Tip of the Month - SEPTEMBER 2005

Start Today, Continue Tomorrow, Integrate Yesterday

When you have a task that is so overwhelming that you don't even know where to start (e.g., processing mail, posting data or receipts, dealing with email or voicemail, to do lists, etc.) don't worry about the past - just focus on today, every day. If you start the day with yesterday's task you will always be behind. Yesterday's tasks are already late, so make sure that today's aren't. Once you're consistent with dealing with the information daily then you can go back and start dealing with the past.

First Example: I had a client who hadn't yet posted any of her business receipts for the year even though it was already August. I advised her to “Start Today” with today's receipts, then going forward to post each day’s receipts every day. Once she was completing that task daily as part of her routine, she could start “Integrating Yesterday” by posting the past receipts. By February she was current with her data entry and had posted all of the receipts from the prior year. If she had started in August with the January receipts she would have become frustrated, continued to fall behind, and wouldn't have completed the task.

Second Example: A client returned from a business trip to find over 45 new email messages and 7 new voicemail messages on top of the more than 300 that he hadn't had time to review let alone respond to before he left. Needless to say he was completely overwhelmed. At my suggestion he began by dealing with that day’s emails and voicemails (which took all day). By doing this he was actually able to delete many of old items since the newer ones were from people following up on the old messages. Most of the items on his To Do List became obsolete or unimportant enabling him to start making fresh and current lists that he completed every day.

Comments

[Deborah Robson]

Jessica, with your ongoing support I continue to "start today and continue tomorrow," but integrating
yesterday seems to get overlooked all the time. . . . Oh, well. This is much better than managing to integrate yesterday and never getting to today! All those papers in the "make files for" box (the "yesterday" stuff) can be found if I need them. It's *today* I have to stay on top of!