

Ask HN: How can I get over problems with being organized? - Killah911

I'm at the brink of quitting my day job &#38; working full time on my startup, which was on the side but has met with some success recently, thanks in large part to my assistant.  But it's starting to get unmanageable for me and I'm wondering if I shouldn't just keep it on the side...<p>I can do great work, but unfortunately not on my own.  Someone has to do all the little stuff, dot the i's cross the t's...  Not that I'm incapable of doing it, but I just can't rely on myself enough to know that I'll do it when it's my own business.  I've read Neil Fiore's "The Now Habit" and a couple of other books including Tim Ferris' 4-hour workweek (hence the assistant).  But nothing seems to quite work for me... Anybody have any good advice?  Have you faced something similar?  I've spoken with counselors regarding this, and it seems they just don't get it, they end up making me even more anxious...
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namank
Give it more context - do you mean paying the bills before deadline or
overlooking SQL injection in your site or not forgetting the 1/7 case for a
switch statement?

They all involve dotting the i but with massively different consequences. They
require different kind of effort to be put it.

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dholowiski
For me, it has helped to turn to do lists into a religion. I use fog bugs for
everything. I have super detailed, nested tasks. It takes time to get
everything in the system, but then you can just start going down the list and
checking things off.

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Killah911
Thank, I've tried trello, and it's actually pretty nice. But then I got over-
ambitious and the list got ridiculously wrong. Tried dividing it up into four
quadrants like the 7-habits book said, and well, there are stuff on that list
from 6 months ago. Only time that list seemed to help was when I had my
assistant checking on it and nagging me to get things done...

~~~
dholowiski
The four quadrant thing, for me, is one of those things that's a great idea in
concept, but just doesn't work in reality. I find it better just to make a
'wish list' todo list, and I just throw everything that's 'not important not
urgent' in there, then I can pick and choose as I like.

The nagging part - I haven't found any way around that other than nagging
myself. This does mean that I often get lazy and unproductive. I'm working on
a todo web site that will nag you - with emails, text messages and even phone
calls.

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smartwater
You should be able to rely on yourself. Keep practicing and you will get
better at it. Grind through it until it's a habit. Reading books about it
won't do much for you.

