Livingston Services

People struggle with managing tasks. This is one of the more common reasons for clients to engage in coaching.

An internist was referred to me the other day because he wasn’t able to keep his records up to date on a timely fashion and it was beginning to overwhelm him and worry his hospital administrator. He literally felt like he was drowning, and wondered what was wrong with him.

I worried about writing his story in a blog because I knew that three other physician clients I’ve been seeing would assume that I’m writing about them, and maybe my dentist clients would assume I had changed the facts a bit to hide their identity. All assume that they are unusual and carry a poor self-image.

Task management isn’t just a problem for individuals with attentional or executive functioning issues; it is a skill that few people are taught and most only explore as their work load overwhelms their memory or written list. When I ask most of my new clients to run through the tasks and projects they’re working on they either look like I’ve handed them an essay question test or they dig around on their desk and begin to gather a series of sticky notes and old lists.

If you go looking for task management systems you are faced with a blizzard of complex systems that require you to virtually convert to a new religion or be damned to sticky note hell. If a system is going to work for you it needs to be simple, easy for you to understand and be capable of being implemented in small steps – no two-week cleanout of the office and re-label all your files please.

Now, where did I put that sticky note where I wrote what else I need to do besides blog?