Tips to Help You Remember to Get Things Done

Tips to Help You Remember and Stay Organized

Staying organized is a critical aspect of our lives. One of the challenges many encountered is how to remember the tasks we have set ourselves to accomplish today. All effective planning system must have a reminder system. If you don’t develop a system of reminders you won’t accomplish your goals and the results are frustration, lower self-esteem, and the problems continue to pile up and getting bigger.

Here I share with you 10 simple steps to help you remember your tasks:

1. Belive in Yourself. This is the most important of all of the steps. If you keep saying you have a bad memory, you will probably continue to have a bad memory. It is important to have a motivated, I CAN remember attitude.
2. Write down your tasks. Due to the overflow of information we have in todays society it becomes difficult to keep it all in your memory bank. Write down appointments, ideas, tasks. Todays technology allow us to accomplish this task in our handheld organizers. If you do not have one, carry a notepad where you can write down the ideas until they can be transferred to your daily planner of choice.
3. Keep one place to collect your information. Once you have developed the knack of writing everything down, your next step will be to keep your writing all in one place. You will remember better this way. Otherwise, you are going to spend valuable time searching for your notes. The use of daily planners (digital or paper) helps you keep your information in one place and accessible when you need it.
4. Exercise. A keen memory is a well-nourished mind. Eat healthy; get plenty of rest and lots of good exercise. A slugish mind is bound to fail. These will all see you through to having a good memory, staying focused and being alert.
5. Record your every thought. You might find yourself driving when a good idea about organizing comes to you or you might recall something that you really need to write down. No need to pull over and start writing, record instead! Pull off to the side of the road and use a small hand held tape recorder. This is a wonderful tool to carry around with you, to record your thoughts, or your parking space number, or even a memorable telephone number you see on a billboard as you drive by. Use your handy recorder to be your second eyes and ears. Todays recorders are non-invasive and easy to carry.
6. Call ahead. When you are at the office and you want to do something when you arrive back home, call ahead to your answering machine and leave yourself a message. As soon as you get home you can listen to your message and remember exactly what you wanted to do.
7. Handy email reminders. There are many good and free e-mail reminder services available. You can type in what you want to remember, such as a welcome party, anniversary or special event, and you will receive an e-mail reminder when the date is approaching. This is a terrific way to jog your memory by Internet.
8. Use sticky notes. Those wonderful, little sticky notes are the next best thing to sliced bread! They are amazing as memory helpers. Want to remember something prior to leaving your home? Just mark it down on a Post-It Note and stick it to the inside of your door. The bright, neon colors will be great to catch your eye as you are leaving. You will not likely miss it! Need to make an urgent call first thing in the morning? Leave a Post-It Note on your telephone.
9. Use timers and alarms. Take advantage of alarm clocks and timers throughout your day. Have to take the clothes out of the dryer by 12 noon? Set your alarm clock to remind you. Want to leave for the ladies luncheon by 7 p.m.? Set your timer to beep a few minutes before it is time to start to get ready. This is simple to do with our phones.
10. Visual memory joggers. Visual reminders will help you remember and stay focused. Use visual reminders for remembering your goals. If your goal is to take a trip to a Ireland in a few years, keep a magazine photograph of Ireland right on your desk. If your goal is to lose 30 lbs. in six months, find a picture or ornament that will help remind you of this goal each day.

With the use of hand-held, computers, daily planner and alarms you can get things sorted and organized in a more efficient and faster way. Disasters like forgetting a wedding anniversary, buying birthday gifts, appointments to meet with the guy that is going to make you money, etc might not happen again.