6 Methods to capture your commitments

I am often asked for the best piece of time management that I can offer. The answer is quite simple – capture your commitments. Most time management courses spend their time teaching you how to prioritise and how to get more done. These are useful things to learn but only if you already have a system in place to capture your commitments. Prioritisation is all about effective decision making i.e. choosing the right task to give your attention to. If you wish to make the right decision, you need to know all of the tasks you have committed to when you are making that decision. Unfortunately, people tend to assume that their brain is a great system for organising their schedule. They agree to complete a task and expect that they are somehow going to remember that task at the precise moment that they are due to complete it. The human brain does not work that way. You are likely to remember the task at some point but it is unlikely to be at the point when you are in a position to complete it effectively. To ensure that you are in a position to make the best possible decision, at the appropriate moment, you need to have a system for capturing your commitments. Once you capture your commitments, you can then process them and decide on what, if any, action you need to take.

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6 Methods to capture your commitments

The following methods will ensure that you capture your commitments before you have a chance to forget them.

1. In-tray

Always have an in-tray on your desk or in your work area. When something new arrives, or when you return from somewhere else, take every piece of paper you have acquired and put it in here. This may include notes, business cards, receipts, letters, documents etc. You can then process everything to determine the appropriate action to take. Related article: 5 Core organisational skills you must possess

2. Notebook

If possible, always carry a notebook and pen with you. Any commitments which you make can immediately be captured in the notebook. When you return to your work area, you can tear out the page(s) containing the commitments and place them in your in-tray for processing. Related article: Why you need an effective organisational system

 3. Ask the other person to e-mail it to you

There will be times when you are away from your desk and you have no means to take notes. You bump into somebody else and they ask you do something for them. You agree to do it but you have no way to capture it, so what do you do? Simple; you ask them to email you with the request. If it is really important to them, they will email you which will take the pressure off of you. Related article: 13 Email rules which will save you time

 4. Email it to yourself

Thanks to smart phones, you probably have access to email at any moment. If you are away from your desk and somebody asks you to do something for them, you can always email it your own account and you will be able to process it when you get back to work. Related article: 20 Ways to save time with your smart phone

 5. Voicemail

In the same manner as your email, you can use your voicemail to capture your commitments or your ideas. Simply dial into your own voicemail and leave the details. Of course you have to be certain that you are going to check your voicemail upon your return to work.

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 6. Portable task list

If you are like me, you move around quite a bit so, you probably keep your task list somewhere that you can access it on the go e.g. I keep mine on a Google spreadsheet which I can access via my phone. Therefore, you will probably have your task list with you whenever you are away from the phone. Despite this, you should generally avoid placing a task directly onto your task list. You should process a request/commitment first to determine whether it is something which you should really be doing before you add it to your task list. For more great productivity strategies, check out The Organised Mind.

Conclusion

Prioritisation is often the most important aspect taught on time management courses but before you can prioritise effectively, you need to be fully aware of all of your options. You need to know what you have committed yourself to.  Every time that you agree to consider or perform a task, you have made a commitment. You need to capture your commitments so that you have all the necessary information at hand when you need to prioritise your tasks. Life is busy and there are a lot of things demanding your attention. You cannot depend on the human brain to remember every commitment that you make, at the precise moment that you need to remember it.  If you ensure that you capture your commitments, you will make better decisions, prioritise your time more effectively and get better results in your life. Image credit: Chance Agrella