Organize Tomorrow Today by Dr. Jason Selk and Tom Bartow

I have read many books, but I don’t think I have ever actually had a book that has made a dramatic impact on my life. That changed with this book.

To be completely honest, I have struggled to balance things in my life for as long as I could remember. In high school I was apart of a lot of extracurricular activities, that morphed into working a lot in college and as an adult I have a lot of projects and hobbies I’d like to explore. I just never seemed to have enough time.  The stuff I actually needed to get done would pile up, I would make these giant to do lists (I love lists!) and then cram it all in right before I needed to have it done, always losing sleep to finish it.  Anything from cleaning the apartment before people came over, to finishing projects, to buying and wrapping gifts, to packing for a trip.  I actually finished packing for our honeymoon on our wedding night.

I had a serious problem. I always knew what needed to get done, but when it came to the execution I could never figure out a great way to make that happen. Then one day while working at my local bookstore, I stumbled across this book called Organize Tomorrow Today by Dr. Jason Selk and Tom Bartow.  I thought that perhaps that’s what I need to do. Maybe I should read this book. I proceeded to let months and months pass, without picking up the book. I mean, the book went from hardcover to paperback before I picked it up. Eventually, I had enough of the way things were going and I picked up the book.

The book has eight tools to help you be more efficient and productive but right from the introduction, it tells you to only focus on one or two to start. Perfect for me since I was already struggling to try to get everything done. They tell you to only focus on one or two because studies have show that your brain can only focus on a few things at a time. At most seven simple things, but once you start trying to focus on multidimensional tasks, any more than three and the success rate goes down.  This is why the authors only want you to focus on one or two of the tools at a time.  It’s also why those giant to do lists of mine never work.  It’s too much to try to focus on, I would get overwhelmed and end up with nothing done.

The tool that I want to tell you about is Organize Tomorrow Today. Each afternoon you make your to-do list for tomorrow, by picking the three most important things and writing them down. Only. Three. Items. I know, I freaked out, “What about everything else I need to do?!” Don’t worry, you can still have a giant master to do list, but each day you are only going to focus on the three most important things that need to be done that day.  Then after you write the three, you pick one that is the must get done and mark it as “must”. This list should only take about five minutes to make, but by making a list like this, it gives you a clear focus for the next day. If you happened to get shorten on time, you will also know to focus on the must do.

There is a quote in the book that makes a lot of sense: “Highly successful people never get it all done in any one given day – but they always get the most important things done each day.”*  The goal is to be highly successful, for me this is in my personal life, but you can morph this tool to work for you in any area of your life.

When I’m using this tool, I actually accomplish more in a week than I would without it.  I start of my day knowing right away what I need to do and I get to it right away.  I get at least three items done a day and by the end of the week I have at least 15 items done off my list. Way more than I accomplished before this tool. If I have more time, I go to the master list and see what else I can do. Before I knew about this, I would have no focus. I would wake up, binge netflix for a few hours and then race the last few hours of the afternoon trying to get the stuff done that I needed to do. Worst of all, I felt terrible about myself all the while.

I also love that I can make the choice about what should be the most important that day.  My mom loves to quote me at saying, “I work best under pressure!” This is completely true, because when I have a deadline I work really hard, usually with very little sleep to get the project done because I waited until the last minute. I actually hate that trait about me. I like sleep! I want sleep! I’m hoping that as I have projects in my life, I can prioritize the steps of the projects earlier into my Organize Tomorrow Today list rather than waiting until the day before to cram the whole project in.

I know this all might sound pretty obvious, but I really think just clearing my mind to just focus on three tasks, made all the difference. There has been many times in my life that I felt overwhelmed with everything I need and wanted to do. It was like I was trying to hold on to this rope, no matter how hard I tried to hold it, it keeps slipping out of my hand and once I completely lost it, everything would come crashing down around me. I have been using the Organize Tomorrow Today tool for a few weeks and I feel like I have a sure grip on that rope. The best thing about the book is that it has empowered me, to take control over the projects, tasks and hobbies I want to do in my life.  If you have giant to-do lists and are at a loss on how to get everything done, I’d highly recommend this book.

 

*Selk, J., & Bartow, T. (2015). Organize Tomorrow Today (p. 6). Boston, MA: Da Capo Press.