Working on paper - markup conventions (to indicate 'priority')

[Ship69]

u can stick it in a freezer to gain it back, but then you get everything you erased back.

Yes I am using the Frixion pens and I LOVE the way you can rub out (e.g. if I have marked something up which WAS important/urgent but the moment has passed!) They work pretty well although my multipens are slightly scratchy to write with.

Buy thank you so much for telling about putting them in the freezer to get the colours back - I was getting increasingly worried about losing everything!

 

[Jodie E. Francis]

Ship69, your written notations sound a bit like Bullet Journaling - I assume you've already considered that approach?

Could it be GTD contexts that aren't working for you? Call it heresy if you like, but I struggled with them for a long time, and now seldom use them. Nor do I stress about whether I'm doing GTD 'perfectly'. 2 min rule, Waiting for, Someday/maybe, Tickler, higher horizons are all GTD, but...

I think and work in projects, and since most of my contexts are flexible (Errands being the obvious exception) I don't bother to identify them - all next actions are under their applicable projects, and can be viewed as a single list if desired. Next actions that may become critical have a 'due date' so they will appear in my face in future, and I know I won't miss them - the remaining actions wait in my lists. I scan my projects daily and pull out a short priority list of things that I want to happen that day (if it is a 'must do' then it is already on my calendar). If I'm particularly on top of my game I'll plan the next day or two as well, but life changes far too quickly to go further. I rely heavily on my calendar for time-sensitive triggers.

I struggled for a long time with things that would sit on my next action lists and never get done. It sounds like that might be your fear - that things will be buried in lists and you'll miss something urgent. My best advice is review, review, review. In our rapidly changing worlds, no system will tell us what is the best thing to do right now. It takes me just a few minutes to review my lists each day. Without that, the system quickly breaks.

 

[Ship69]

Hi Jodie
Yes I am currently still struggling somewhat with Contexts. Partly because I work from home they feel like a slightly arbitrary distinction. And I find myself needing to plan Contexts. i.e. Make a list of lists... [Aaaarrrggghhh!]

I haven't quite given up on them as they are quite a good way of using discretionary time, but when up against tight deadlines I find them actively unhelpful, as important things can get buried there. But yes, review, review, review is sound advice - (even though I still rather struggle to build that habit properly!)

Out of interest, are you working on paper or some sort of digital task management application?
The constraints on paper seem VERY different.

 

[Jodie E. Francis]

I've been using Todoist for about 7 months. I've tried paper systems including Bullet Journal and various flavours of Mark Forster's systems in the past and found that for me they didn't scale beyond the first couple of weeks.

 

[CamJPete]

Ship69, I feel your struggle with making GTD work. I spent several years trying to force it, but it never really clicked. It wasn't until the past year or two, as I kept rereading the book (book on tape) and getting help from this forum, that the weaknesses of the system started to smooth themselves out. For example, I used to think that GTD was extremely rigid, but when I dived in, it has allowed for me to be extremely flexible from moment to moment.

Here a couple of thoughts (cast aside anything that doesn't jive with you):
I love the idea of "a place for everything, and everything in its place" for the items on my lists. It's "place" depends on what it means to me. For outcomes that are more than one action (that take less than a year), their place is either in my projects list, or their place is in someday maybe. There is really no exception to that. That is its place, and that's where it belongs.

If I have an action, I am very careful to place it in a totally appropriate context. I know David suggests some contexts in his book like "calls, out and about, at computer". Those are nice suggestions. But to me they are just suggestions. My contexts are created while I am figuring out where to put things, and I create them and delete them ad hoc. My contexts are not set in stone, and I don't try to force an action into some predefined context that somebody else decided I should have. (I know for sure that exactly zero actions would ever be placed into the context of: "While roaming around the sheep herd" if I felt I needed to structure my contexts like Oogiem.)

For example, I currently have some semi-interesting contexts like "gym", "calls to make at home after 5 pm" (I cannot make those calls from somewhere else, nor can I make them before 5 pm), "people to pray for", "Kindle". This is what I mean by totally appropriate context. I realize that I absolutely must be at home, and must call after 5 pm for that action to be possible, so I don't want to put it on my generic calls list. If you are on paper, this may look like pulling out a new sheet of paper for each context you create. You might have one sheet dedicated to calls. Another sheet dedicated to calls to make from home after 5 pm, etc. If these contexts are too detailed for you, toss my suggestions. Make contexts serve you. Don't feel forced use anybody else's suggestions.

Contexts can be very creative. I've heard of people organizing actions by mental energy required (braindead), by payoff that completing the action provides (joy, elation, etc.), and by trigger (after X happens). You may wish to create an ad hoc context called "top priority today". Move actions back and forth into this context freely as needed. While that context would not serve me, it may be useful to you. You could also use a completely separate sheet of paper, or post-it note, where you cherry-pick those items that are urgent in the moment. Keep it flexible and informal so that the payoff-to-effort ratio is high. If it stops being relevant, throw it away or start a new one. Erase stuff liberally. Add stuff as needed. At the end of the day, toss it and start a new one the next day. Do what you've got to do to get it off your mind. This may work better than devising a color-coding system that may have a low payoff-to-effort ratio.

For me, yes, I indeed would list "must be done today things" in my calendar as a day-specific item as often as needed. Every time. 100 times per day if needed. It would take me 15 seconds to identify it in my contextual lists and cross it off, and another 30 seconds to add it to my calendar under a day-specific item. Once I've done that, it's is in "its place" and I don't have to worry about it until I'm in a context to tackle them. When I have free time between the other demands of the day (meetings, boss' requests), I pull up my calendar and crank through the day-specific tasks with a vengeance. My day-specific actions are essentially my context for "must be done today things". It's just in a calendar instead of my actions list, but it is essentially the same thing. I sometimes even put a context before the day-specific action if there are too many "office: email Danny about landing gear design feature change", or "errand: replace starter motor". If you decide to go this route, make sure your paper calendar has enough room so that you don't feel limited by how many items you can put on it. Perhaps two totally separate calendars would be needed: one for time-specific actions, and a separate one with one whole sheet dedicated to each day's "day-specific" actions (e.g. one 30-lined page dedicated solely for May 26th, another page for May 27th, etc.).

These suggestions may be more than you bargained for (and more than I was meaning to write), but I hope some of it helps. Good luck. Back to my day-specific items!

 

[petdr]

Ship69, are you using a ring binder, bound book, or something else for your paper system? I feel bad not getting back to your other discussion on priority (not posting a picture) but haven't had a chance to check back until now.
I use a bound book paper system. Yes, color is a great way to help manage lists. And I'm a fan of Frixion pens too

Regarding shifting priority and how you sometimes have the same tasks in 2 lists (a context list and again in an "urgent" list) --- I'll try to describe how I avoid the 2-lists problem.

I am a veterinarian and owner of a small animal clinic so in a typical day, in addition to the usual appointments, emergencies, and phone calls that go along with being a veterinarian, I sometimes have to take care of urgent issues with the bank, contractor, vendors etc.... I try to do the administrative tasks on our "closed" days so I can focus on patient care during clinic hours, but some days I juggle hats like I'm in a circus act.

So in addition to lists, I use color paper clips (specifically, Plastiklips) to denote urgency as well as to bookmark my lists.
Say, during a clinic day, I HAVE to call a vendor on the East Coast (US). I'm in California so will have to call the vendor by 2 pm (before our lunch break is over).
* I place a red Plastiklip on the side edge of the page with my context Calls. The red Plastiklip is my code for Urgent-must do today. Plus i place the clip on the top half of the page when it has to be done before 2pm.
So by glancing at my journal, I can tell that I have an urgent task to do by 2 pm. When I flip to that Calls page, I can tell which call I need to make either from the line mark I mentioned in the previous post or a dot in the center of the checkbox (both are ways I use to prioritize when I need more structure).
With respect to shifting priority, if the order arrives that morning and I no longer need to call the vendor, I would just cross out the task and remove the Plastiklip. Or if I still want to call but does not have to be today, I just remove the red Plastiklip.
Hope that made sense. Basically, I just write the task once on the list. I prioritize only if needed. I want to make sure I work on something that day, be it an urgent task or something from a neglected project, I place a color Plastiklip on the side edge (eg red for must do today, orange if family related)

Using the book edges have allowed me to maximize the book's physical 3D features. I use the Plastiklips on the the bottom edge of the page to bookmark the different lists for easy access eg green for errands, yellow for someday/maybe, pink for waiting for. Then the top edge is to bookmark current project notes eg remodeling, involved cases, etc...

Not sure how you have your paper system set up. Hope this gives you some ideas.
I couldn't figure out how to insert/attach images to the post so uploaded to my old Flickr account instead.
Here's the link to some images: https://flic.kr/s/aHskVTfzmD

Hope that works.

 

[Ship69]

@CamJPete
Thank you for your thoughts. One think still confuses me - for you what is the real purpose (or purposes) of assigning "context"?

 

[Ship69]

@petdr
Yes, looks interesting. I have a few responses:

1. Yes, Plastiklips look promising. I have ordered some Plastiklips (but they will take a while to arrive as they don't seem to be sold here in the UK)

2. What are those things binding groups of pages together?

3. Your notebook does look physically very fat - that would annoy me. I am using a Twist Ring Notebook made by Lihit, which I so far I love because it allows extra sheets to be inserted AND it can completely fold back on itself.
https://www.cultpens.com/i/q/LL44724/lihit-lab-aqua-drops-30-sheet-twist-ring-notebook-a5
Because it's easy to insert new pages at any position I don't need to carry many spare sheets of paper in each section.

4. I got a little confused about how you are using each of the 3 different sides of your note book. Could you clarify that a bit?

Thanks

J

 

[TesTeq]

@CamJPete
Thank you for your thoughts. One think still confuses me - for you what is the real purpose (or purposes) of assigning "context"?

To hide "Walk the dog" action when you're at work and to hide "Talk to boss" when you're at home, and to hide both when you're in the grocery store.

 

[bcmyers2112]

I used to work from home and I had most contexts available to me, most of the time. I still found organizing next actions by context helpful. It wasn't useful to me to review my list of errands when I wasn't going to be out and about. I liked having a list of work calls because it doesn't make sense to make business calls outside of business hours. I kept a list of actions that required my work laptop so I didn't have to review them during my off hours when I didn't feel like firing up the laptop. And so on.

You get to organize your life however you choose, and if keeping one single list of actions works best for you, great. On the other hand using contexts would limit how much you'd have to review at any given time. That might be a worthwhile tool to help make GTD work despite your dyslexia.

 

[petdr]

@petdr
Yes, looks interesting. I have a few responses:

1. Yes, Plastiklips look promising. I have ordered some Plastiklips (but they will take a while to arrive as they don't seem to be sold here in the UK)

2. What are those things binding groups of pages together?

1/4 inch (I think) regular rubber bands used to keep inactive pages together. These are notes or calendar pages I don't often refer back to but there if I need them. I sometimes use this technique to keep pages grouped together (eg project notes). The big Oli Clips (large magnetic clips) or binder clips are too bulky for notebook use. Plus, it's more convenient for me to roll the rubber band back to the book spine and have access to the pages without fiddling with clips and having to find the pages and re-clip them. Once I'm done, I roll the rubber band back towards the edge to keep the pages together.

3. Your notebook does look physically very fat - that would annoy me. I am using a Twist Ring Notebook made by Lihit, which I so far I love because it allows extra sheets to be inserted AND it can completely fold back on itself.

LOL. Yes, my notebook is a chunky little thing. You'll have to find what works for you, adapt hacks from other people to your system. The bulkiness of the notebook was once a deterrent for me too. The one pictured is a 300 pager (600 sheets); there's a 200 pager that's about an inch thick. Miquelrius used to have a 100 pager (4x6 size) also but that's been out of stock for a while now; not sure they'll bring that back. I've tried the 200 pager as well as Filofax and the Circa/Disc bound system but finally came back to the chunky book.

I thought I wanted the portability of the smaller/slimmer book or the flexibility of adding and removing pages (I still have some Filofaxes in case I am tempted to try that again). But those systems break down when I moved away from my fat notebooks. I finally realized that I am MOTIVATED by seeing past notes. It's almost like Seinfeld's "Don't Break the Chain" method ---- seeing my notes or journal entries make me want to keep using the notebook; I love seeing and handling the well-worn pages. So if carrying a fat notebook means I keep the system current, shrug, I gave in and went back to it

4. I got a little confused about how you are using each of the 3 different sides of your note book. Could you clarify that a bit?

The best way to explain it is probably to compare it to the different windows or tabs in an app. The bottom of the book is like the tab with all the categories (in my case, they are my contexts). So instead of opening an app and clicking on the list of contexts, I look at the bottom of my notebook and select the context I want to check. My color Plastiklips make that easy since it's color code to my contexts. For instance, I visit family in Orange County a couple times a month. If I need to bring pet supplies or something with me, I add that to my OC context page. When preparing for my trip, I flip to the page with the orange Plastiklips to check my list.

The top edge of my notebook is for my current project notes. The Plastiklips is on the current note page of that project, eg Blue is the notes on a case for my certification and green is for the bus and metro schedule for an upcoming trip. I have notes on many projects but only current projects (those that I am working on this week) get a Plastiklip. I add/remove klips as needed.

The side edge of my notebook is for several unrelated / misc items -- current page for daily notes (black), current month page (yellow), year spread / future planning page (bright yellow), and the red Plastiklips for urgent items. The red Plastiklips can be on a page that is already marked by another Plastiklips on the bottom or top edge --- for instance, I have to call the advisor regarding the case report TODAY. The red Plastiklips is placed on the side edge of the page that may also have a blue Plastiklip on the top edge. Hope that makes sense.

Most people using a paper system have a similar set-up. Difference is they may note the list in an index or use a page flag to mark the page. I just find it easier to use the color coded Plastiklips. And keeping similar types of page marks together brought this color coding to a new level for me.
Before, I would search through the different page flags to find what I need -- more confusing and time consuming than it was worth. You can see a light green page flag in one of the picture, a holdover from a previous project. Now, I don't look at the bottom or top edges unless I want to work in a certain context or project. The side edge tells me what's urgent and allows quick access to the current pages.
This combination satisfies my need to have the big picture but without the clutter.

Let me know if any further questions.