Getting your tasks under control

In the past, a pen and paper sufficed for managing your tasks, but using computers and smartphones to handle your to-do list carries many advantages. If you haven’t already looked at hauling your to-do list into the digital age, it’s worth examining.

Tasks can be scheduled more easily in electronic calendars, and then be linked to broader projects. Electronic files can be attached to these tasks, which can be shared online with collaborators, whose contact details can be accessed easily from within the task itself.

Options for digitizing your to-do list range from the simple to the complex. TeuxDeux (www.teuxdeux.com), for example, is a web-based, task-management system that enables you to schedule tasks easily and stylishly on a day-by-day basis, with minimal fuss.

Or you may prefer a task manager that supports a broader task- and time-management method. One of the most popular methods is Getting Things Done (GTD), developed by productivity consultant David Allen. This method takes all tasks – and any other incoming items, such as documents – and puts them into a designated inbox for categorization.

Another method, popularly known as the “Eisenhower matrix,” was developed by the former U.S. president and later popularized by Steven R. Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This matrix uses four quadrants along two axes – “urgency” and “importance” – to help prioritize tasks.

Several tools exist that are based on these methods. For Mac and iPhone users, the Web- and iPhone-based tool eisenhower.me (www.eisenhower.me) replicates the Eisenhower matrix simply and effectively.

More options are available for GTD fans. No single tool has yet earned Allen’s blessing as the “official” GTD software application, although he is now working on one with development firm Intentional Software. Nevertheless, there are some digital tools that replicate Allen’s methodology quite well.

For Mac users, Omnifocus (www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus) has been a perennial favourite. It is a rich, full-feature application – but it comes at a price: US$80 for the Mac version; an additional US$20 for the iPhone and US$40 for the iPad version. That’s a hefty fee for an undeniably functional (if complex) app. And if you’re a Windows or Android user, you’re out of luck.

An alternative is Nozbe (www.nozbe.com), which is tailored for the GTD method. There are versions of the Nozbe app that run on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android devices. There is also a web version of this app, which allows you to gather your tasks online. This product supports the GTD concept of “next actions,” which helps you focus on the ensuing step for any particular project, leaving the others behind.

@page_break@ Cross-platform support will be more important for some financial advisors than for others. You may be content with your existing Windows laptop, forgoing the need for a smartphone or tablet. But if you do opt for a solution that supports a variety of computing platforms, consider an app that synchronizes among them. Nozbe and Omnifocus both feature a sync feature that enables you to input or update a task on one device and have it update on all of your other devices.

If you are content with just your Windows PC, Outlook always has been a viable option. This software offers basic task management, with the ability to assign dates to tasks and to flag them. However, there are add-ons for this system. And it is possible to take your Outlook to-do list with you on your Windows-enabled smartphone.

Outlook also doubles as an email app, and the link between email and task management is important. Increasingly, these days, you will find many of your new tasks arriving via email. Your branch manager may email a requesting for key metrics on your revenue. Your spouse may email you to ask you to pick up something on the way home. However, re-entering emails such as these into a task-management system would be time-consuming. So, there are other options.

Todoist (www.todoist.com) enables you to designate an email as a task with a single click. This is something that users of Google’s Gmail have been able to do with a single keystroke for a while. Some other operating systems permit you to forward tasks as emails to a specific address set up for you.

Asana (www.asana.com), a web-based task manager available in an iPhone version, allows you to send emails to a standard email address. It will see that you sent them, then drop them into a default workspace, with the email subject line as the task title and the email body text as the notes.

What else should you look for in a task-management product?

File uploads are a useful addition to any task manager. In many cases, you will have a specific file associated to a task (such as a report that you need to complete). Task managers such as Toodledo (www.toodledo.com), a web-based system available in versions for the BlackBerry, Android, iPhone and iPad, enables you to upload files to the web and associate them with tasks. These files then can be accessed using different devices.

Integration with third-party services can make it easier to manage files and tasks together. For example, Nozbe features integration with cloud-based services such as Evernote and Dropbox, each of which can be used to store notes, photographs, audio recordings and other files online.

So, there are many task managers, many of which offer the same broad features. Much of your success will come down not to which one you choose, but to how you use it.

Many people grab task managers and stuff them full of tasks broken down into minute subcategories, never to look at them again. But, as with budgeting, there is one crucial step in task management: review your to-do list on a regular basis.

Daily and weekly reviews will help you ensure that your list of tasks is current, and that your working day is on track.

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