Being prepared is the best way to be more successful at anything you do — whether it be planning a vacation, looking for a home or doing your job. I’m a TV producer in New York City and I treat every event, task and day like a segment. This way I’m very organized, productive and I’m able to have a better outcome every time.
Here are three segments of your life that you should “produce”:
Home Hunting:
I first started my blog ListProducer.com because of a checklist I made when my husband and I were looking for an apartment. I wrote down every single thing I needed to pay attention to when I walked into each apartment. I do something similar when I go out on shoots in the field as a producer. I’ve been doing my job for many years and I know exactly what shots I need to get but I always write out a list beforehand. You never know what kind of distractions will keep your attention off your task and you want to make sure you leave with the information you came to get.
Did the apartment have air conditioning? A dish washer? What floor was it on? These are all things that you think you’ll remember to check out and be able to recall once you get home — but trust me, you won’t. It’s very overwhelming and stressful to look for a new home. Depending on how many properties you look at you’ll be happy to have a checklist to guide you through the process. Then you can come home and lay out all your paperwork before you and start eliminating.
Holiday Shopping
I start my holiday shopping in August every year. I know it seems crazy but it helps me to be less stressed and more efficient. I make a list on Evernote.com of all the people I need to buy gifts for and write out ideas for each. Throughout the year — I take notes when loved ones mention something they’d like or want. I also save websites and photos in my holiday folder so when the time comes for shopping — I’m prepared.
This helps to cutdown on headaches, expenses and time. If you start early the task of holiday shopping becomes fun. You can take advantage of other holiday sales like Labor Day and Columbus Day to save money. Also — spreading out your spending throughout the year will keep you from going into debt around the holidays. Using a site like Hukkster.com will allow you to be alerted if the sweater you want for your mom has gone on sale. That’s right — the website will actually track the pricing on several items you choose and let you know when you can get a better deal.
Travel Planning
Whenever I’m planning a trip I make a folder on Evernote.com where I save lists of activities I want to do, hotel and restaurant recommendations and anything else that will help me. I start as early as possible and plan ahead so that I won’t waste time wandering around once I get to my destination. There’s nothing worse than spending money on a subpar meal because you just walked into some random restaurant instead of doing your homework.
When I’m going on vacation I always check out RickSteves.com because he has amazing guide books for Europe that are spot on. I’ve used his books for Paris and Italy and the information is so valuable. I look at each day of my trip like a TV segment. I go through the whole day in my head and build a rundown of all the things I’d like to see. I make sure to allow for travel time and relaxation too. Always allow more time than you think a task will take. In TV this is called building in “pad” and it will keep you from feeling stressed on your vacation.
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Paula Rizzo is a senior health producer and founder of ListProducer.com. She’s an Emmy Award winner and attributes much of her success to her compulsive list making. She makes lists for everything and started ListProducer.com to help others become more organized, focused and efficient, while being less stressed.————————————————————————————————————
DISCLOSURE: NO CONNECTION, UNPAID, NOT MY OWN
I have not received any compensation for posting this content. The views expressed in this guest blog do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of HJMT. Individual links could be associated with affiliate marketing sites and through the use of affiliate links contained herein, I may collect fees from purchases made.
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