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There’s possibly dozens upon dozens of online tools and resources too numerous to mention for peak productivity, maximum time management and fearsome focus.

There’s also a pretty good OFFline tool that’s worked for quite a few over quite a few years. It’s called a pen and paper.

From Ben Franklin’s famous pros and cons decision making process to mindmapping techniques now being taught to kindergarteners, the pen (or a handful of markers) when coupled with an ordinary piece of paper has proven itself one heck of a sword against the dragons of time, effort and distraction.

Personally, I’m a big fan of a three-tool approach – one black pen, one red marker and one or more sheets of plain white paper, preferably mounted on a clipboard. Maybe that’s FOUR tools. A legal pad is fine too.

I write what I intend to do that day on the paper with the black pen. Writing down too many things will scare the dickens out of you and then you won’t want to do anything on the list.  Three to five items is manageable.

Prevailing wisdom claims that listing the toughest and/or least enjoyable task first with the purpose of tackling it first will make every other item seem like cake, because you did the worst first.

I say do that if you can. If nothing else, it’s worth a real try. I’ve discovered that I still balk at doing the toughest task at the top of the list, but I know that if I don’t do it then or by the end of the day, it’ll be carried over to the next day anyway. After seeing it for a few days, it gets done even if mostly out of a sense of shame than anything else.

Now the best part…the red marker. When you finish a task on your three to five task list, resist the natural urge to scribble or cross it out with your black pen. Reach instead for that red marker.

There must be a scientific study or two somewhere about the benefits of this technique, but here’s how it goes. Pop the cap off your red marker and make one strong straight line all the way across the task you’ve written on your list. Don’t scribble and don’t be dainty. Draw it like you mean it.

(If you’ve got a nice broad-tipped red marker, so much the better!)

Doing that will produce the most “DONE” feeling you’ve ever experienced, aside from collapsing after that marathon ten years ago. Both you and your brain now know for a fact that you have completed that task and it felt good. Really good. Good enough to make you want to do it again. You and your brain also know that the feeling will only happen again if you actually complete another task and then do it.

Another benefit is that you and your brain will feel increasing amounts of that “DONE” feeling as you mark off each new item.

Want to keep that feeling going? Save those daily sheets with those beautiful red lines through those completed tasks for at least a week and even a month or more. That’s solid visual proof that you did something on the way to reach your goals.

Your habit of DOING will grow stronger every day!