Some of you may have noticed that I’ve recently changed the name of the Upcoming To-Do List to the Later List.
I decided on this for several reasons. One, I am into alliteration. Also, some early readers of The Together Leader manuscript (Hi, Allie!) told me that the tool’s purpose might be clearer for users if the title didn’t have the words “To-Do” in it. That feedback really resonated with me, and when I stepped back to think about what this list was all about, it was indeed a list for LATER.
What’s this all have to do with Frog and Toad anyway? Well, earlier this summer, when dropping my daughter off at Imagination Stage camp, I grabbed one of their performance brochures. Be still my heart! This children’s theater company plans their performances a year in advance!
A Year With Frog and Toad is coming up in LATE November. Tickets are not available for purchase yet, but I don’t want to forget to buy them when they are.
People usually try a few options in situations like these to keep track of a To-Do for later:
Option 1: Hang the brochure on your refrigerator or wherever you may typically hang stuff. Hmmmm… a lot of stuff can get piled up here, and when are you really going to ruffle through all of those pages anyway? Not a great choice unless you think the illustrations are awesome. P.S. Please ignore the Grateful Dead magnets on my refrigerator. My husband is. . . well, let’s say, a. . . follower.
Option 2: Put the brochure in the inbox on your desk. And then keep adding papers on top of it. And then find it after the show is already sold out. Not good.
Option 3: Enter the exact date of when you want to purchase tickets into your Comprehensive Calendar. If you are convinced a show will sell out, like my husband gets when Phish show tickets come online, by all means, put the date on your Comprehensive Calendar as a hard deadline. But if it is a fake deadline, beware. . . We sniff out fake deadlines very, very quickly.
Option 4: Enter the To-Do into your Later List for the month you want to take action. I’m not worried about Frog and Toad selling out the day of ticket release (no offense, guys), but I do want to coordinate with some friends. So, I’ve entered this To-Do on my Later List (mine is housed in Outlook Tasks) for October. When I conduct my Weekly Round-Ups in October and scan my Later List, I can pop the To-Do into the week that makes the most sense.
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So, I believe the winner is Option 4 and this makes a very strong case for a Later List. Do YOU have a Later List? How do you use yours?
PS: If you like this series, this case for the Comprehensive Calendar will help too!
