Last Friday was my 28th birthday. To think of it, I’ve been alive for more than 10,000 days!

For much of these “ten grand” worth of days, I have been terribly unorganized. It was always a weakness of mine. I was the kid who stuffed papers in his bookbag. No folders. No “syllabus”. None of that. It seemed I would perpetually wing it.

As I grew older, this inevitably lead to situations that had me saying to myself:

“Oh damn. The test is today?”

“The tryouts were yesterday? Are you serious?”

That’s not a good thing, especially when “eighty percent of success is showing up” as Woody Allen said.

As I grew older and tired of getting no greater than a score of 20 in the game of success, I became more organized. I took notes, I started to-do lists, etc.

As someone who had to do as well as they could “in the moment”, a funny thing happened when I started to be obsessive about note-taking and to-do listing. I started to become even more “in the moment”. The weight of things to do in the future was clouding my vision.

I have a theory about this that not only relates to ourselves, but those we communicate with. In the business world, it means our clients.

Subtle Subconscious Terror

My theory is that trying to keep track of all the little things you need to do in your mind creates subtle subconscious nagging or clouding of your faculties.

There is anecdotal evidence our brains are at least a little somewhat wired to keep track of things. Like, for example, you can get in the habit of waking up moments before your alarm goes off. Or, for example, out of the blue, you are reminded that you have an appointment to see a doctor.

But those triggers seem to come and go and relying on them in this day and age seems foolish at best. It’s very difficult to concentrate with multiple unresolved ideas stewing in your brain.

The future looks to be a place where the people with impeccable timing, organization and time management will be the big winners.

Knowledge is no longer a commodity. Tools are no longer expensive. We now have incredible resources at our disposal. But time will always be a commodity.

The point I am trying to make is, the present is where your mind needs to be in order to get things done. Being the most efficient or productive means giving your whole effort to each task, finishing, and moving on with full attention to the next task.

Scheduling, and organizing your future tasks not only reminds you to do them but it also frees up your mind to focus at the task at it. It’s a double whammy.

How It Works With Others: Diffusing The Time Bomb

What I have noticed with communication is similar.

Messages that go out but aren’t responded to seem to create this kind of subtle subconscious terror.

People can, and do, sometimes ignore people to their advantage. For example, you can heighten the suspense and excitement of your arrival somewhere by ignoring a couple phone calls that were intended to confirm your appearance. But, more often than not, this type of thing backfires.

When working with clients, not responding to their responses or questions creates ticking time-bombs.

That little tinge of subconscious terror builds when you ignore their e-mail.

And it builds. And it builds.

Next thing you know, they’re calling you (or your boss):

“You didn’t respond to my email TWO WEEKS AGO (probably more like 3 days) AND I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS. THIS IS RIDICULOUS AND ….” (the sound of their head exploding).

I’ll use a scene from the movie Scanners as an example:

Look what you’ve done. You’re now hearing and seeing someone’s head explode. All over a couple simple unanswered requests.

The great news is these kind of situations can be (mostly) avoided by responding quickly.

A Quick Response

Responding to a client quickly is like setting a to-do task. They probably want something done right away but if you give them a realistic time frame, this works as well. As I’ve learned: under promise & over deliver. Something like this:

“I’ll be working on this for the next several days. I’ll have something for you by the end of the week.”

In this case, let’s say it is Monday. After some possible grumbling, you have gained acceptance from the client that their request will be fulfilled by the end of the week. You’ve now set the time-bomb to detonate to a later point in time. Now it can be diffused comfortably and ahead of time. You have prevented a head explosion. And not only that, through the jedi mind trick of under promising and over delivering, the client now feels that you are expediting their tasks.

Tools That I Use To Prevent Head Explosions

1. Wunderlist (Free)

It’s a to-do list. It has some major deficiencies. For example, setting reoccurring tasks or setting task alarm reminders.

But it is simple, pretty looking, and cloud-based.

It is also available on a wide variety of platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Web and more. I have it installed on my iPhone, my PC and my work PC. If I was in some crazy far-off place on a public computer, I could bring it up via a web browser.

It also allows you to collaborate by sharing tasks and groups with others. This most likely translates to a bunch of “Don’t forget the milk” or “You owe me $500″ type tasks.

2. Google Apps: Calendar (Free)

There are a few people who don’t like Google Apps. But they’re crazy.

Google Apps Free (Mail, Calendar, Docs, Sites, etc.) is awesome. Register a domain name for $10, set up Google Apps Free, and you basically have all the tools you need to run a business.

Calendar is intuitive and functional. It is hallmark Google. It is great for collaboration and setting reminders. If you are one of the many that work with your e-mail open all day, then I would suggest using Google Apps.

It also sends e-mail reminders so you can set it, forget it, and be reminded by messages coming to your inbox.

If you’re still using Outlook (insanity), check out Google Apps for Business. It offers a Google Calendar Sync to get your stuff all synchronized.

3. Apple Reminders (Included in iOS5)

I spent a good amount of money on the iPhone 4S.

Siri this, Siri that.

Yeah, I use Siri, a little bit. In hindsight, it’s hard to justify me upgrading from a 3GS to a 4S because Siri hasn’t been all that useful to me (yet).

That being said, Apple has included a Reminders app with iOS5 that may just end up being my go-to task management app.

Some of functionality built-in to Reminders:

• time-based reminders: This isn’t anything new or special. Obviously Google Calendar can do this, but Wunderlist can’t.
• Set location-based reminders: It reminds you to do something when you either arrive or leave a location. Beast. A huge piece of functionality… there are so many practical uses to this (ie: more remembering to buy the milk).

I haven’t used Reminders too much to date to know if it’ll be something I stick with. It does have some awesome features and I’m glad to see Apple introducing a product to the task management game.

Wunderlist Could Be The Greatest

These aren’t the absolute fanciest tools on the market, but they’re still tech-based. In reality, you can do pretty well with just a notebook. That being said, I believe that Wunderlist would be legendary if they were to incorporate:

• time-based & location-based reminders (Apple Reminders)
• reminders sent by e-mail (Google Calendar)
• reoccurring task functionality

Back in January of 2009, he posted the idea of “the power of 1%” on the Zappo’s blog. It’s an interesting idea that I thought I would re-share:

“If you start out with $100 at the beginning of the year and you were able to increase what you have by 1% every single day, at the end of the year, you would have $3,778.34 = $100 * (1 + 1%) ^ 365. That is 37.78x what you had at the beginning of the year. Get that 1% every single day!“