I was never a fan of a to-do list. I always had my mind programmed around the chores I had to get done, and writing them down gave me the feeling that I have accomplished them. I was happily thriving in my mess, a term by John Law that I was introduced to at the beginning of my academic year describing the research methods in social sciences. Although not entirely applicable to my situation, I found comfort in relying on my mess to make it through this year.
However, the list was getting long and real messy, which is why I resorted to using different phone applications to organise my time, in which I failed miserably.
Going old school, I purchased a pink planner with matching pens so that I can fabricate a fun planning session at the beginning of each week. I realised, there is something comf
orting about laying out your week in front of you, and filling up the empty spaces with other fun things I would like to explore that I think I don’t have time for.
I’ve been using it for… (well I thought a week has gone by, but I have just come to the realisation that it’s only been two days) … two days now. And everything has been going in the right direction. It’s the first thing I look at in the morning and the last before bed. I actually couldn’t completely give up on going digital, and took a picture of it to remind me on the go of what’s next.
This is just the first week though… so no promises!
I’ve been caught between the digital and the paper to-do list for years. I record things in an app and then extract them on to paper daily I don’t think it completely helps but there is always a backup! If you find a way to do this that works 100% and 24/7 then let me know!!!
I feel like we’ll never find the balance… using a pen to write down my tasks helps me organise my time, and taking a picture of it reminds me to keep checking it. I guess we’ll still have to search for that miracle solution 😦