Firstly I'm looking for more people to come forward to appear under our spotlight feature... without volunteers that return the responses to the questions this regular post will cease... fairly soon! Please email philofaxy at gmail dot com if you would like to appear, but I realise that Spring will have diverted a lot of people's free time at the moment.
And secondly if anyone would like to put forward a topic for discussion for the Free For All Friday, likewise please email those suggestions to use at philofaxy at gmail dot com and we will make sure they are fed in at the appropriate time.
As always on Fridays feel free to discuss anything ring bound planner related, what ever the make.
Have a good weekend.
I'm sure most people think I just sit around drinking coffee all day... My problem today is setting priorities... and it goes something like this:
ReplyDeleteIn my world there is the Philofaxy world which you all know about... and then there is another part of my life in the radio society world. Now most of the time these two beasts co-exist quite happily. But I'm sure they are sometimes talking to each other with view to crushing me in between the two of them!
So at just before 11am here in France I'm about to ignore the computer... and sit and have a cup of coffee, with my organiser in my lap and brain storm all those niggling things that are trying to push me in one direction or another and hopefully by the time I've had my cup of decaf coffee I will have a list of 'stuff' to do today, tomorrow etc and I will be able to assemble them in to some sort of running list.
Who else has these sort of problems?
I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I should block off time in each day as 'thinking', 'projects', 'life', 'me', 'mosquitoes'. Even if I don't know what will go into each block, at least I have set the time aside. The blocks needn't be all the same size.
ReplyDeleteThinking would be for regular planning, like you describe with your coffee, Steve.
Projects would be for the things that will lead to accomplishing my goals (publish book X/finish book Z/declutter the house...)
Life includes the stuff that needs doing like laundry, shopping, housework, paying bills etc.
Me is hopefully self-explanatory - time for me to kick back, do nothing, read a book, browse online, whatever
Mosquitoes are those annoying little things that maybe don't fit into any other box and that build up. I have found that blocking off time for mosquitoes then lets me charge through them and clear them all.
Thoughts??
Amanda I love your Mosquitoes idea!
DeleteI agree with Laurie...love the mosquitoes idea. I seem to have a lot of those.
DeleteHi Amanda, I currently use a vertical P2P, blocked off with context codes, but yours are more interesting. Love the "mosquitoes." Similar to my G.O.K. (God only knows). I used to work for a church, hence the acronym.
ReplyDeleteI need lists, one for my day job, one for the house and one for what I would like to fit in. I write them separately then I try to interweave them in my planner. Sometimes it works like a dream sometimes it is like trying to run a small country and no one is happy.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to get less complicated in the better weather as we seem to be more happy sitting in the garden reading etc. The family calendar on the kitchen wall is an old fashoned way of monitoring but everyone looks at that whether they like planners or not.
Hi Amanda, I currently use a vertical P2P, blocked off with context codes, but yours are more interesting. Love the "mosquitoes." Similar to my G.O.K. (God only knows). I used to work for a church, hence the acronym.
ReplyDeleteGreat comment Steve, exactly my problem. Step away from the computer! I've gone to part time working this year so that I can study full time for a Master's degree. However I am still trying to get fit and accomplish the same amount of full-time ordering for a busy visitor centre, in half the time. Trying to take work home is not really working as I'm overloaded with assignments, and behind due to illness, so am definitely felling crushed!
ReplyDeleteI've been looking online at GTD and TMI, but not sure if get the immediate short term planning and organisation and will it take too much time to learn a new system? Is it better to work solidly on one thing, task at a time or spend smaller chunks of time on different tasks (splitting larger tasks)?
I'm definitely going to sit with my Malden, write lists so at least I can see where I am and try to prioritise. Grateful of any organisational/productivity tips.
Amanda, love mosquitoes, but as I'm in Scotland, I'd have to go with Midges!
Julie, I have the TMI user manual in PDF if that will help you assess TMI's usefulness. I can email, but Dropbox is an easier solution. Email me?
DeleteHi David, that would be very useful. I'm not sure how I get your email, so here's mine!
Deletejules (dot) ritch (at) btinternet (dot) com
How do you find the system? Thank you
what is TMI?
DeleteTime Manager International
Deletewould happily volunteer for planner spotlight, but I'm technologically challenged and have no way to take pics and upload them or whatever it is you smart types do.
ReplyDeleteHello,
DeleteAll we need you to do is to contact us by email, reply to the email which you will receive with your answers to the questions. And if you can attach a photo of yourself or your collection that will be a bonus, but we can provide a photograph to go with your post if required.
Steve