Managing Tasks With 95 Types of Potato Chips

What does 95 choices of potato chips have to do with task management?

As a child, choices available to me in regards to potato chips were pretty darn simple; regular, BBQ and "Ruffles".  Today, I'm faced with more than 95 options. Other food choices include in excess of 100  varieties of crackers, 285 varieties of cookies, and 223 juices (if you count the teas and vitamin water), not to mention, at the time of this blog post, it's August; 61 varieties of suntan oil/sun block vie for my dollar.

It's interesting  that all of these options have actually limited my ability to make quick choices, and I expend greater effort making what I perceive as the "right choice".  I'm guessing most of you can relate.

Extrapolate this same phenomenon over our individual obligations, email, phone calls, voice mail, blog posts, tweets, projects, tasks and to do's. Do you ever struggle with how to choose, how to prioritize, what methodology or technology to use?  Ever worry you will "drop the ball"? Task management can still be crazy after all these years.

I am in the midst of a re-read of one of the better business books I've read in the past five  years, Work The System, by Sam Carpenter. Being an advocate of Lean Office and lean thinking, I admire how Sam, in a very simple, straightforward manner laid out a step by step approach to creating systems in your business or personal life that offset the mindset which bogs us down in a myriad of choices.

If you're looking for a fresh approach to task and priority management, it's well worth the read, as is The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less, by Barry Schwartz.  Lastly, if you're interested in a short (free) task management assessment,  click through to this link.