The Hacked-Together Productivity Tool I Can't Live Without: My Master Planner(thederek.com)
thederek.com
The Hacked-Together Productivity Tool I Can't Live Without: My Master Planner
http://thederek.com/post/37717689922/master-planner
3 comments
Ha-- yeah, swear I used to think this, too... but now am convinced that the time I put into my master planner pays off later in spades thanks to structure & organization. At least that's what I keep telling myself. :)
Also for what it's worth, I have a moleskine I keep too. That's mostly for writing down stuff more visually-- but there are some things I definitely prefer writing on paper as well.
Also for what it's worth, I have a moleskine I keep too. That's mostly for writing down stuff more visually-- but there are some things I definitely prefer writing on paper as well.
What goes in the Ideas/Thoughts section...?
Edit Reading that after I wrote it, it seems like a silly question, but given that it wasn't mentioned again in your article, I'm curious what kind of ideas/thoughts go in there. Is that where your meeting notes go...?
Edit Reading that after I wrote it, it seems like a silly question, but given that it wasn't mentioned again in your article, I'm curious what kind of ideas/thoughts go in there. Is that where your meeting notes go...?
Totally right, sorry for leaving it out-- basically I use that section for anything that doesn't fall into day-to-day stuff or to-dos. It's some idea I had that I wanted to put down, thoughts for the future, etc... Meeting notes go in the day breakdown (notice all the bright blue stuff blotted out of the day summary in the last screenshot). Hope that makes sense!
I was going to fire up Google Docs and have at it, because this is a granular-level of organization that is lacking in my life. But then again, I think my memory would turn to mush if I documented every little event in my life.
Promise my memory hasn't turned to mush-- if anything, it's improved?
I kid, but for me personally, these sorts of things always end up consuming more cycles than they save me. That includes GTD and a bunch of other get organized tools of the month.
The only thing that I've found that helps is a small pocket sized moleskine that I just keep a running log of things I did, and things that I think I need to do, along with whatever else I needed to write down at the time (phone numbers, shopping list, etc).
The act of putting things down on paper seems to help me focus and keeping it simple helps to keep it from becoming something else I have to do. It's not sexy, but it works for me.
As always to each their own, YMMV, etc.