I can partition my mind
Apr. 3rd, 2006 04:43 pmI realised that despite having several good weeks my todo lists got left behind, and I found I had half a dozen urgent things. This is the point where it breaks down so I went back to update them. I am still questing for the perfect system for me.
I restructured slightly. I split everything into four, in one place (though now text files instead of gmail draft :)) I have a separate file for:
"Productive stuff" -- Anything which needs to get done, eg. buy a bike, finish the computer game, pay bills.
"Social stuff" -- Not necessarily distinct from the first, but email people, arrange parties, get to the round, etc.
"Spod" -- Ideas I've written down that should get written up and excreted onto my livejournal, or hived off into my fiction plot folders, or thought about.
"Work" -- Actually stored entirely separately on my laptop at work, but logically here in the hierarchy.
The idea is, each should be prioritised, with stuff at the top labeled as "do by [today's date]", and "do by [weekend's date" etc, and some "need to do by october," etc. But unless the shit really hits the fan, I should always be doing something on each each day. Writing a book and going to the someone's party are different sorts of urgent, and I might have to choose one or the other, but that choice should be clearly forced on me, not implicit by collapsing several degrees of freedom into one by ranking everything in one file.
However bad things are, I need *some* social life, but I need to get things done too. It was hard deciding what I needed to do this week when things clashed, and because social life naturally refills a todo I could not notice I wasn't actually achieving anything :)
While I'm sharing, other text files I organise things into you may be amused to hear about include:
"To Wiki" -- Things I heard about and need to look up. Eg. "So who is Herodotus?" My hearing about him and wondering who he was was some time before I was bored, and browsed his entry on wikipedia. If I don't have this, when I browse wikipedia it's entirely random. By extension, this file also has knowledge to be acquired from elsewhere, eg. "What do you call a chain tool?" (thanks, Mobbsy!) and "How are utility bills proof of anything when you can just print one out yourself?"
"To amazon" -- Books (or films) I've seen recommended and need to either look up and see what I think, put on my list to read one day, or order next time I order anything.
"Rec books" -- Books everyone must read. Having them here saves thinking every time I'm asked that. It used to include films, but I couldn't actually think of any films I think everyone *must* see, even if I'm surprised if they haven't.
"Quotes & snippets" -- Things I've seen or heard someone say, or I've said, that I liked and think need to be saved. They generally get thrown into lj posts or at various quotefiles at some point. This is not an ideal solution -- I need some kind of distillation to find ones funny out of context, and which are only funny to me.
I restructured slightly. I split everything into four, in one place (though now text files instead of gmail draft :)) I have a separate file for:
"Productive stuff" -- Anything which needs to get done, eg. buy a bike, finish the computer game, pay bills.
"Social stuff" -- Not necessarily distinct from the first, but email people, arrange parties, get to the round, etc.
"Spod" -- Ideas I've written down that should get written up and excreted onto my livejournal, or hived off into my fiction plot folders, or thought about.
"Work" -- Actually stored entirely separately on my laptop at work, but logically here in the hierarchy.
The idea is, each should be prioritised, with stuff at the top labeled as "do by [today's date]", and "do by [weekend's date" etc, and some "need to do by october," etc. But unless the shit really hits the fan, I should always be doing something on each each day. Writing a book and going to the someone's party are different sorts of urgent, and I might have to choose one or the other, but that choice should be clearly forced on me, not implicit by collapsing several degrees of freedom into one by ranking everything in one file.
However bad things are, I need *some* social life, but I need to get things done too. It was hard deciding what I needed to do this week when things clashed, and because social life naturally refills a todo I could not notice I wasn't actually achieving anything :)
While I'm sharing, other text files I organise things into you may be amused to hear about include:
"To Wiki" -- Things I heard about and need to look up. Eg. "So who is Herodotus?" My hearing about him and wondering who he was was some time before I was bored, and browsed his entry on wikipedia. If I don't have this, when I browse wikipedia it's entirely random. By extension, this file also has knowledge to be acquired from elsewhere, eg. "What do you call a chain tool?" (thanks, Mobbsy!) and "How are utility bills proof of anything when you can just print one out yourself?"
"To amazon" -- Books (or films) I've seen recommended and need to either look up and see what I think, put on my list to read one day, or order next time I order anything.
"Rec books" -- Books everyone must read. Having them here saves thinking every time I'm asked that. It used to include films, but I couldn't actually think of any films I think everyone *must* see, even if I'm surprised if they haven't.
"Quotes & snippets" -- Things I've seen or heard someone say, or I've said, that I liked and think need to be saved. They generally get thrown into lj posts or at various quotefiles at some point. This is not an ideal solution -- I need some kind of distillation to find ones funny out of context, and which are only funny to me.