blog to discovery

I really like my current organisation system, but I have noticed one serious flaw recently; it is very easy to procrastinate when I’m selecting tasks.

My energy levels have been very low over the last few months so I am frequently coming home and going for a lie down followed by bed. This change in my evening activities is becoming noticeable in what I am not achieving, such as writing blog posts, tidying the house or, I have to admit, completing anything off my list. Although things are better at work I am also finding it more difficult to focus there than usual.

I need to develop a new system that quickly highlights the next task I should be working on, instead of my current approach of looking through sheet after sheet of written actions. However I’m not thinking of replacing my system because I think the fundamentals are good, I am just looking for different ways of using it in a more efficient manner.

I am a big believer that a good organisation system should work in the office as well as at home. So when I first created my day planner for work I used the same format at home.  It was successful, however it took a long time to plan a work day evening reducing the available time to actually get things done. I also became aware that many of the tasks that I was completing were of a similar type and not reflective of the range of tasks I wanted to do. So I wanted to develope a system that is easy to complete and ensured a good mix of tasks.

I liked the idea of Stephen’s week calendar where you can see a week on one page and thought a similar approach would work for my home tasks. The first version of my home planner included an area for repeating tasks , however now that I have a RollaBind organiser I have introduced another way to deal with repeating tasks , reducing the space I need on my home planner, meaning I could reduce the size of the form from A4 to A5.

Repeating tasks are important as they are frequently the small tasks that help make our lives run smoothly, e.g. reviewing project finances, tidying the house and phoning friends. However, they are also annoying when it comes to organisation systems. They do not need to be done every day so shouldn’t go on the next action list, but equally they don’t need to be done on a specific day (although it would be nice to maintain the routine) so shouldn’t be added as a day specific task on the calendar. So how do you deal with them?

I’ve struggled with repeating tasks and tried a variety of methods. I thought for a long time that digital was the solution, because the software knows when the task should be done next. However, when I used my Palm for this I found it frustrating because it converted the task into a date specific task which frequently went overdue and reduced the priority given to real date specific as they were off the bottom of the screen.

It is about time I finished writing about the remaining sections of my organiser. However, I have been procrastinating on this because I don’t find the remaining sections as exciting as the earlier ones because I haven’t developed them as much. The remaining sections are:

• Waiting for
• Agendas
• Projects
• Specific lists
• Someday/Maybe
• Reference

Waiting for

This section has been a revelation to me. The whole Getting things done system(USA, UK) is worth it just for this section. I have tried to keep a record of work I’m expecting from other people previously, but it has never worked because it has been too closely mixed up with my own tasks. However, the idea of keeping a list of all the tasks I am waiting for is just so simple and effective I’m amazed I didn’t think of it myself. I am currently using a diyplanner template from the Classic core pdf.

When I first introduced the ideas from Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management all tasks that came in today were added to tomorrow’s list which meant I had a plan of action. However when I realised this wasn’t going to work and started developing my own system I realised I missed the daily plan of action which wasn’t provided with a complete task list which just provided a list of all the things I could be working on. I needed something to lead me through the day in a clear, productive and defined way, so I developed a today planner.

Morning routine

At the top of the page are the tasks I should complete every morning to ensure I am set up for the day.

The current initiative is an idea of Mark Forster’s, so I will let him describe it:

The second section of my organiser is my ASAP list; these are all the actions that I could work on now and should be completed as soon as possible. Unfortunately because I’ve been following Getting Things Done guidance and writing everything down the list is long, but I know that everything is listed.

The concepts

The list is based on the idea of a next action list from Getting Things Done, but I have also incorporated some ideas from Mark Forster’s booksGet Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play and still have time to play and Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management. Mark Forster is not a supporter of a to do list:

I have struggled previously with paper diaries because of changing appointments which get messy and then confusing to decipher; I have therefore stuck with electronic diaries for the past few years. However I had inspiration in the hairdressers a few months ago when I realised they booked appointments in with a pencil so they can rub them out if they move. Such a simple tip that I had never considered.

I am currently using a standard DIY planner A5 calendar template. Its not perfect for my needs, but because I haven’t managed to create my own template I have adapted my use of theirs. You can read notes on the picture to help with the description by clicking on it.

The week pages

Okay, I’ve gone on now for four posts describing how my organiser came into being, but have not yet described what it consists of. That is going to change now as I work through each section and explain what works and what still needs some attention. I’m afraid its not a great photograph, but you can see my organiser in another picture in a previous post.

As I’ve mentioned previously my organiser is based in an A5 ring binder. When I bought it the shop only had the one choice, frosted clear plastic. After using it a few weeks I decided to personalise it but sticking a photograph to the inside cover didn’t work as the glue wouldn’t stick the paper and plastic together. I thought it would be nice to change the photograph so I tried a cut down plastic document pocket and using the same glue as before the pocket has not come off. I currently have a picture of Moraine Lake taken on our honeymoon to Canada, but I think I should change this soon to something more suitable for summer.

This is part two of my post on paper versus digital organisation, you can read part one here

I previously owned a filofax at university which was pocket size so was great because it would fit into a handbag, but I thought it would be too small now with the way I wanted my system to look. I could see a lot of benefits to the A4 size for work, but I couldn’t see me using it at home. So I narrowed it down to personal or A5.

I borrowed my husband’s old filofax, a personal size. The first problem I encountered was the paper included was based around someone else’s organisation system and a very traditional one so did not match what I wanted. I borrowed some templates from diyplanner and drew out some ideas up for the more unusual forms.

I like computers. I got my first computer in 1995 before going to university, when most of my friends thought I was mad not putting the money towards a car. I got my first pda in 2000 just after I finished my undergraduate degree. There are so many reasons why I like IT solutions that when I create a new system I always use a computer.

However I have never found my pda (Palm Tungsten E) very useful for organising tasks. The best programme I have found so far is shadowplan, however I think because I am unable to install any desktop software at work I fail to capture all my tasks so it became an ineffective system. Therefore before Christmas I decided to try something new and started using a spreadsheet for my system incorporating aspects of both GTD and DIT. There was a sheet for:

• backlog tasks