My Recipe for Organizing

Do you resist the idea of making ‘To-Do Lists’?
Instead, create ‘Recipe Cards’ that lay out the steps involved. They ensure that you complete everything you need to when organizing a party, packing for a trip, cleaning the house, or finishing regular workplace tasks that involve a lot of steps.

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So in a previous video I talked about the value of making a list, of everything you need to do, and especially if it’s a list of things you’re doing regularly.

Like for example in the past when I was traveling a lot to give talks, I had a packing list of everything I needed, and a separate packing list if Ava was coming along, there’s also the value of having lists for things to do around the house, regular things, and there’s a great tool which is recipe cards, that you make up recipe cards for the things that you have to do regularly, getting the kids out the door, getting yourself out of the door, cleaning the house before people come, tidying the kitchen at the end of the day, um I don’t know, whatever it is, but if there’s things where you forget what you need to do, or there’s a lot of steps involved in doing something, a recipe card is awesome.

You can make the recipe cards up at 3×5, whatever, and you just, and they’re easy to modify, do it in pencil to start with, but I found that really valuable to have that list of everything I need to do, and for me I have a long list of about seven or eight things that I do every morning, from yoga and uh uh hanging on an inversion table, and breakfast, and doing the dishes, and brushing my teeth, and taking my, all of that… recipe card, and then I can just skim down, yep done everything.

I can tell you the value of having the recipe cards is that when I don’t use them, or when I don’t have a list to draw from, and check off as I go along, well it’s a recipe for disaster.