Years ago, I found the Sidetracked Home Executives, and invested in their books. Flylady had let me down. So, rather than deal with a total meltdown of inbox spam, I adopted the index card system.
Bulletjournaling augmented the system, and replaced it for awhile, but it just wasn’t the same. Rather than re-writing and forwarding tasks and all that, I use my index cards. I am much happier.
So, today I spent a few hours on the phone. Each phone call got an index card. With what needed to be covered, each task that needed to be taken care of, and ideas for the future. I noted what needs to be done this week, and what needed to be focused on in April, May or June. Those tasks went into those sections of my cards.
I have tabbed card dividers, and I have set up week day, month and daily sections. January -December each get their own divider. Then 31 daily dividers, then 7 weekly. There are A-Z dividers for my address book, and sections for knitting projects, sewing projects, volunteer work, and the like.
Other dividers are topics I want to study, inspiration, movie quotes I love, things like that. I even have a Bujo section. It is working.
The volunteer organization I am secretary for gets their own box, and my household and personal gets the big box. I had to segregate my work life from my home life. This way I am not overwhelmed with 5000 damned things here and there.
Why don’t I do this on the cloud? Why not do this on an app with reminders? Heck, I spend enough time on the computer, phone, tablet as it is. I need and WANT time away from devices, not stuck with my nose in them. Add to that— It is just too easy to ignore a notification. Having something written down resonates with me.
My index card boxes sit on my desk, and yes, several things do need to be done via the laptop, phone and the like, but I am not chained down to the phone anymore. I can walk away from the laptop as needed. And procrastination isn’t as big of a problem as it used to be. I set a due date, and I allow myself to only “snooze” once or twice.
Snoozing an item is where I move the index card to the next day or week. That’s about it. Something simple, and I don’t have to haul a bujo everywhere with 5 tons of washi tape and markers. Index cards are cheap as all get out. 1000 of them is about $10.00 on Amazon. I spent over 20 on a Bujo.
This less work, less worry and less bs method is much more efficient in my book.
Note: I don’t disparage the flylady, but her lists and constant emails were obnoxious. I’m still getting the emails, years later… Sighs. -L
AnonymousKnitter 