Hello
This is how I mark up the 'priority' of my tasks when I am working on paper. I find my system helpful but it also needs improvement(!)
Here's what I do:
1. I write each next action onto a piece of paper that corresponding to it's Context.
[And as discussed here an action is extremely urgent I may add the text onto a separate list on a separate sheet of paper called Urgent, but I try hard not to have too many of these.]
2. Either immediately or when I revisit it, if I feel it really needs to be done today, then I draw a small square (like a tickbox) at the start if its line.
3. I have a pen that clips into the spiral hinge on my notebook. This pen has a built-in red AND black ink. So if the action is urgent, I then fill in the square with red ink. (or maybe underline it in red ink?)
[Benefit: This allows me to quickly scan the page without reading anything, looking for any red ink!]
4. When the task is completed I tick the box, and in order to avoid re-reading things, I also heavily cross that task out. And I make sure I over-write ALL the red ink at this point, so as to make sure that next time I scan the page looking for red, that no red is visible for any completed tasks.
5. If I have lots of squares with red on them, I can mark up individual actions as being "super-urgent" by drawing a black circle around the square.
Problems:
What becomes more difficult is how to manage changes in priority using pen and paper.
e.g. To take an extreme example: suppose a task
starts urgent ==> then becomes not urgent ==> then urgent again ==> then not urgent ==> then urgent again...
How then does one mark this up using ink (without resorting to Typex, which often won't be available) at each stage?
This is how I mark up the 'priority' of my tasks when I am working on paper. I find my system helpful but it also needs improvement(!)
Here's what I do:
1. I write each next action onto a piece of paper that corresponding to it's Context.
[And as discussed here an action is extremely urgent I may add the text onto a separate list on a separate sheet of paper called Urgent, but I try hard not to have too many of these.]
2. Either immediately or when I revisit it, if I feel it really needs to be done today, then I draw a small square (like a tickbox) at the start if its line.
3. I have a pen that clips into the spiral hinge on my notebook. This pen has a built-in red AND black ink. So if the action is urgent, I then fill in the square with red ink. (or maybe underline it in red ink?)
[Benefit: This allows me to quickly scan the page without reading anything, looking for any red ink!]
4. When the task is completed I tick the box, and in order to avoid re-reading things, I also heavily cross that task out. And I make sure I over-write ALL the red ink at this point, so as to make sure that next time I scan the page looking for red, that no red is visible for any completed tasks.
5. If I have lots of squares with red on them, I can mark up individual actions as being "super-urgent" by drawing a black circle around the square.
Problems:
What becomes more difficult is how to manage changes in priority using pen and paper.
e.g. To take an extreme example: suppose a task
starts urgent ==> then becomes not urgent ==> then urgent again ==> then not urgent ==> then urgent again...
How then does one mark this up using ink (without resorting to Typex, which often won't be available) at each stage?