I’ve had many issues with planning, task lists and taking/keeping notes on my projects. Its gotten so bad that I’ve been really stressed out because of missing a few deadlines and long and laborious searching through my notes. I’ve been keeping a notes/tasks in a Moleskine notebook.
Finally had enough and decided to solve these issues. I started this July (2017) and now on my second month. Since then caught up on everything that was lagging behind and organized all projects. Surely, this process will evolve, but for now its working really well.Combined Hybrid Journaling Task Lists & Project Management
Combined Hybrid Journaling Task Lists & Project Management
As you can see from the image below my process is a hybrid of digital and analog.
1. Brain Dump
I use the brain dump portion of the David Allen Getting Things Done. This is where every idea, task, and future tasks to do or to work on items end up. I use a plain notebook.
This was a huge revelation for me. The brain dump took so much worrying and stress away as it keeps all my ideas and tasks in a place other than my head. You have to read GTD basics and try it for yourself to really understand.
2. Day to Day Task List
I did some searching online and eventually ended up on the Bullet Journal video on Youtube.
There is also a huge Bujo community with so many ideas and task lists and trackers all with vidoes and blog posts…. its a huge help and Im thankful to them an lucky for finding them.
Here are a few that I used:
- Great weekly layouts from Minimal Plan
- 100 DaysOf Bullet Journal Ideas Project – 100 great ideas
- 15 Daily Layouts
I just use a running daily task list and a monthly tracker for important items to be done on that specific day.
Reading list and a “check out” people list are the only other lists I use from the Bullet Journal. The index is where the page numbers are kept of weekly lists and reading and check out list.
3. Digital Storage and Reminders
Any item that is based in the future gets entered into OmniFocus app with a due date. This is a life saver and if you use Mac/iPhone/Apple Watch – must-have app. There are task lists, project list, recurring lists etc…. all with reminders and reviews. Worth every penny.
Evernote
Inside Evernote I keep just about everything from links, to project docs, notes etc… No need to talk too much about the app here.
Taking Notes
I used to work as a consultant for HP and on every project took very detailed notes. The purpose being of both as a documentation for contracts and to cover my ass.
After several years after moving on I still took fairly detailed notes mostly as reminders. After writing it down its more committed to memory, for me.
Then taking notes became messy and confusing to me. I started using different notebooks for taking notes separated by projects. Ouch…. awful way to keep track.
Now, I feel more in control as well actually completing projects on time.
This method requires a daily review of both the brain dump notes and daily to do. I purposly avoided having to migrate anything from one week to next as well as having a month calendar or a future pages.
Additional Tools
I use Baron Fig notebooks to keep all my notes. There is a huge variety of them available – love them! So many cool editions and the paper is great.
I keep all the notebooks in a Chic Sparrow travelers leather notebook. I have a few of the CS notebooks – one for work and one for drawing/sketching.
This about does it for now as Im keeping it simple.