Many of the biggest challenges facing the insurance marketer, agent or entrepreneur have to do with staying focused and aware of all the tasks at hand – not to mention deciding which task should get top priority.  To keep myself focused and on track I make a list of everything I need to do, prioritizing, crossing off and adding tasks as I go through my day.

One advantage of writing to do lists is that as you jot down a task, you begin to focus on its components.   If it’s a large task or goal with several steps involved, breaking it into little parts (or “stacks”) keeps you from being overwhelmed by the enormity of it and allows you to stay motivated as you chew off each little piece.

One problem I have when slicing and dicing a big task or goal is if I’m writing my to do list on a pad of paper that’s already filled up with other tasks, I’ll try to fit the subtasks into the margins or draw lines with arrows pointing anywhere on the page (or onto the next page) where there’s space available.

But lately I’ve discovered several free websites where you can create to do lists online.  Called task management systems, they also include enhancements that help you organize, prioritize with numbers and/or colors, set deadlines and more.   You can keep one big list like I do, or create several different lists dedicated to different projects.

The website I’ve started using is Checkvist (the v looks like a checkmark in the logo).  You enter your to dos is no particular order but you can go back at any time and organize them, creating sub categories, if you want, and even sub-sub-categories and more.

You can also number you tasks and reprioritize anytime.  When you complete a task, highlight the task and hit the spacebar to put a line through it.  With Checkvist, as well as many of the other to do list websites, plug-ins are available so you can post your lists to browsers and your mobile devices.

For a fee of $15 every six months, Chekvist also allows you to create checklists that you can share with team members when you’re working on projects together.  Team members are emailed whenever changes to the project list are entered.

Some of the other task management systems I’ve looked at but yet not tried are:

• Ta-da List which encourages users to create shopping lists, lists of chores, packing lists, lists of restaurants and places to visit on your next trip, etc.
• Thnklinkr
• Voo2do, which has a time tracking feature
• Todoist
• WorkFlow

If anyone has used any of these systems and would like to comment, we’d all love to hear from you.