This is Steva Robbins.

Welcome to the Get It Done Guys, quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

When helping my clients change career or start companies or advancing their jobs,

I uncover the actions they need to take in order to really live their life's full potential.

Then they eagerly jot down those actions on a nearby piece of paper,

and never do them because they don't remember which piece of paper they jotted them down on.

So one thing we often end up doing is getting them settled on an effective way to capture and

manage their to-does. As you know for my episode, using one master system to organize your file,

as you know for my episode using one master system to organize your file. As you know from my episode, using one master

system to organize your life, I'm in favor of using, well, a single master task list. Otherwise,

you end up with a gazillion sticky notes and torn napkins covered with scribbles and even notes

written in ballpoint pen on your forearm. I'm kidding. You're a grown-up. Don't do that.

You end up missing important tasks or working

on the wrong ones. Keeping your tasks together lets you view them and choose your next action in the

context of everything you need to do. I prefer paper for my task lists. Electronic ones don't work for me.

They get longer than a screen and I never scroll down. And psychologically, I know the list is safely in the cloud being watched over by the

benevolent caring eyes of the National Security Agency, so I put it out of my brain forever,

which is exactly the opposite of what a task list is for. A paper list lets you scan the items more

quickly, and when you fill up your current page or your notebook, you have to copy the tasks to a new list.

Copying forces you to review every item and decide whether it is or isn't worth the effort to copy.

Paper lists are harder to manage, though.

My client yesterday noticed that the current task lists include,

...