zettel/acc60422/dc879f80.md

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date tags
2021-01-29T12:00
timeline
practices
productivity

how i stay (somewhat) organized

Right now this is just a draft outline, ideally I will circle back on this some time this year to fill in some more details.

  • Tools
    • Notebook
      • Right now this is actually just half-letter-page (5.5 inches × 8.5 inches) sheets on a similarly sized clipboard + pen.
      • Pre-printed time block pages: four columns (for amending schedule) + twenty-two 30min rows.
      • Blank pages for logging daily notes, observations, and ideas.
        • I use some elements of bullet journaling for this:
          • I love the bullet syntax, so I use that often (and a homegrown shorthand).
          • I migrate tasks from page to page, but dont follow any of the weekly/monthly/yearly migrations.
          • The second or third time a task is migrated, I move this task over to my digital planner app (more below).
          • Reflection happens ideally once a day, but more like 2 or 3 times a week.
      • Periodically I clear out the clipboard to archive older sheets that I wont need to update - these get scanned and put into a per-annum PDF document that is synced to my phone and computer.
    • Calendar
      • I check my digital calendar multiple times a day: I use this to communicate shared calendar events with team members, as well as personal events, deadlines, etc.
    • Home-grown todoist clone
      • Repo: git://pingo.thermokar.st/planner
      • Live: https://planner.thermokar.st (access restricted)
      • Structure
        • This planner is modeled after GTD practices and features an inbox, and the ability to categorize tasks into one or more “plans” (plans can be a project, a specific day/week/events todo list, an issue tracker, etc).
  • Routines
    • Daily
      • I triage notifications first thing in the morning (no more than 30 mins).
        • Note, I might move away from this: I would prefer to handle that kind of stuff midday if possible.
      • Timeblock the days schedule (see: 9db45ab6), incorporating prior engagements, any urgent ad hoc tasks, and the weeks goals (more below).
        • If I fall behind or something unexpected comes up, I update the timeblock schedule when I get a chance.
    • Weekly
      • Before each week starts I try to identify a few high-level goals for the week, and figure out (broadly) how they might fit into my schedule, but I dont worry too much about specific scheduling at this point, just something like "Wednesday would be a good day to carve out time for this…"
    • Long-term
      • My calendar handles big things like major work milestones, deadlines, appointments, meetings, etc.
      • Tasks go into my planner app, I review these 3-5 times a month on average to see how they might fit into what is coming up next, etc. Really long-term tasks get filed into an @someday plan.