Create a reminder system – and never forget again!

Worrying and panicking can be such a terrible hindrance. Much of this worry and anxiety occurs when you don’t have a reliable workflow system in place and/or you have other thoughts weighing on your mind. To prevent these emotions from clogging your brain, plan out your projects and tasks, and create a reminder system.

Create a checklist for each regular project or task you complete.

Creating a checklist for each regular project or task you complete will help you keep your workflow in check. The checklist should contain all steps – no matter how insignificant you think they are – so that even if you get amnesia, this list will allow you to complete every piece that must get done. So-called no-brainer items like “sign it” and “date it” – all steps – should be captured on these checklists and scheduled onto your calendar.

Create a reminder system.

Technically, this would be your fifth back up if you:

have a checklist you’ve created for each project or task.

schedule work time for tasks and projects on your calendar.

ask colleagues for an extra set of eyes on tougher projects.

organize your upcoming tasks during planning time at the end of the day.

That’s four different ways to prevent things from falling through the cracks and four ways to catch the very few that might. The fifth way is to create a reminder system through a reminder app or reminder software. What reminder systems are out there?

Calendar – If you use a digital calendar, it most likely also has a reminder system.

App – Examples of task list systems within reminder apps are Remember the Milk, Evernote and ToodleDo.

CRM – Your Contact Relationship Management software may include a task management or reminder system. You can literally “tie” these reminders to your digital project files and documents. Multiple people working on a project would be able to see who has done what and when, as well as what’s up next.

Assistant – Before computers, secretaries would remind their bosses of everything they needed to do. If you have an admin assistant, you can make this a part of his/her job if it makes sense.

Digital reminder systems allow you to create a reminder email or text alerts to (guess what?) remind you to do something. I’d like to caution you to create a reminder for before something is due or before you’re supposed to be at a meeting, and not when something is actually due. Also, if you’re going to remind yourself to do something, you need to have time to do it, so schedule this on your calendar as well. Otherwise, when your reminder pops up, you’ll just keep clicking on “dismiss”!