Today’s guest post comes courtesy of  Michael Tash, a customer relations VP by day and a musician by night.  He shares a few tools he uses to stay organized.

My typical day usually starts about 6:45am. Not the usual start time for a musician. In addition to playing the blues on a guitar, I am also the Vice President of Customer Relations for a technology company that sells and services computer equipment in restaurants nationwide and a contributing writer to a couple of business magazines and websites. On any given day I am marketing computer systems to local restaurant owners, calling on C-Level execs at the countries largest chain restaurants, booking gigs for the band, working with major musical instrument manufacturers on our endorsements, updating Twitter pages, updating Facebook pages, making travel arrangements, and whatever else comes across my desk.

Starting early helps but there are a few tools that I use to keep on track and stay focused. Everyone has a to-do list and I’m no different. It’s how I use it that may be a bit different. I use 3 things everyday – Outlook, Act and my daily goal sheet. I use Outlook for email, scheduling business meetings, calls and all of the band data. I’ll schedule chunks of time to make calls, write articles, complete RFPs, or whatever it is I need to do when I don’t want to be interrupted. Act is for the my work with the technology company. It’s great for keeping detailed history of every interaction with prospects and customers. My daily goal sheet is the one tool that keeps my organized and makes sure the important things get done.

Everything that I’d like to get done is on my to-do list. The daily goal sheet has the 3 or 4 things that if I get done would be the difference between a good day and an extremely productive day. The difference between the 2 lists looks something like this:

• To-do: Call John about scheduling a meeting to discuss how a point of sale system will make his restaurant more efficient.

• To-do: Create email marketing template for existing customers.

• Daily goal: Make 3 gig calls and book 1 of them.

• Daily goal: Arrange to write an article for a new publication.

As you can see, the to-do items are simply tasks where the daily goals are a bit more. I use these to keep focused on what is important and what will get me to the next level. Now, time to go play a gig.

About the Author

Michael Tash is Vice President of Customer Relations at ESS. With over 20 years of restaurant experience, ESS helps you use your technology to be more efficient and more profitable. When not talking restaurant technology, Michael plays the blues in the award winning blues band, Bad Influence. Michael can be reached at Michael.tash [at] esspos [dot] com or jr [at] badinfluenceband [dot] com. You can also find him on Twitter:  @esspos or @badisblues.