Do you ever “sleep nervous,” awakening in the middle of the night with important things you forgot to do, or need to be sure and remember to do the next day? Do you ever come to the end of the week feeling like you’ve worked hard, but haven’t really accomplished much? If you do, here’s a technique I use, that might be helpful to you.

Every Sunday night I sit down with a legal pad and spend a few minutes thinking about what I must accomplish in the next week for it to be successful. Once I’ve identified the week’s achievements, I figure out which one’s are the most important for Monday and write them under the MONDAY heading. Those are the things I do on Monday. The whole process takes less than 30 minutes.

On Tuesday I’ll take the next most important things and put them under the TUESDAY heading.

I think you see where this is headed.

I always work from the same pads. Some items flow from day to day, or week to week. But that’s OK. Something that got bumped last week because of an unavoidable delay, can get picked back up in the week to come. So these lists become a diary of accomplishments—-completed and remaining to be completed. They help to focus my week, and my day. By writing them down on Sunday night I sleep well because my mind can “let them go” knowing the items are “captured” and I’ll deal with them in the daylight.

Recently I’ve taken to emailing my key team members each morning with the day of the week and the word “priorities” in the subject line. On Monday they’ll get “Monday’s Priorities” and a quick note of what I am working on, what I am concerned about, what I need help with, etc. It helps them to stay on task with me, and helps all of us to be “pulling together in the same direction.”

These tools aren’t magic. They are just tools that increase my effectiveness. I used them daily. If they help you, great!

What kinds of tools do you use to be more effective? Would you be willing to share those with me?