The To-Do List of a Genius

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The Thomas Edison Papers at Rutgers University

What’s on your to-do list today? Pick up groceries? Get your car washed? Go to a few meetings?  Get ready to be “one upped” by a genius.  Enter…Thomas Edison’s to-do list.

On his list of “things doing and to be done,” the 41-year-old wrote:

  • Deaf apparatus
  • Electrical piano
  • Artificial silk
  • Phonographic clock
  • Ink for Blind

Just a few things to get done before lunch…really…

This list was created around 1888 and can be seen in The Papers of Thomas A. Edison: Losses and Loyalties — the seventh volume of Rutgers University’s digitized Edison papers.

Add Edison to the long list of famous and successful list-makers like John Lennon, Johnny Cash and Ronald Reagan.  They’ve proved that keeping to-do lists will make you successful.  Keep listing!

 

6 Ways to Create a Peaceful, Organized Home

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There is something about organizing your home that creates this amazing feeling. You feel freer in a way. But it’s easy to get overwhelmed and put the task off until tomorrow, or next week, or never. My guest blogger, Jennifer Weiner, has a few ideas to get you back on track:

6 Ways to Create a Peaceful, Organized Home

by Jennifer Weiner

When you have a disorganized or cluttered house, it can be overwhelming to think about getting things in order, especially if you have children creating new messes every time you clean. Taking the time to set up a system of organization can bring a new peace and order to your home and to your family. Break the job into manageable chunks and fight the urge to ignore the chaos. Read more

Last-Minute Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

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I’m not a “last minute” type person — but in case you are…here’s a few gift ideas for Mother’s Day.

Last-Minute Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

by Teri Gault

Moms really appreciate useful gifts, especially for those things she wouldn’t buy for herself. Fresh cut flowers are nice, but fade and die. Give her something that will last, and that she can enjoy for a long time. Moms also appreciate gifts of time, which is a mother’s love language. So you’ll find some of my recommendations are “handmade” or require a little time. Your gift of time is the best message of love to mom, plus it saves money! Read more

Get Some Time Back and Still Get Things Done

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Time…it’s what everyone complains about and what we wish we had more of. But maybe you’re not using your time wisely enough. This quote makes me chuckle,

“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

Ha – I’ll tell you who said it in a minute.

TaskRabbit.com is a service that will help you get everything on your to-do list done. I wrote a guest blog for their NYC launch and met with a few of their staffers while they were in town. I have used TaskRabbit to get two projects completed that had been giving me a headache. Read more

List Maker Turns Passion Into Career

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Imagine a place filled with lists to help you navigate through anything in your life. Moving, grocery shopping, meal planning — you name it. Well, such a place exists at ListPlanIt.com. It’s a site started by Jennifer Tankersley and you guessed it — she’s this month’s Featured List Producer:

Q: Why do you call yourself a compulsive list producer?

A: I’ve always been a list maker. I’ve used them to set goals, to help me remember important things, and to organize my thoughts. In December of 2006, I had an inspiration. It suddenly occurred to me that a template in list form would be convenient for printing and then using again in the future. Less than 6 months later, ListPlanIt.com was born. ListPlanIt is a website of my creation that contains hundreds (about 700, actually) of lists and planning pages for its members to print, download, type into, and/or save. Read more