Effective Time Management Tools for Event Planning

Have you ever tried to slice a tomato with a dull knife, or hang a picture without a hammer?  Attempting to complete any task efficiently without the proper equipment is not only frustrating, it’s a huge time-waster.  Equipping yourself with good quality, basic organizational tools will ensure that you are making the most of your time and energy.

• Ring binders – The next time you head to a bookstore, take a look at the wedding planning books. It usually takes up an entire section and is chock-full of beautifully designed books in a ring binder format. Lots of checklists, dividers, pockets to keep loose papers and places to add fabric swatches, magazine clippings and the like.

Makes perfect sense to me – I’m a ring binder girl.  Ring binders are a great way to organize almost any project.  You can get different sizes based on the complexity of your project, and use different colors so you can easily identify the project you want to work on and grab it off the shelf. 

I use binders to store a master task list, time line, contacts, meeting agendas and minutes, ideas clipped from magazines for décor or other elements, and other important documents. There are a variety of accessories that make organizing with ring binders a breeze, including hole punches, sleeves for stashing media discs and pockets for loose items. Ring binders are inexpensive, versatile, and readily available, and can be an effective tool to keep track of the majority of events discussed in this book.

• Mechanical Pencils – You may think that a good pen is the way to go, but more often than not, a mechanical pencil is a better choice, especially when it comes to maintaining a manual calendar, address book or task list.  Invariably meetings, appointments, contact information and other details will have to be added, removed, or modified. Your planning documents will be much cleaner and less cluttered if you can erase an item instead of scratching out items written in ink and trying to force revisions into small margins.

• Flash Drive – A portable USB drive, sometimes called a flash drive or thumb drive, is a small data storage device that can be plugged into any computer with a USB port.  Copy your important documents including task lists, meeting minutes, contact lists, contracts and other information to this tiny magical storage device, and you have instant access to all of the important documents related to your event.  I love the portability of a flash drive, and use one regularly as a backup for individual presentations and documents.

• Online Tools – here a few favorites:

• OmniFocus – I use this app to capture, organize, and manage tasks for a variety of personal and professional projects.  This productivity tool is based on the concepts found in the book “Getting Things Done” by David Gray. Go to http://omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus for more information on this fabulous product.

• Dropbox.com – Dropbox is a service that allows you to access and share any file from virtually any type of device – your phone, your tablet or your computer.  Once you have an account established, drop files into Dropbox.  All of your devices will sync when new files are added or existing ones are modified.  Their motto is “Your life’s work, wherever you are.”  I love it.

• myPhoneDesktop.com – a quick and easy way to transfer long URL’s, large blocks of text, pictures, or other content from your PC to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. If you can copy it, you can send it.

What are your favorite productivity tools?  Do you have a favorite calendar or app that you use regularly?  Share your tips and tricks!

Next – How to Deal with Procrastination

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