In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Professor Dumbledore "casts away" his thoughts into his "pensieve". That's a powerful metaphor for what people need to be doing in real life.

Life's very busy and all of us have a thousand things to do. We need a system that will allow us to hold our thoughts until the appropriate time. Paper-based tools are good for putting down thoughts, but they could get lost there forever. These days, there are a number of computer-based tools that would allow for a pensieve-like system.

Putting down your thoughts into a system like this will allow you to concentrate on the immediate matters at hand without having to worry about what might need to be done in the future.

If you have a family or small business, get a shared pensieve for your common to-dos - this could become like a job jar and everybody can pitch in to get things done quicker and more efficient.

Commonly available tools like Microsoft Outlook aren't versatile enough to handle long lists of to-dos, especially for multiple people. There are, however, a number of shareware and freeware options you can find on common download sites.

So this New Year, get your own pensieve and get more productive!

2005 by Saro Saravanan.