One important planning consideration is what you’re going to accomplish each day.

In his role as the dean of creativity for the Walt Disney Companies, Mike Vance had a strategy he called DO-DOING-DONE. The idea is to start a task in the DO column, move it to DOING quickly, and then move it to DONE as quickly as possible.

That’s a fine idea, but it doesn’t really matter how you format your list. What does matter is that you have a list. In fact, you need several lists. Without them, your brain forgets many of the things you have to do as well as the cool ideas you come up with.

Having lists will enable you to plan your day most effectively and will relieve that nagging sense of “what did I need to get done…”

I use several types of lists, outlined here:

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