How often do you re-write your To-Do lists? I'm presently reorganising mine on a Sunday evening for the forthcoming week, along with checking that my pocket Filofax is up to date with my appointments for the forthcoming week.
08 March 2011
Free For All Tuesday No 5
How often do you re-write your To-Do lists? I'm presently reorganising mine on a Sunday evening for the forthcoming week, along with checking that my pocket Filofax is up to date with my appointments for the forthcoming week.
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i re-write/re-do/re-allocate items from my to do list ALL THE TIME. i would say at least a couple of times a day i shuffle the TO-DO-load since you never know what will come up. for instance, i had a rather long list of errands to run on wed...well they all were shuffled around today when i found out i am going out of town. i tend to keep to-do items either on a post-it or written in pencil so i can do the shuffle when i need to.
ReplyDelete+ are there any examples of users binding their past years inserts i.e. book binding the lot by years instead of archiving in a box? i have a personal and have been thinking about doing this next year.
+ how many sheets come in the personal size organizer stickers? http://www.filofaxusa.com/store/paperessentialsdetails.asp?productId=2438
+ do you think a horizontal day on two pages format (personal) might be a good idea? bad idea?
Organiser Stickers = 2 sheets personal size
ReplyDeleteHorizontal diary - I also wonder about its use. I have never seen one in store to actually look at but I imagine the rings getting in the way?
I rewrite my To Do lists every morning but this means I have to do it outside my Filofax - uses too many pages - so I use a cheap spiral notepad that lives on my desk at work. Long term goals stay in my Filofax on the To Do list pages and short-term home plans, ie what to look up online later, live on post-it notes on the day I think of them.
ReplyDeleteI have a 'global' to-do list and then a daily 'to do' list. The global one has urgency indicated by stars - * (or no stars) means low urgency; up to *** which means do it now! That way I can add more * to an item as the urgency increases.
ReplyDeleteThese items get transferred to a daily list (and if they are really important actually get scheduled into the diary at specific times - seems to make me do them better - hence my issues with needing a day on 2 pages kind of schedule if I'm going to use a personal size FF!).
Once something's done, it gets crossed off both the daily list and the global list (extra good fun - I do love crossing things off, so having to do it twice is a double-reward!).
I review my global lists each morning and add what I think I can get done to the new daily list. Since my daily lists are on scrap paper, I just throw them away at the end of the day.
Soraya, didn't you get a Pocket Deco? How will you set it up? Thought I read you mentioning it somewhere, but might be mistaken ...
ReplyDeleteRE: personal horizontal DO2P diary
ReplyDeleteThe rings could get in the way, but I always put my diary in the middle of my FF at the start of the year so that there is enough stuff under the LHS to make writing on the LHS easy.
By about June or so I will shift it to the start of the FF (the joys of a flexible system) because there will be enough under it of the diary (since I leave an entire academic year's diary in at a time) to make writing easy.
As for the format - not sure how a DO2P is either horizontal or vertical... surely the day is on one side and the notes are on the other? Or am I missing something obvious (very likely!).
On an entirely different note...
Does anyone else find the shiny bit on the tab of the dividers, really annoying? If you want to print your own pictures etc onto them, the ink won't stay on the tab bit. Wouldn't it be better to leave it not coated? Does anyone like the shiny aspect?
@collie: I have been binding my diaries for 13 years in the Filofax archives. And I have to say it's practical, but on the other hand also a lot of fun to go through old entries!
ReplyDeleteThomas
Amanda, I love your post. I too have a global to do list and a daily one, which I keep to 6 tasks max, but I never thought of using stars to flag up the DO NOW to do's. An obvious and brilliant idea. I will borrow that. I also have a third 'ideal world' to do..... things I would like to do one day or need to get round to, but can't do now financially, because it needs more time.....or needs forethought/planning..... for example fit that loft ladder, (need to save,) buy a digital TV... The list for that has questions to ask at the store and essential requirements I need. This list is actual actionable to do's, but on the back burner to do's, rather than hopes and dreams. Dreams have a list of their own, which sometimes become to do's!!!
ReplyDelete@amanda sorry i like that the tabs have been laminated. they last longer that way. i hear what you mean though.
ReplyDelete@tommes-s-net cool! do you have any PICTURES?!?!!
@Butanben
ReplyDeleteThank you! I know other people use the A1, B1, etc method, but then if something changes priority, it's a bit of a fiddle re-allocating the priority. I've found that the stars system is simple! I am a bear of little brain so simple works for me!
I'm glad to have helped someone else too.
I have a dream-list as well and then this year (since nothing ever seemed to happen off my dream list) I have decided to plan how to make these things happen - breaking down the big things into smaller steps and then scheduling them/putting them on my to-do list. It's working well-ish... not as well as I would like but at least some progress is happening! (These are things like "sort out the books in the study" - broken down into: sort the first bookcase in April -> sort the top two shelves in the weekend of... etc. Or "Learn some basic Chichewa" -> in June buy the CD -> on Mon night and Wed night do half an hour of vocab. and so on. If I don't do that, then next year the exact same things are written on my dream list!)
Amanda mentioned the 3 stars system before, and I have been implementing this in my system ever since. It is great! I'm reluctant at assiging ABC, 123 numbers to a task, but stars I can do! LOL
ReplyDelete@jotje
ReplyDelete:-)
Glad it was helpful!
@collie:
ReplyDeleteHave uploaded some pictures to Twitpic:
- http://twitpic.com/photos/Tommes_S
Best wishes, Thomas
@Colie
ReplyDeleteDo you mean to have them actually sewn into a hard cover book?
I use the FC 3" binders. They work really well and if you need to remove something to make a copy it is very easy to do so, much more than the FF post binders.
Does anyone know whether the GORGEOUS ultraviolet A5 Domino they're selling in the UK will eventually be available in the states?
ReplyDelete@@tommes-s-net great pics? i didn't realize the archive binders could hold so many pages! thanks
ReplyDelete@crofter yes, i mean sewn up like a regular hard back book. i know lots of people use just boxes and some use the archive binders but i was wondering if anyone has them hard bound.
@holyboyroad i had never even seen that one before! what a beautiful purple...and no idea when/if they will be available here in the states
The lavender Domino and all the other colors made it to the states, so I don't see a reason why this one wouldn't?
ReplyDeleteA question from idle curiosity. Does anyone note things in their diary which aren't to do with their planning? For example, each day I put a little symbol to note the weather. I'm not sure why I do it, but I started on Jan 1 and have kept it up. Perhaps I'm a bit odd!
ReplyDelete@jotje I did get my Pocket Deco and I love it! I have a combination of page a day and the City Dweller week on a page with notes for the diary section, and a variety of the City Dweller inserts in the front. Have moved all my work contacts to a Moleskin address book and am using the address pages for people I write REAL letters to. And I've split the months using Moo mini cards I had printed of the family and dog, and then hole punched so they stick out the top of the pages a little. :) The Deco is awesome and feels really special. X
ReplyDelete@Nellie Ooooh I love that idea! Might start noting something similar in mine. I sometimes write my weight at the top of the diary pages. X
ReplyDeleteNellie I also like to note the weather on the day spaces, it's fun to look back at what the weather was like at different times of the year and compare across years.
ReplyDelete@nellie whenever i eat a piece of fruit that comes with a sticker on it i put the sticker in my filo. i loved seeing that everyday. now i don't see them as much as apples are much cheaper at farmers market.
ReplyDelete@Nellie--Cute ideas!
ReplyDeleteOn a "to-do" note...
Tonight I read about the Hedgehog principle on the Filofax Russia site. An author named Jim Collins proposes two behavior profiles:
-The Fox is committed to several targets simultaneously, and sees the world in all its complexity. They are "scattered, trying to get a lot at once."
- The Hedgehog, for its part, "simplifies the world, reducing it to a simple organizing idea, principle or concept that ties it all together and directs their actions."
I want to be a hedgehog.
In conjunction with this broad idea, the concept of creating a "stop-doing" list, in contrast to a to-do list, was proposed. This list identifies the behaviors that hinder ones productivity. While I love my to-do lists, this is one to add to my Filofax.
The information is at the link below. Additional links to the author and his material are there are well.
http://www.myfilofax.ru/jimcollins/
@Robin, just incase you get this, I have been to the post office to get a price for postage of your domino organiser and it would be £11 for postage.
ReplyDeleteemail me at
penshopjenners@hotmail.co.uk if you need any more information.
Amanda, your way of planning sounds so like mine!!!! I am also one for breaking down into smaller tasks from the bigger to do's and will diary them often rather than put on a to do list, as they seem more important and get done!!!I love the stop doing idea here as well, and have recently started to plan my week's tv and radio viewing online from Radio Times onto a my programmes list and print off each day's page which goes into my A5 planner. That has been a boon, as it's stopped me idle tv grazing and tasks now get done between programmes!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI want to be a hedgehog too!
ReplyDelete:-)
@Butanben - you and I do sound similar! DH is a TV-grazer, whereas I go through the Radio Times and highlight what I want to watch and only watch that. DH will put the TV on and I'll say 'ooh, what's on?' and he'll say 'Dunno.'
At which point I roll my eyes. :-)
And then go on the Philofaxy site.... hee hee hee