How Next Action Cards_TM Will Improve Your Task
Management and Keep You Organized

There are numerous ways that people implement task management. The following addresses some principal methods, and how Next Action Cards_TM improve those methods.

Carry Everything In My Head Method

Under this method, you keep track of your projects and your to-do's in your head.

By transferring your items to Next Action Cards_TM,

• It will be much harder to forget or overlook important items
• You can also organize your items in numerous ways, which is pretty hard to do when you are doing everything in your head.

Paper Lists

Under this method, you prepare lists of your various "to-do" items on pads, in notebooks, or (heaven forbid) on various scraps of paper and post-it notes.

By transferring your items to Next Action Cards_TM,

• you will always have your lists with you, ready to be added to, organized, or consulted
• no need to rewrite your lists as items are completed to get rid of all the deleted items
• you can easily reorder your lists by project, subproject, priority, context, date, delegated to, etc. - to do this with lists you would need to rewrite the list
• you will avoid the problem of multiplying lists - starting new lists when your main list is not available to be written on, and then having multiplying lists
• you will be able to capture tasks in the system immediately as they randomly occur to you during the day, instead of being potentially being lost in your memory when you are back with your list and ready to record items

Index Cards

Under this method, you keep track of tasks on index cards.

By transferring your items to Next Action Cards_TM,

• you will have a much less bulky system - one less likely to leave at home or the office and thus not have with you when you really need it
• have a preprinted template that facilitates organizing your cards

Computer Systems, PDA's and Software

Under this method, you use your computer to track your tasks. This may involve using a spreadsheet, lists in a word processing program, outlining programs, PIM (Personal Information Manager) software such as Outlook, or specific Getting Things Done software such as ResultsManager or add-ins to Outlook.

The great thing about Next Action Cards_TM is that you can use them either to replace these methods, or merely supplement them and make them work better. As many of us gadget freaks and early adopters are learning, sometimes low-tech works better than high-tech!

By supplementing your organization system with Next Action Cards_TM (that is, by keeping your main system on your computer or PDA, but carrying around some Next Action Cards_TM to quickly and easily capture tasks and projects as they occur while you are away from your computer or other storage device (or even at your computer but engrossed in something else),

• you can immediately write down the task or project as it occurs to you, where you may be - BEFORE YOU FORGET IT!
• with a small pen and a few cards, this is a much more portable, and more immediately accessible, capture the task method than other commonly used capture devices, such as notebooks, notepads, PDA's, index cards, and voice recorders - the big problem in capturing items is inertia and procrastination - should I record this thought now or just do it later - the difference between pulling out a small pack of cards and immediately jotting down your thought and opening a notebook, starting a PDA program, etc. ismore-often-than-not the difference between actually doing it and not doing it
• the cards also serve as a quick and easy way to record other non-task oriented information that you need to jot down and later do something with
• the preprinted template lets you quickly do pre-categorization of the task
• when you are back at your computer, you can then easily integrate your cards into your other system.

By replacing your high tech system with the low-tech Next Action Cards_TM system,

• you will find it much easier and faster to conduct weekly reviews and organize your tasks
• you will have instant and ready access to your projects and tasks, even when you are away from your desk, computer, or other storage device
• much cheaper to implement
• no problems with computer crashes or file corruption
• you can instantly insert new items, instead of waiting until later, with the risks of forgetting items in the meanwhile
• no need to carry around a laptop computer or PDA