Manage your schedule so it doesn't manage you

At the end of 2010 I started feverishly typing to-do lists and New Year’s resolutions in OneNote. All of that planning got me thinking. How does everyone else do it? I mean, do I have OCD or is this a normal thing?

So, I started researching. And that’s how I found the Dartmouth Academic Skills Center Guide to Managing Your Time for college students. In it, they have a planning quiz that was written for USA WEEKEND by time management expert Hyrum Smith, chairman of  FranklinCovey.

Here are their 5 steps to successful time management:

1. Set specific academic and personal goals.
2. Create a term calendar, recording major events.
3. Create a weekly schedule of your classes, labs, drill, meetings, etc.
4. Decide on specific times to work on each course.
5. Make a to-do list for each day the night before or during breakfast.

Check out #5. It looks like I’m doing something right after all. And if you need help with #2, check out Be better prepared: Create a winter quarter exam calendar.

I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly writing to-do lists to help me stay organized. I used to scratch out hundreds of lists on sticky notes and then shove them into my pockets. I quit that habit a few years ago when I started using OneNote. It’s my weapon of choice when dueling with the mighty time management dragon. Not only because it’s easy to create to-do lists in OneNote, but also because I can easily find them. Now I don’t worry about misplacing those scraps of paper…or washing them in my jeans pocket. 

So, this is how I manage my schedule with OneNote:

• To start, I created a new notebook for keeping all my personal notes and to-do lists. I named my notebook “Personal”. To do this on the OneNote ribbon:

Click File, and then New. Choose a storage location, give the notebook a name, and then click Create Notebook.

• Next, I created a section for my to-do lists and named it “To Do Lists”. To do this:

Right-click the New Section 1 tab and click Rename.

• When I create a to-do list, I usually add it as a new page to this section and then title the page with tomorrow’s date (much like I would in a paper notebook). Then I write down everything I need to get done on that day. To do this:

In the dotted header on the top of the page, type a title. The default page title is Untitled page.

• Finally, I start typing out what needs to get done.

I use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+1 (by holding down the Ctrl key and then pressing the 1 key) to insert a to-do tag. Then I type my task.

There’s nothing like finishing a nagging to do item. When I’m done with a task I eagerly click the check box to mark it done. I have to admit, it feels pretty great to see all of those completed tasks at the end of the week.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m a huge OneNote fan. But obviously everyone manages their to-do lists differently. How do you stay organized? Leave me a comment to get this conversation started.

If you’ve never used OneNote before, download the free Office 2010 trial and see how it works for you. Or, sign in to Windows Live with a Windows Live ID and use the free OneNote Web App.  For more great information about OneNote, check out the Microsoft OneNote blog.

--Jennifer Bost