Notebooks apps and post-its are all useful in capturing to-do’s but how do you organize them all to make sure that everything gets done?
For me, it’s a never-ending optimization effort. I’ve tried many systems but none of them worked for me in the long run. So, I’ve decided to test out a system of my own that caters to my needs.
The goal
The goal is easier said than done: organize my life. The system I’m creating is a step towards that end.
The tools
Note-taking/to-do list tools are ubiquitous. I didn’t spend much time thinking about the best tools for the job. All I need is a way to capture to-do’s electronically. I started with Notepad on my Mac until I needed to access my lists remotely. Eventually, I’d like to make a desktop and mobile app that works with my system. Until then, the following tools works well for me:
- Google docs – It’s synced between mobile and desktop, and it’s free
- Post its – for capturing items in meetings
- A Pen – for writing
The how
My system is designed to scale based on individual needs. I started with one list then quickly realized I needed to separate tasks into sublists. As things got more complicated I added more lists and rules on how to use them, which I’ll get to in another article. For now, I’ll describe my basic set up.
The 5 components
1. The lists
In my google doc, I create four lists: today, today’s new items, yesterday, and backlog.
2. The morning review
If there’s nothing in my today list I add action items that are top of mind in bullet format eg “write 1st draft of the article.” Then I tackle the highest priority action item and continue down the list throughout the day.
3. The new action items
When new items pop up throughout the day, I add them to the “today’s new item” list and carry on as planned. I try not to act on new action items as they come in, so that I can focus on my planned tasks first.
4. The evening review
The evening review is a little involved and, admittedly, aspirational. If I don’t get to it at night I try to tackle it the next morning. The evening review has four steps.
- Step 1: Cross out completed items from today’s list.
- Step 2: Move all items (even the ones crossed out) from the today and today’s new lists to yesterday’s list.
- Step 3: Scan yesterday’s list for items I want to do the following day. I move those to today’s list.
- Step 4: Put items that aren’t urgent in the backlog list.
You might have noticed in Step 2, I moved undone items from today’s list to yesterday’s list then, in Step 3, moved some of those items back to today’s list. A reasonable question to ask is, “why not leave the urgent undone items in today’s list?” Well, I like to start each day with a clean slate. To me, this means building my list from scratch for the new day. It gives me a chance to reevaluate whether an item should be on the list at all.
5. The weekly review
The last component of my basic system is the weekly review. At the end of the week I review each item in the backlog and take one of 3 actions: 1) Add it to today’s list, 2) remove it from the backlog if it’s no longer relevant, or 3) decide to do nothing about it. The idea behind this review is to ensure that I don’t overlook important action items that I put in the backlog for a later date.
The additional complications
I was able to use this method for a couple of weeks until my backlog became unwieldy. The next article in this series will explain how I break out my backlog into manageable lists and how my weekly review step changes to accommodate.
Resources
Favorite Pens (affiliate link)
Post-its (affiliate link)