As small business owners, we have many tasks to handle during the workday. Our days are both mindless and mentally challenging, ranging from answering phones and speaking with customers to designing new layouts, processing payroll, and writing invoices. So how can we remember it all? Below are unique tips on how to recognize tasks at work to make your day more productive:
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Remember Your Tasks Tips
- Make your device calendar your best friend.
- Make it a point to do the most important tasks first.
- When doing your mentally challenging tasks, beware of interruptions.
- Create a Done List.
- Great Checklist Pick!
- Schedule time in your day for different “Department” tasks.
- Create a daily structure that supports your strengths.
- Write Tasks on Paper.
- Creating a home for everything in your workspace.
- Alarms will help you remember things.
- Take frequent breaks.
- Create a time-blocking task list.
Key Takeaways
- Use your device calendar and alarms to keep track of appointments and tasks effectively.
- Prioritize important tasks first to manage your workload better and feel accomplished.
- Create a done list to recognize completed tasks and increase awareness of your productivity.
- Avoid interruptions during mentally challenging tasks by turning off alerts and informing others of your focus time.
- Practice time blocking to organize your day and separate tasks by department for better efficiency.
Make your device calendar your best friend.
Add appointments to the calendar and use the alarm feature for each appointment. Phones are used all day, so why not use them to help you remember? Add an alarm to time slots on your calendar that describe what you want to do and who you want to contact. When the alarm goes off, you will know what to do, and you won’t waste time figuring out your task.
Make it a point to do the most important tasks first.
Everyone has busy work, but by prioritizing critical tasks first, you can focus on smaller tasks that don’t take as much time. If your essential tasks are hard to complete right away, try tackling a few 15-minute tasks to feel more accomplished, then start on your important task.
When doing your mentally challenging tasks, beware of interruptions.
If you allow interruptions, mentally challenging tasks will take longer and waste your day. Mentally challenging tasks need more attention, so turn off your phone alerts, let calls go to voicemail, and make sure coworkers, kids, and family members know you need an hour to finish a project. That way, you can focus on the next task.
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Get your free copy of Creative Ways to Deal with Distractions, like kids, dogs, and cats in your home office
Create a Done List.
When tasks become so automatic that you forget whether you did them, tell yourself you completed the task while you do it.
Paying attention to what you are doing and staying aware of it will help you remember the tasks you have completed. You can also make a “done” list. This list includes everything you completed that day. Here’s a link from Amazon (affiliate) (affiliate).
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Schedule time in your day for different “Department” tasks.
As a small business owner, segment your workday by scheduling the most efficient time to get different tasks done. For example, do bills in the morning before your employees come in, or do invoices at the end of the day after the project. Below are more “department” examples you may visit during your day.
- Accounts Receivable – invoicing clients (affiliate)
- Accounts Payable – paying bills
- Human Resources – hiring new people and managing paperwork for subcontractors or employees.
- CEO – strategizing for upcoming projects.
Create a daily structure that supports your strengths.
Do you work better in the morning for more creative tasks? Do phone calls work better for you in the afternoon? Changing your tasks to align with your best time to focus on will make your tasks run more smoothly. It could be in the morning from 8 AM to 12 noon or the afternoon from 2 PM to 5 PM. It could even be in the evening after 6 PM. Some people may be more creative in the wee hours of the morning. Brian Tracy would call this “Primetime” in his book Time Power.
Update 2025: Below are additional tips on remembering tasks at work.
Write Tasks on Paper.
It has been shown that writing tasks down on paper helps you remember. No planner; write the tasks on a notebook page with the date at the top to help you remember.
Be conscious of the actions you need to remember.
Listing the necessary steps reminds you of the tasks you must complete. Placing the steps on a sticky note on your monitor (affiliate) reminds you what you need to do. Eventually, you will remember them instinctively, and you can remove the sticky note.
Creating a home for everything in your workspace.
Keep your pens (affiliate) and planner in the same place, and reference papers in the same place. Each item in your workspace needs a home so you remember where it is and what it’s used for.
Alarms will help you remember things.
To remind you, we talked about making recurring appointments on your devices above. You can set an alarm clock on your desk (affiliate) to remind you of specific times or appointments you can’t miss. This alarm can limit your task time for a particular project that may take over your day.
Set the alarm for a particular time: 20 minutes or 50 minutes, and start your task. When the timer rings, for the last 10 minutes, jot down notes of where you left off and move on.
Visit our post about Easy Ways to Clear Digital Clutter for Small Business Owners!
Take frequent breaks.
Taking frequent breaks throughout the day may also help you remember your tasks more easily. When we get stressed, we can’t remember things. Walking around or having a snack a few times during the day will realign and refocus you.
Create a time-blocking task list.
Sometimes, we have ongoing tasks that we forget when we get busy. Try to create a time-blocking task list. Start with a marker board or a nearby wall. Use self-sticking removable tape (affiliate) to divide the sections into 15-minute tasks, 30-minute tasks, 1-hour tasks, and 2-hour tasks. Using sticky notes (affiliate), write the different functions (be specific) on them. When you have time during the day, look at that time block and do that task.
Get a copy of our ebook on how to do Time Blocking!
With a bit of planning, you will help yourself immensely! If each day changes, create a task list the day before for the next morning. It works wonders.
Let me help you! If you need help managing your time, check out my virtual consultation services for Accountability!
What is your favorite time management tip? Please leave a comment below.
Visit our other productivity posts to give you even more ideas!
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6 Ways To Reduce Wasted Time in Your Small Business
Below are some online articles that also talk about remembering tasks at work.
101 Time Management Tips to Boost Productivity Every Day
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Please note the link above is an affiliate link through Amazon (affiliate), and at no additional cost, I will receive affiliate fees if you click through and decide to make a purchase.
I love this article. Very concise nd it validated a lot of what I already do. Thanks.
I had a job where I was pretty free to set my own schedule, so I assigned one project to each day of the week. I don’t remember them anymore, except that Friday was for filing, so I could finish the work with something easy.
That’s a great suggestion. Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Janet.