Comments on: The Personal Finance Chore List

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:14:38 +0000

You know, you do have to be careful about doing your quick task during the commercial break, or even worse while the rice is boiling, because you may find yourself excited at your progress and you move on, only to find that the rice for dinner is burning on the stove! :)
Really, though, this is great advice. Write it down, break it down, and then work one line at a time.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:34:54 +0000

Love this tactic. It makes cleaning so easy. I’ve been trying to extend it to reading non-fiction because, other than blogs, I read mostly fiction. I’m going to try it on some finanical stuff and my binder tonight!

By: jana

jana — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:51:44 +0000

I keep a family binder with all our family information in it….including insurance information, phone lists, prescription copies, gift certificates, air filter size, invitations, budget….etc.

Then I have a plastic folio with an emergency atm card to a $1000 account, and copies of all our insurance and banking information. I was prompted to pull all this together a few years ago when we had the big fires near our home.

As for college educations…can we ever have enough? We are looking into a rotc scholarship right now…I’d love to see what you would have to say about the value of a 4 year rotc scholarship.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:57:57 +0000

Trent – I am a longtime Quicken for Mac user and have always been unimpressed. Though they are working on a new version, I am very close to pitching it for something like Moneywell, which I picked up from a recent Macupdate promo offer. It lets you track transactions and budget in a modified version of the envelope budgeting system. You should check it out.

By: Prashanth

Prashanth — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:21:36 +0000

This is very good post about how to approach the problem of putting things off for later. I believe its a little unfair for Trent to come up with a checklist. I think he gives a good example by highlighting how he would get things done. Each individual is different and so are his/her needs.

The big takeaway from this post for me is just GET IT DONE! Period. :) Taking motivation from this post, I will be getting started with a new money-management software program that I purchased months ago but am yet to use.

Thanks Trent for a nice post!

By: Shaun Tarves

Shaun Tarves — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:25:27 +0000

I can tell you right now, you should cross off “give Quicken for Mac” a fair shake. I gave it a fair shake for the last 5 years and finally got fed up with its bugginess and general lack of development from Quicken. Stick with Mint or Wesabe if you have a Mac.

By: JEvans

JEvans — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:23:59 +0000

Discovered this little trick from author Don Aslett in “Clutter’s Last Stand”. . .

helped me realize it was ok to go from one thing on my list to another. . .as long as I was accomplishing something. . .

love your blog. . .on my daily “to read” list. . .

Thanks,

By: brooke

brooke — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:00:04 +0000

nice list, but in my five minutes, I would rather just check up on my blogs!

By: cv

cv — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:09:04 +0000

One of the big things I got out of Getting Things Done is that planning how to do something is part of the work. The time you spend to break down a project into little bits is virtually always worthwhile.

Sometimes my to-do list will include things like “Plan next steps for project”, instead of “Do project”. This is an acknowledgment that the process of deciding what the small next steps are is important and a step in itself. Mapping out what the little pieces are is a little 5-minute step in itself.

By: Mark Wolfinger

Mark Wolfinger — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:53:34 +0000

You have a personal life and you publish a blog.

How an there be time for anything else? (grin)

Mark

By: jc

jc — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:20:29 +0000

David Pogue has an interesting post up on his blog @ NYTimes right now about how he manages his time.

By: Anne KD

Anne KD — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:52:40 +0000

I’m going to take 5 minutes a day to take pictures of each room for insurance purposes. And that should lead to another 5 minutes learning more about how to use the camera for taking good pictures of other stuff, too, like using the macro feature. Five minutes to do something functional, another five to learn something new. Thanks.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:41:26 +0000

This really could be useful for me. I use numerous text files and rememberthemilk.com to make to do lists, but too often the tasks simply stay listed/postponed endlessly b/c I know many of them are too big to accomplish in one sitting. I break down some but obviously not enough as I still make little headway. I’ll have to give this 5-minute (sometimes repeatable) task limit a try. Thanks, Trent!

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:00:28 +0000

My grandmother introduced me to the “what can you do in 5 minutes” approach to chores, especially housework. I had forgotten about this. Thanks for the reminder that small steps are still steps forward.

By: CaGirl

CaGirl — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:48:12 +0000

Thanks for this post! It served as a great reminder that all of the projects I have been putting off don’t have to be done all at once. My papers are sky-high, my photos unorganized, and the household inventory isn’t done yet – but breaking these tasks into smaller pieces will let me make more progress than I’ve been making when I get overwhelmed by the entire project and don’t work on it!

By: kev

kev — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:47:42 +0000

Have you tried The Hit List for Mac? It’s handy for making to do lists and then making sublists within each item; you can tag items to make them searchable, etc. And it makes an awesome bing noise when you check the “completed” box.
I’ve been getting a lot of use out of it. It is a bit pricey though; I’m not sure I would have bought it if it wasn’t part of the MacHeist bundle this year. I guess it depends on how badly you want your to-do list on your computer. But as list applications go, it’s pretty good.

By: Mario

Mario — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:29:00 +0000

I love this post. Progress is progress is progress.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:22:48 +0000

I like this post as is because it is basically just an affirmation for those who already follow a lot of suggestions on your blog. Not every post needs to be step by step instructions for a beginner, because many of us are long time readers. This little reminder not to get lazy or fall behind resonated with me because I need to finish my emergency binder too.

Also, please tell me your baby daughter isn’t doing math problems independently!

By: JoeK

JoeK — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:53:37 +0000

My sentiments echo Michael’s above. I thought this would be an outstanding post with some stuff I’ve been missing or neglecting. It would be nice to see what you consider a full checklist of all the “chores” needed to do on a monthly/weekly/yearly basis.

By: Jaden

Jaden — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:51:32 +0000

I love the advice I’m finding here…. Just came across your blog last week and I am loving it!