How do you remember your scheduled events? Do you run through your daily schedule once every few minutes to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything? Or do you tie a string around your finger and hope you don’t forget what it’s for? In this video I share some memory joggers that you can use to make sure you remember where you need to be and when. Following this advice will make your days less stressful and more productive. And the best part is that nothing in this video will cut off the circulation to your fingers.
(Click here to watch on YouTube if you can’t see the embedded player. Or watch the video at http://bit.ly/TCDTime3.)
Transcript:
Hi. I’m Lorie Marrero, and today’s Clutter Video Tip is Part 3 in our five-part series on time management. First we talked about capturing information, then we talked about committing to which information we’re going to move forward with and take action on. And now we’re going to talk about cuing yourself to take action when you need to at the right time.
So you’ve committed to something and you need a reminder of when to actually do it. I have a few ideas for you and a few guidelines on how to set up good cues. Now, a cue can take a lot of different forms. So for me I use Outlook and a reminder actually will pop up, and I’ve set it for 30 minutes usually prior to appointments that pops up on my computer screen, also on my phone. And I also think that it’s equally valid to use sticky-notes for a cue if that works for you, and if you could consistently use them and notice them. But whatever it is that helps you remember, even if it’s lipstick on the bathroom mirror, whatever that is, we have these guidelines to help you make sure that it’s going to be a very good reminder for you.
First, it needs to take the burden completely off your memory. The whole point in having these capturing and commitment tools is that you don’t have to carry all that information around in your head anymore and you can allocate that energy to something else more important. Secondly, it needs to be placed in an unavoidable path. Someplace that you absolutely will see it. That’s why your phone is such a great reminder, because most people have their phones with them at all times. Not only does it need to be in an unavoidable path, but it also needs to be absolutely noticeable. Ideally, there needs to be some kind of novelty about this reminder. So it may be a particular color of post-it note that’s different than the other post-it notes, or it could be an interruption. It could be a sound, it could be actually the placement of the reminder itself. So, for example with the bathroom mirror, if you put a sticky-note on your bathroom mirror, the placement of that is going to be completely unavoidable in your path when you brush your teeth that morning, and that could be a great reminder that you use. Even if you do use Outlook and a phone, you may need to have other types of cues in your systems.
Another guideline for a good cue is that it needs to be there at the right time. So it doesn’t do you any good if you get a reminder too late or too early. You’ve got to make sure those cues show up when they’re supposed to.
And a final bonus for a good cue is if it can be humorous or surprising, that’s another really good way to be noticed. So I have a funny story about that. The boys were leaving the garage in the summer and they were taking their bikes out and they were not shutting the garage door. And I thought, “Okay, I’m going to take a colorful sticky-note and I’m going to put it on the back door and it’s going to say, ‘Shut the garage door.’” And that worked for a day, but what happened is, they would go in the garage and then it wasn’t there at the right time. They left with the bikes and they still forgot to shut the actual garage door. So I took some sidewalk chalk and I wrote right on the driveway, “Shut the garage door” in large letters so they could not avoid it. And it was humorous and surprising and it worked. So you don’t always have to be that creative, but keep in mind that the novelty often is a factor with a good reminder.
What are your best reminder systems? Make sure that the commitment tools that you choose for your calendar and your task list have some reminders built in ideally. And if you need help with any of this, we actually have a reminder system in our Member Area, where you can sign up for e-mail reminders that you customize yourself if you want to remember regular things, like household maintenance, for example, changing your air filters or giving the dog the heartworm medication once a month. Those can be set by you in our Member Area to show up at the right time on regular intervals so that you can take the burden off your memory. You can find out more about this at https://www.clutterdiet.com/learnmore.
See you next time, and may you always be happy and grateful for having more than enough.
For the rest of this series on Time Management, please follow these links:
Part1- Capture
Part 2- Commit
Part 4- Complete
Part 5- Correct
You may have been searching for effective time management or how to set reminders that work.
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