For those of you that are interested in how I manage my daily lists, I thought I’d share. I use a modified (and simplified) version of Patrick Rhone’s Dash/Plus system. I keep a Field Notes notebook on hand all the time, and every day I start a new TODO list with the date written next to it. Under that, I start compiling the pressing tasks for the day. My version of the Dash/Plus system looks like the following:
And that’s it. If something becomes it’s own project, I’ll push it to it’s own page in the notebook and give it some room to breathe. It a project out grows that page in my small daybook, I’ll push it off to one of my larger project notebooks (usually a Moleskine of some sort…). That will give me room to cross things off and draw arrows and generally make a mess of it.
But for day-to-day operations, this system seems to work pretty well. It’s fast, lightweight, and had just enough flexibility to make things work for me. I’ve tried a ton of other options- I like the app Clear, and for a good long time I used it a ton… but for reasons beyond my understanding, paper and pen (currently a Uni-ball Signo 207 in black, for the pen geeks that might be lurking. Will soon be replaced with a Retrakt G2).
Don’t underestimate the power of that right-arrow, by the way. When I start seeing something with that arrow next to it for more than a day or two, I find myself really motivated to decide if the item really is that important, or if it’s something else. Often, those arrows have a way of turning into a circle. I’m ok with that- it’s a way of forcing some self-evaluation as to what I’m investing my time into for tasks and what might really be important.