. It’s never good if someone starts singing the song really high…that means they’ll need to end on a super high note! 
• Although beautiful and rife with moving imagery, the words are more poetry than song lyrics. (In fact, the lyrics come from a beautiful poem written by Francis Scott Key.) It takes a solid reading or two of the lyrics to really absorb each word's literal meaning.

 So, what in the world does all of this have to do with simplifying your writing?

I would like to use the treasured National Anthem as an example of how to simplify your writing. Of course, you will see that my “translation” has none of the original’s impact or imagery. Certainly, I’m not saying that the lyrics of this song need to be changed; rather, I encourage you to think about when it’s best to simplify your writing versus when it’s best to provide more descriptive language in order to inspire and engage your reader.

Original song	Simplifed version
Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?	Does the morning sun show what we hailed so proudly during the night?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?	The item whose broad stripes and bright stars were seen streaming gallantly over the defense walls?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.	The light from the rockets and bombs proved throughout the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?	Does that star-spangled flag still wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Perhaps the simplified version helps the modern reader to ellicit a quicker understanding of the song, but it clearly lacks the panache and timelessness of the original version.


Is there something you've written recently--a report for work, an essay for school, a blog post--that you'd like to revise to make it more word-efficient OR more elegant in its style? If so, I'd love to see a before and after!

In conclusion, there is certainly a line between elegance and efficiency--though that's not to say you can't achieve both. Here's a parting example:

I don't think my Senior Vice President would want to read a briefing from me that read, "Mr. White's supreme devotion to our institution is worthy of your undying praise and time at next week's luncheon," but instead she'd probably want to see, "You will meet Mr. White for lunch next week to thank him for his involvement with our organization."  An attempted marriage of efficiency and eloquence might be: "Your goal in meeting Mr. White for lunch next week will be to express your deep appreciation for all he has done in support of our institution."

Eliminate word waste: Tip #1

Oddly, I get great satisfaction from slashing words. My previous job required writing that fit into very specific, small word counts. That experience changed my writing style completely. I consider concise writing part of my overall quest to simplify.

Concise writing aims to eliminate "word waste." One way to do this:

Scan your writing for prepositions / common prepositional phrases and replace with a shorter description if possible:

• In the fullness of time --> Someday
• Under the management of --> Managed by
• Due to the fact that --> Because
• In an attempt to --> To
• As a result --> Thus
• Over the moon --> Excited
• In a rut --> Bored

See if you can identify the wordy prepositional phrases in the following paragraph. How would you simplify? (Don't peek at the answers below!)

Jane wrote me in regards to the lease. She is over the moon about the fact that the rent is so low. In due time, the rate will increase beyond the limits of her rent budget, but at the present time, due to the fact that the rent is within her price range, Jane is happy.

Did you try shortening that?




Jane wrote me in regards to about the lease. She is over the moon about the fact excited about that the low rent is so low. In due time, Eventually, the rate will exceed increase beyond the limits of her rent budget, but for now at the present time, due to the fact that because the rent is affordable within her price range, Jane is happy.

As you write emails, documents and perhaps even your own blog posts, watch for those prepositions and see if they're attached to disposable phrases.

The next post in my periodic "Eliminate word waste" series will discuss passive voice.

Let's get started.

Hello, there! I’m thrilled that you’ve discovered Simplified by Sarah.

I’m not a professional organizer. I’m a busy 30-something married woman with a full-time career and varied interests that keep me on the go. I’m buoyed by quick lists, multitasking, easy organizing methods and decluttering. I make it easy to keep everything in its proper place without being too proper about it!

If you’ve got a lot going on at home, work, or school—or all of the above—welcome. You’ll get practical, simple tips on keeping it all together.

What will we organize?

• Rooms (home, office, dorm)
• Specific spaces (desk, cabinet, closet, drawer)
• Stuff (decluttering, grouping)
• Ideas (outlines, brainstorming)
• Words (helpful lists, effective note-taking, concise writing)
• and much more.