Dallon Christensen is a good friend of mine at Whiteboard Business (http://www.whiteboardbusiness.com). He and some other friends of mine meet weekly to discuss our businesses and help each other with insights. During one meeting, he mentioned using productivity software in his marriage. Since he is a fellow blogger, I asked him if he’d be willing to write a guest post for PreEngaged detailing how to do that. Hope you enjoy!
Life happens – sometimes at what seems like the speed of sound. Whether we are newlyweds or married many years with children, we seem to jump from one task to the next without much thought. We try to keep our list of things to do in our heads, which is the last place to keep something of any importance.
My family has struggled with this issue since I married Stephanie in 2007. We have tried written calendars, whiteboards, and text messages to ensure we knew what we had to do for a given week or day. I follow many of David Allen’s teachings in the Getting Things Done productivity methodology, and I also use checklists to make sure I remember the mundane activities of daily life. When Stephanie bought an iPhone in July 2012, we knew we could finally use technology to our advantage.
I’ve looked for a very simple and affordable (preferably free!) tool to manage home projects, daily reminders, and lists. We finally found Asana and I could not be happier with how it has brought order to our complex lives. Asana is a web-based productivity and project management tool with a clean, simple user interface and a great iPhone application. {Eric’s note: there is no Android equivalent application at this time, but they claim to be working on one; however, I can still use Asana from my Android phone through their nice mobile web interface.} This is the first tool I actively use and incorporate deeply into my day-to-day task and project management for work and personal tasks. Here are three ways we use Asana to simplify a life with two boys, several activities, and two working parents.
Grocery lists
I have learned not having a grocery list significantly increases our food expenses. We also spend more time than necessary searching for items when we are thinking of that next item. Asana gives us the ability to create grocery lists in a dedicated workspace where either Stephanie or I can update the list online in real time. We have a Family workspace and create each grocery list as a project. When one of us adds a list to Asana, the other sees it on our iPhone in seconds. Stephanie has joked how she can see where I am at the store by looking at what I have checked off!
Home chores
Stephanie goes to work early in the morning, and I am responsible for getting our boys ready for school. I have a daily list of items to help me get them ready, and I can add tasks for special items like bringing lunch money or a book order. My normal daily tasks like preparing my third-grade son’s daily checklist are a daily task on my “School Prep” project. We have also created a project for home cleaning duties with various items to finish each day.
Financial bills
Dave Ramsey puts it best when he says the leading cause of marital stress is related to money. We have a number of monthly and quarterly bills we pay for things like electricity, retirement savings, and church giving. We have created a shared project with recurring due dates for these payments. Even though nearly all of these payments are automatic deductions, we remember they are coming so we can update our checkbook registers and budget reports.
Communication is a key element to a happy and successful marriage. You can use technology as a great tool to strengthening your marriage by using a tool like Asana to move the recurring tasks of life out of your heads and into a system you can track and manage.
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