cats and computers and to-do lists, oh my
When I (briefly and despondently, with much associated whining and entitlement) worked as a law firm HR manager, my predecessor was an absolutely wonderful woman named Dana. Dana was born to be a law firm HR manager, and I mean that in the best way: She ran the firm with an iron fist while also being a substitute therapist/best friend/mother for any employee having a bad day. I had known her since I was very little – my mom was a partner at the firm – and I adored her. Everyone did.
Get two months’ of Duckbill personal assistant services for 50% off with code RAMSHACKLE
Let’s just say the staff’s reception of me as Dana’s replacement was…ah…unenthusiastic. I did not help matters by being a) a nepo baby, b) completely unwilling to dress like an adult, and c) terrible at my job. At one point I managed to lose the entire company’s health insurance (because I didn’t pay the premium), which is, to be clear, really a very major issue. (I did eventually get it reinstated, but only because persistence being a huge pain in the ass is among my more lovely qualities.)
Anyway. Before she left, Dana taught me a small-yet-fantastic life hack that I’ve used ever since.
It’s a hand-written daily task journal (I know, mind-blowing, but stay with me). You write the date at the top, and then write down everything – everything, even the tiniest things – you want to accomplish that day in list form, crossing them off as you get them done. I’m aware this is standard, but Dana’s key twist was this: At the end of each day, you start the next day’s page and immediately add any tasks left uncompleted to the top of it.
The only problem: If you don’t do those tasks that get transferred, they have to get transferred again, and again, forcing you to confront the uncomfortable truth that you are never, ever going to get around to signing your dog up for pet insurance no matter how many times you write down those words, and eventually you forget all about the pet insurance altogether, and then one day Archie runs onto the Pacific Coast Highway and ends up getting beaned by a sedan (he’s fine now) and think, “Jeez. I really wish I had signed up for that pet insurance back when I had it RIGHT THERE AT THE TOP OF MY LIST.”
So now I have added a secondary element to Dana’s Strategy™, and it is Duckbill (the personal assistant service I’ve been using for a year now, to truly life-changing results). All those persnickety tasks – signing up for pet insurance, ordering a return label, organizing your kids’ schedules, making doctor’s appointments…you can just outsource those, leaving you only with the task of putting big check marks next to all those completed tasks that you had next-to-nothing to do with completing.
I have found the capable, enthusiastic, communicative life partner I have been seeking, and it is an app.
If you’d like to try Duckbill – and you should – use code RAMSHACKLE for 50% off of two months, plus priority status in getting off the waitlist. (I feel confident saying that Dana would approve this message.)
