A distraction-free task management system
Task management is an essential practice to increase our productivity. In the digital era, there are many apps to manage our tasks (or to-do’s). All more convenient than using pen and paper.
But convenience comes with a price.
Digital productivity apps live on devices with other apps that compete for your attention. Also, a digital environment with unlimited space can lead to large backlogs of meaningless work. Over time these get buried in long lists and are no longer relevant.
If this has been your experience with productivity apps, I recommend going back to pen and paper.
The system I use is the Bullet Journal.
The Bullet Journal is a rapid logging system that encourages mindfulness and reflection. After over a year using it, I’ve gotten better at getting more of what matters done.
The system is distraction-free to help you stay focused. The inconvenient process of migrating by hand overdue tasks one by one forces you to audit your workload regularly. By having to re-write overdue tasks, you get to reflect on if it makes sense to carry these over. Also, you become more aware when the system is running overcapacity, and some items need to get cut off the list.
There is still a place for digital apps in productivity.
For example, when collaborating with others, shared calendars and to-do lists work best. But for your part of the work, as an individual contributor, the Bullet Journal is a powerful tool. It’ll add a mindfulness practice to how you work, plan, and prioritize your work.
Here’s how to get started using a Bullet Journal.
Read the Bullet Journal’s Guide [1]. Then for the Journal itself, I use the Leuchtturm1917 notebook [2]. I like it because it includes an index page and page numbers, both components of the Bullet Journal. I also love the quality of the paper and the inside pocket on the back cover. For the pen, I use 3mm point Japanese pen [3]. It’s an elegant writing tool that will help you increase the quality of the look and feel of your Bullet Journal.