It's much easier to set time aside for a task when you have a rough idea of how long it will take to complete. Setting a time limit for a task also gives you a deadline to aim for, which can stop you from losing focus. Tasks without any sort of estimate have a habit of taking longer to complete.

Another advantage is that thinking through how long things will take will help you spot tasks that haven't been broken down into small enough chunks.

If you have a lot of tasks that will take less than 5 minutes, they probably belong on their own "shrapnel task" list. Same goes for things like phone calls and other errands.

This ties in with the above point. If you're anything like me, you'll probably find that estimating the time something will take is difficult. When you track the actual time, you gather evidence that can really help in the future. Not everything needs to be tracked (there's not much point in tracking the length of phone calls for example), but other important tasks are wroth tracking.

The better you get at estimating, the easier it is to plan your day and to make decisions on incoming tasks.

If you encounter resistance when using your list, you'll avoid using it. Granted, it's almost impossible to make a todo list the most fun thing on Earth, but tweaking things can make it less painful to use.

Experiment with different ideas. Give yourself "points" for achieving certain tasks that you can spend on rewards, or set yourself a target for the day & week. Use an online task tracker that lets you share your results, and compare with others.

The someday/maybe list is an integral part of the Getting Things Done system, and it's well worth integrating into other systems. Someday/maybe lists are particularly useful if you do a lot of creative work and gets lots of ideas during the day. Just jot them on your someday/maybe list, and review it at least once a month.

By writing down all your ideas, you give yourself permission to be creative but still gain the benefit of keeping things in a trusted system.

This is the hard part. A single list works well, but once it fills up things can become challenging.

A setup that works for me is to have a separate list for each project, a master list of non-project tasks, such as topics to research, and then a list of context-sensitive items like phone calls to make or emails to send. I also keep a list of any books that people recommend so I can keep any eye out for them when I'm out.

A "done" list might seem like a strange thing to keep, but I've found it very helpful. It's less about keeping organised, and more about keeping a positive outlook on things. It's easy to work long hours and feel like you've achieved nothing, but by keeping a record of important tasks you've completed you get a better picture of what's going on.

This is important. After all, if you don't remember your dreams, what's the point in trrying to influence them? I've found the best way to do this is to keep a "dream diary", where you write down your dreams when you wake up.

By writing them down, you strengthen your ability to remember. The more you do this, the better you get.

One problem with lucid dreaming is that it's not always obvious that you're still asleep. It should seem obvious that you're dreaming when everything crazy is happening, but it often takes something more subtle to trigger the "awakening".

There are a few giveaways that you're dreaming:

1. You can pinch your nose and still breath through it
2. Electronics and machinery act haywire. This could be phones ringing but not responding to being picked up, screens showing a jumbled mess or watches showing completely different times when you look at them twice. Light switches often have unexpected results, and cars may drive much slower than expected.

A good way of knowing you're lucid is performing a "reality check" by checking if any of the above occur. Ive found the most effective check is pinching my nose, and it only takes a few seconds to try (although you might get a few funny looks).

Sometimes you'll have a "false awakening", where you'll think you've woken up but you're actually still dreaming. These are a great time for reality checks.

The final piece of the puzzle is staying lucid. The first few times, you'll probably get excited and wake up (or have a false awakening). Don't get too disheartened. Here are some ways to stay lucid:

• Spin around on the spot.
• Focus on your hands or other part of your body.
• Tell yourself to stay lucid (I've had very little success with this method, but I'm told it works.)

Once you're lucid and it's stable, enjoy yourself! Anything is possible in the dream world, so go crazy. Learn to fly, or pass through solid objects. Run faster than cars, or jump over buildings.

I've found the best way of having lucid dreams is the WBTB method (Wake, Back to Bed). If I've woken up in the early morning (usually between 4am and 5am) it's much easier to go lucid than when going straight to bed. You can always set an alarm clock, although this might not go down so well with your sleep neighbours :)

If you can get over the weird factor, lucid dreaming is definitely something worth experimenting with.